China has lowered its annual economic growth target to “around” 6.5 per cent, as Beijing plans to focus on risk control in the final year of President Xi Jinping’s first term. The figure, down from the government’s target growth range of 6.5 to 7 per cent for 2016, was revealed on Sunday morning by Premier Li Keqiang in his annual “work report” to China’s parliament, the National […]
The nonprofit organization promoted Leadership, Service Learning and Global Citizenship through the Annual Youth Conference 05 March 2017 Doha, Qatar – Qatar Assistive Technology Center (Mada) took part in the Annual Youth Conference, Empower 2017, which was held on March 2 – 4. During the event, Mada hosted a workshop that discussed the fundamentals of accessibility and its universal design, which was presented by Ahmed Habib a […]
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. So what have you heard more often: “Fox & Friends” shilling for President Trump or sophisticated people confiding their real reason for reading The New Yorker is the cartoons? Ah, if only Bob Mankoff had long ago negotiated some piece […]
Plot twists, accusations and 25,000 pages of evidence — a snapshot of the case that will determine Nawaz Sharif’s fate. Panama Papers leaked; Sharif family under spotlight — Feica/Dawn. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) makes 11.5 million secret documents available to the public for the very first time. The documents, coming from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, contain confidential attorney-client information for more than 214,488 […]
By Minami Funakoshi | TOKYO TOKYO U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Japan, South Korea and China this month to discuss North Korea on his first trip to the region since he took up his post, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Tillerson’s trip would come as the United States and China try to put relations on an even keel after a rocky start […]
By Benjamin Kang Lim and Philip Wen | BEIJING BEIJING China’s sweeping overhaul of its anti-corruption architecture could enable President Xi Jinping to justify retaining his key ally and top graft buster Wang Qishan beyond retirement age, sources with ties to the leadership say. Breaking the unwritten retirement rule could also set a precedent for Xi, 63, to defy current expectations that he will step down as […]
One of these sites is not like the other: ESPN.com, CBSSports.com, FoxSports.com, SBNation.com. To the titans of sports coverage, networks with broadcast rights to major sporting events, SB Nation is a scrappy flotilla of sports blogs led by its eponymous flagship site. Because it can’t air games, SB Nation has carved out a niche for itself as a multifaceted clearinghouse for sports fans, with individual sites for […]
The National staff ABU DHABI // About 1,650 people have been given a range of medical assistance in Tanzania as part of the UAE’s Zayed Giving humanitarian drive. Children and elderly people were treated by the UAE’s team of medical volunteers. The initiative was carried out under the supervision of the UAE-Tanzanian voluntary medical team. The Zayed Giving convoys have now completed the first phase of its […]
YANGIZABAR, Uzbekistan A newspaper editor jailed for 18 years in Uzbekistan says he was subjected to such harsh torture that he forgot the names of his daughters, but was kept alive by the support of human rights groups. Muhammad Bekjanov, 63, was released in February, months after the death of president Islam Karimov who had run the Central Asian nation for 27 years. Editor of the opposition […]
There was no mistaking the arrival of King Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and his entourage in Malaysia on Sunday morning. Traffic stood still for 30 minutes as we waited for the 600-strong royal party to make their way from the airport to the centre of Kuala Lumpur — a near-endless stream of limos, lorries, outliers and ambulances, sirens screaming. This is King Salman’s first trip […]
BEIJING China’s leaders are expected to telegraph their willingness at this year’s annual parliament meeting to let reforms overtake policy stimulus as their priority amid concerns over financial instability in the world’s second-largest economy. Pro-growth policies, evident by a lending binge and increased government spending last year, have fueled worries among policymakers about high debt levels and an overheating housing market. Top leaders at the National People’s […]
GENEVA Syria’s warring sides both claimed U.N. peace talks in Geneva were going their way on Thursday, but the chief government negotiator and Syria’s ally Russia accused the main opposition delegation of trying to wreck the talks. Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja’afari told reporters that he had discussed “substantive issues, particularly counter-terrorism” with U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura, and would continue on Friday. The government delegation has […]
