BEIJING China on Thursday dismissed accusations from Taiwan that it engaged in “dollar diplomacy” to get Sao Tome and Principe to ditch ties with the self-ruled island, saying a petty Taiwan was besmirching China’s good name. The tiny West African state’s decision this week has angered Taiwan, which says the move will not help already strained relations with China. Taiwan says China took advantage of Sao Tome’s […]
2016 was fact-checking’s finest year [1]. No it wasn’t, it was the year of “post-truth” [2] — some preferred “post-fact” [3] — and fact-checking is a fool’s errand. The discussion about facts in journalism worldwide has rarely been as fractured and animated as it has been in 2016, so we collected 366 links, one for each day of the year, to try and make sense of what […]
Self-driving cars are rolling out much faster than expected, from Uber testing autonomous taxis in San Francisco to Google spinning off its self-driving car division into Waymo and partnering with Fiat-Chrysler. To Fiat, this likely looked like the fastest and best way to get up to speed, considering that rivals like Ford, Honda, and Toyota have a head start. It wasn’t always like […]
BERLIN German police on Wednesday intensified a manhunt for the driver of a truck, who killed 12 people when he mowed into a Berlin Christmas market, and said they were following a number of good leads. After releasing a Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested near the scene, authorities warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. They have also said it is unclear if the […]
This year. I started out as a managing editor of the L.A. Times. I end it as a vice president at CNN. We lived in Los Feliz, under the hills of Griffith Park and neon signs of donut shops. Now we’re in Jackson Heights, in the shadow of brick buildings and halal butchers and planes headed to LaGuardia. After the move, we let our 12-year-old walk to […]
Australia’s corporate regulator has ordered Slater & Gordon to produce documents in relation to an investigation into the accuracy of its financial records, sending shares in the beleaguered law firm down more than 6 per cent. S&G has faced a string of issues with authorities in the UK and Australia following its disastrous 2015 acquisition of the professional services arm of UK-based Quindell, now known as Watchstone […]
By Sue-Lin Wong | YANJI, China YANJI, China The brightly coloured packages advertising “Walleye Pollock” at the West Market in Yanji, a Chinese city near the border with North Korea, say the fish came from China. But 15 vendors interviewed at the market say the fish came in from North Korea to be processed, packaged and mostly sold in China. They say they buy the […]
A Middle Eastern investment banking fee bonanza should extend into 2017, spurred by a combination of bond and share sales and mergers and acquisitions as the region adjusts to lower oil prices, bankers say. Deals such as Saudi Arabia’s $17.5 billion debut international sovereign issue and the sale of a majority stake in retailer Kuwait Food Co (Americana) to Gulf-based Adeptio have helped banks’ earnings, off-setting falls […]
Reviews on Nintendo’s Super Mario Run, have started coming in, describing the game as an elegantly designed platformer and one of the best mobile runners available with high replay value due to its unlockables. However, Super Mario Run was only launched on the iOS on Dec. 15, leaving Android device owners on the outside looking in. How soon will Nintendo release the game on Google’s mobile operating system? Super […]
Many Emiratis live under pressure to find our identities between being members of big tribal families, proud of our heritage and culture, and being part of a modernised and ever-expanding country where every day we are more open to international business, and an ever-expanding community. I don’t see the distinction between expatriate and local, I see community. For an Emirati to be in that community setting is […]
It’s still hard to believe Orlando is home to the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Even six months later, it’s surreal to think 49 people were killed at a club I pass every day on my way to work. The shooting changed Central Florida forever and with it, transformed our newsroom and reporters. The news was unbelievable. It made no sense. Even veteran journalists were in […]
By Melissa Fares and David Lawder | WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to put his pick for Commerce Secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, in charge of his get-tough trade policy, a transition team spokesman said on Tuesday. It is a signal of how Trump, who is also interviewing candidates to be the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), plans to elevate […]
If you are on the lookout for some last-minute gifts but are worried that your gifts will not reach their recipients just in time for Christmas, here are some items that you could buy that will not require shipping at all. Gift Cards Many people are not into giving gift cards because they seem to be impersonal. It may only seem that way if not a lot […]
Via Dana Lyons’ Tumblr, A popular bond fund is hitting a key price level that may finally produce a long-awaited bounce. We talk often of the inexorable Trump Rally in stocks since the presidential election. That good fortune hasn’t befallen all other asset classes, however. For instance, the post-election reaction in the bond market has been nothing short of a blood-letting. Yields on the 30-year U.S. Treasury Bond […]
By Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States on Tuesday blacklisted seven Russian businessmen and eight companies and government enterprises over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Ukraine, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement, moves Moscow called “hostile acts.” The sanctions come a month before U.S. President Barack Obama hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
Top government leaders of Vietnam and Cambodia have expressed wishes to cement and develop bilateral ties in the spirit of “good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, all-faceted and long-lasting cooperation”. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc During talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi on December 20, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen said his visit […]
By Angus McDowall and Maria Tsvetkova | BEIRUT/MOSCOW BEIRUT/MOSCOW As President Bashar al-Assad’s army closed in on the last rebel enclave in Aleppo on Tuesday, Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal. The Syrian army used loudspeakers to broadcast warnings to insurgents that it was poised to enter their rapidly diminishing area during the day and told them to […]
DUBAI // Housewives are risking fines and even jail by selling clothes, beauty products, home accessories and other items on social media without securing approval or a licence from authorities. The women, from India and Pakistan, are using sites such as Facebook and Instagram to sell their wares, which they either make themselves or bring from their home countries. This form of cottage industry is common on […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. It could be called the “NBC Very, Very Late Nightly News With Brian Williams.” Instead, it’s “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” on MSNBC — a new show starring an old face who’s honorably doing what he does well in […]
By Nidal al-Mughrabi | GAZA GAZA Gaza’s population will more than double in about 30 years, signalling even more serious economic problems ahead for Palestinians in the small enclave if the conflict with Israel is not resolved, a U.N. official said on Tuesday. Andres Thomsen, of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told Reuters “it will be very hard to imagine that you can create the right […]
Submitted by Jayant Bhandari via Acting-Man.com, India’s Currency Ban – Part VI India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced on 8th November 2016 that Rs 500 (~$7.50) and Rs 1,000 (~$15) banknotes would no longer be legal tender. Linked are Part-I, Part-II, Part-III, Part-IV, and Part-V, which provide updates on the demonetization saga and how Modi is acting as a catalyst to hasten the rapid degradation of […]
It started off as one of those typical conversations you have when you’re in a foreign country and the taxi driver recognizes you to be a foreigner. “Where are you from?,” he asks, soon after I get into the bright yellow taxi cab, to which I reply “Sri Lanka.”“Beautiful country,” he responds.“Have you been there?” I ask him politely.“No, but my friend went there for a holiday. He […]
20 December 2016 UAE – As the UAE increasingly becomes a thriving hub for entrepreneurs, the demand for accounting and finance skills will rise to sustain business and ensure success and survival amidst regional and global economic pressures, according to financial experts. Recent analysis revealed by professional networking site LinkedIn showed that the UAE has the highest percentage of members indicating entrepreneurship as their job function across the […]
By Alastair Sharp and Allison Martell | TORONTO TORONTO BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO)(BBRY.O) on Tuesday posted an adjusted profit that beat expectations even as revenue dropped sharply, as the software growth it is relying on failed to fully make up for its retreat from handsets and lost service fees. The Canadian smartphone pioneer has gone through a wrenching transition in recent years featuring huge writedowns and job cuts […]
