By Christine Kim and Se Young Lee | SEOUL SEOUL A U.S. bribery case against two relatives has cast a pall over former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon’s planned return this week to South Korea, where he is expected to launch a bid to run for president. Ban, 72, has not declared his candidacy but has had a team of people laying groundwork in Seoul ahead of […]
Photo James E. Cartwright, a retired Marine general, arriving at Federal District Court in Washington in October. Credit Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press PWASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Tuesday to sentence James E. Cartwright, a retired Marine Corps general and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to two years in prison for lying to F.B.I. agents about his discussions with reporters about […]
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said on Tuesday relations with northern neighbor Turkey could “not move forward one step” without a withdrawal of Turkish forces from a camp in northern Iraq, state television reported.Turkish forces have been stationed at Bashiqa camp near Mosul since before the start of an offensive against Daesh. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces pushed Daesh back further in Mosul on Tuesday in a renewed […]
By Harriet McLeod | CHARLESTON, S.C. CHARLESTON, S.C. White supremacist Dylann Roof deserves to die for the hate-fuelled killings of nine black churchgoers at a Bible study meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, a U.S. jury said on Tuesday after deliberating for less than three hours. The same jury last month found Roof, 22, guilty of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, for the shocking […]
By Jonathan Landay and John Walcott | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Classified documents that the heads of four U.S. intelligence agencies presented last week to President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him, two U.S. officials said Tuesday evening. They told Reuters the claims, which one called “still unsubstantiated,” were contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on Russian interference in […]
ABU DHABI // A new law was passed by the Federal National Council to protect domestic products from imports being sold for less than what is considered fair market value. The anti-dumping law will add indirect taxes to balance prices and allow local companies to sue over such practices. It applies to products imported from countries outside the GCC. The aim is to set standards for fair […]
In a dramatic example of blowback against the establishment in the post-Trumpian world, Hungary announced it plans to crack down on non-governmental organizations linked to billionaire George Soros now that Donald Trump will occupy the White House, according to the deputy head of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party, cited by Bloomberg. The European Union member, and native country of Soros, will use “all the tools at its […]
The UAE will spend AED600 billion ($163.3 billion) over the next three decades in developing the country’s energy market, with a plan for clean energy to power 50 percent of the sector by 2050. The first unified energy strategy for the UAE has been announced which aims to balance economic needs and environmental goals. In a series of tweets on the official Dubai Media Office feed, it […]
On Tuesday morning, as they have for so many mornings now, Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes and Abigail Darlington walked into Charleston’s District Court at 85 Broad Street with the tools they would need to tell the story. Hawes brought her 8.5-by-11-inch yellow notebook and whatever pen she had grabbed from the newsroom. Smith came ready to liveblog with his laptop and phone. Darlington planned to catch […]
By Julia Edwards Ainsley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Donald Trump’s candidate for attorney general on Tuesday said he opposed banning Muslims from entering the United States and, taking a tougher stance than the president-elect, said waterboarding is torture and illegal. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, the nominee, responded to questions at a Senate confirmation hearing, the first in a series this week for nominees to serve in the Cabinet […]
Morrison & Foerster LLP is the latest winner in the government-departure sweepstakes, hiring John Carlin, the top national security lawyer at the Justice Department, to be a partner at the firm. Hires from federal government have been picking up as the White House administration turns over. For 43-year-old Mr. Carlin, a government lifer, the move comes […] (via WSJ)
WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve on Tuesday said it would turn over $92.0 billion in profits to the U.S. Treasury in 2016, down from the $97.7 billion the central bank’s 12 regional banks paid back to the U.S. government in the previous year. The Fed earns interest on government bonds that it holds as well as from securities tied to mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Through […]
MANILA: A major undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck southeast of the Philippines on Tuesday (Jan 10), the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The quake was measured by USGS to be at a depth of 613km and no tsunami alert has been issued. However, there have been reports of people in Sabah – including in Sandakan and the city centre – evacuating buildings after strong […]
As the Jeff Sessions confirmation hearing continues, Trump’s nominee for attorney general said that he would recuse himself from any potential future investigations or probes involving Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while working as secretary of state, as well as any questions about her family’s philanthropic foundation. Responding to senator Chuck Grassley if he could approach issues involving Trump’s presidential challenger impartially and objectively, […]
The Merry Christmas ransom note features Futurama’s evil Robot Santa. Image: SANS Internet Storm Center Unsuspecting internet users could find themselves on the receiving end of an unwanted belated Christmas present, malware that doesn’t only encrypt their Windows PC and hold it to ransom, but also steals personal data and login credentials. Spotted by cybersecurity researchers in the first week of the year, the Merry Christmas ransomware […]
Over 13 years, consumption of gasoline rose in countries that lowered taxes or raised subsidies The average tax on petrol in 157 nations fell 13 percent from 2003 to 2015, even as the world acknowledged the need to slash greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, researchers reported Monday. Over 13 years, consumption of gasoline rose in countries that lowered taxes or raised subsidies, they said in a study […]
The Federal Reserve should be ready to consider reducing the size of its balance sheet as part of its efforts to prevent overheating in the US, a senior policymaker said as he noted the pick-up in wage inflation and predicted a return of inflation to target by the end of the year. Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said that if the […]
Jared Kushner has been named senior adviser to Donald Trump, formalising the role of the president-elect’s son-in-law as one of the most powerful people in the incoming White House. The 35-year-old property developer, who is married to Mr Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka, will be taking the role without salary. Ms Trump will not be taking an immediate role in the administration. Transition officials said Mr Kushner would […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will become a senior White House adviser and work on trade deals and the Middle East, transition officials said on Monday, in a rare case of a close presidential family member taking on a major job. Kushner, 35, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, is taking the job after receiving legal counsel he would […]
The real reason Windows has sunk below the 50-percent mark is that smartphones and tablets are continuing to grow while the desktop keeps shrinking. Image: Nate Ralph/CNET Windows is still the most popular end-user operating system, but it’s now used by less than half of the visitors to the federal government’s websites. Windows has fallen to less than half of web visitors to US government websites. The […]
By Zachary Fagenson and David Shepardson | MIAMI/DETROIT MIAMI/DETROIT Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) suffered a new setback on Monday when an executive was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company’s diesel emissions cheating and the automaker was accused of concealing the cheating from regulators. Oliver Schmidt, who was general manager in charge of VW’s environmental and engineering office in Michigan, did not enter a […]
Volkswagen’s senior management was briefed in the summer of 2015 on the cheating software at the centre of the company’s diesel emissions scandal, and ordered its continued concealment, according to criminal charges unsealed by US prosecutors on Monday. VW employees briefed “executive management” in July 2015 at the German carmaker’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, about the use of software-based defeat devices to understate emissions in official tests, […]
By Zachary Fagenson | FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The 26-year-old Iraq war veteran accused of killing five people at a busy Florida airport in the latest U.S. gun rampage was due to appear in a federal court on Monday on charges that could bring him the death penalty. Esteban Santiago, who had a history of erratic behavior, has admitted to investigators that he planned Friday’s […]
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss | HARTFORD, Conn. HARTFORD, Conn. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren on Monday called for the U.S. central bank to step up its pace of interest rate increases from the once-a-year pattern it has pursued since 2015, warning of inflation risks if it does not. “I expect that appropriate monetary policy will need to normalize more quickly than over the past year,” Rosengren told the […]