Uber’s US rival Lyft is seeking $500m in a new fundraising round to provide fresh ammunition as the transportation company takes its fight with Uber to a growing number of US cities, according to two people close to the process. The fundraising comes at a time when Uber has been struggling with a series of public relations crises, including allegations of sexual harassment and a video of […]
A video showing Uber CEO Travis Kalanick disrespecting a company driver has gone viral and drew a firestorm of criticism, and Kalanick would like to apologize. For those unfamiliar with the matter, a video surfaced on Tuesday, Feb. 28 showing Kalanick in a heated argument with an Uber driver. The video stirred quite some waves and made headlines, so a more humble Kalanick has now seen the error of […]
Bin Shafar: “Empower’s annual agenda has many initiatives that target the whole society” Dubai, UAE, 2 March 2017: Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, has been awarded the Dubai Chamber CSR Label for the third consecutive year, in recognition of the company’s social initiatives which seek to raise social and environmental awareness among its employees, clients and the whole society. […]
In investment as in life, what goes unsaid is often more important than what is said. Long-term watchers of the Federal Reserve know to look at every last word of every statement from a Fed governor — which is why a succession of Fed speeches and interviews on Monday and Tuesday were taken as doubling the chances that the central bank raises US interest rates at its […]
As if Uber’s woes couldn’t get any more taxing than it currently is. The company is dealing with extremely controversial sexual harassment allegations, being sued by Google over allegedly stolen designs, and now it has to deal with another controversy altogether, this time of its CEO, Travis Kalanick, arguing — with harsh words, no less — with an Uber driver in a video caught by the car’s dashcam. Travis […]
By Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Tuesday reaffirmed support for the United States’ longstanding security alliances around the world but insisted that friends and partners from Europe to the Middle East to the Pacific must “pay their fair share of the cost.” In his first nationally televised speech to Congress since taking office on January 20, Trump sought to reassure allies still uneasy […]
By Kylie MacLellan | LONDON LONDON The U.S.-led coalition effort against Islamic State is killing the group’s fighters more quickly than it can replace them, a senior British general said on Tuesday, with more than 45,000 killed by coalition air strikes up to August last year. On Tuesday, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces continued their offensive in Mosul, where several thousand Islamic State (IS) militants, including many who travelled […]
The American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, accused Russia of putting “its friends in the Assad regime” before global security. Continue reading the main story “It’s a sad day for the Security Council when member states make excuses for other members killing their own people,” she said in the council chambers after the vote. The resolution, proposed by Britain and France months ago and endorsed by the United […]
South Korean prosecutors have charged Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s de facto boss, with bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with the country’s sprawling corruption scandal. The move on Tuesday is a blow to the leadership transition to the third generation of the founding family of South Korea’s largest conglomerate. The indictment of the 48-year-old vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, along with four other Samsung executives, comes as the […]
BEIJING China cemented President Xi Jinping’s position as the “core” of the Communist Party on Monday, making it part of ideological teaching in colleges and universities as Beijing tightens its hold on education. Political thought and party leadership in China’s places of higher learning should “closely revolve around the Chinese Communist Party with comrade Xi Jinping at the core”, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, said in a […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump is seeking what he called a “historic” increase in defense spending, but ran into immediate opposition from Republicans in Congress who must approve his plan and said it was not enough to meet the military’s needs. The proposed rise in the Pentagon budget to $603 billion comes as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq […]
Twitter has reported a 30 percent boost in advertising revenue in Brazil last year helped by digital marketing interest around the Olympic Games and rising smartphone uptake locally. Despite posting its slowest quarterly revenue growth since it went public four years ago, things for Twitter in Brazil – one of the firm’s top five markets – are looking up. The number of monthly active users in Brazil […]
