Cuban president Raúl Castro is preparing to step down next year, Venezuela has cut millions of dollars in aid and Donald Trump’s election has cast a shadow over the nascent US-Cuba detente. Unnerved by the changes, Havana’s domestic reform drive has ground to a halt as the Communist party battens down the hatches. Marino Murillo, the senior official leading Cuba’s reforms, has not been heard in public […]
Can I make this LED bulb a user interface to my home? Image: Simon Bisson First, a confession. I always wanted one of those internet-connected rabbits. You know the ones: they’d glow yellow if it was sunny, drop an ear if the NASDAQ had conniptions, and make burbling noises when a friend was trying to Skype you and you’d turned off all your speakers. What they were […]
By Isabel Coles | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq Investigators are in the Iraqi city of Mosul to determine whether a U.S.-led coalition strike or Islamic State-rigged explosives caused a huge blast that destroyed buildings and killed more than 200 people, a U.S. military commander said. Conflicting accounts have emerged since the March 17 explosion in al-Jadida district in west Mosul, where Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition […]
In this Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, photo, a group of self-driving Uber vehicles position themselves to take journalists on rides during a media preview at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. On Monday, March 27, 2017, Uber said it is resuming its self-driving car program in Arizona and Pittsburgh after it was suspended following a crash over the weekend. The company had also grounded self-driving cars in […]
DUBAI Amazom.com (AMZN.O) has agreed to acquire Middle East online retailer Souq.com, [IPO-SOUQ.DU], the two companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday. The value of the deal was not disclosed. “By becoming part of the Amazon family, we’ll be able to vastly expand our delivery capabilities and customer selection much faster, as well as continue Amazon’s great track record of empowering sellers,” said Souq.com’s co-founder, Syrian-born […]
SEOUL The remains of what appears to be at least one unrecovered victim of South Korea’s sunken Sewol ferry were found near the salvaged vessel on Tuesday, an official said, nearly three years after the disaster that killed 304 people. The ferry was structurally unsound, overloaded and travelling too fast on a turn when it capsized and sank during a routine voyage off the southwest coast on […]
A respite from recent stormy weather is likely on Tuesday across much of the UAE with a dry day in prospect, although drivers ae being warned to be aware of fog and mist patches that could accumulate overnight and into Wednesday. It is expected to be cloudy for much of the day with sunny spells. Temperatures in Dubai and the Northern Emirates are expected to reach 26°C. […]
Dawn is the time to see Angkor Wat. Waiting in the dark as the exquisite 11th-century temple is conjured out of the Cambodian jungle feels ridiculously thrilling. As the sun rises above the tall, minutely carved, lotus-like towers, and the ornate magnificence of the buildings is reflected in the great ornamental lakes, you get a sense of how 19th-century French explorer Henri Mouhot must have felt when […]
For Truecaller, an app that offers real-time caller ID and spam protection, the past two years have been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. On one hand, the eight-year-old service continues to grow strongly in developing markets, and has also chalked out plans to attract people globally. On the other hand, several features that made Truecaller so popular are now shipping out of the box with iPhone […]
“The new tax rate will bring Saudi Aramco in line with international benchmarks,” Saudi Aramco’s chief executive officer, Amin H. Nasser, said in a statement. Continue reading the main story The tax cut was announced a couple of months after intensive discussions with international bankers in Riyadh about how the offering should be structured. Bankers and independent specialists said the cut would help increase the cash flow […]
Tuesday 08:45 GMT What you need to know ● Markets recovering their poise after “Trump trade” wobble● S&P 500 futures higher and helping European to open on the front foot ● Energy stocks underpinning bourses as oil prices gain ground● Dollar steadies after sliding to four-month lows, Treasury yields nudge up● Gold prices ease back as haven flows dwindle——————- Hot topic Investors are rediscovering their risk appetite […]
Astronomers have used a radio telescope in outback Western Australia to see the halo of a nearby starburst galaxy in unprecedented detail. A starburst galaxy is a galaxy experiencing a period of intense star formation and this one, known as NGC 253 or the Sculptor Galaxy, is approximately 11.5 million light-years from Earth. “The Sculptor Galaxy is currently forming stars at a rate of five solar masses […]
TOKYO Investigators pored over a Japanese mountain on Tuesday after a massive avalanche tore through a group of high school students and teachers, killing eight, amid questions about why avalanche warnings were ignored and whether they had proper equipment. The avalanche in central Japan on Monday, which struck along some 50 metres (150 ft) of a steep slope just above a ski area, killed seven students and […]
New updates for Final Fantasy XV have added an alternate version of the much-maligned Chapter 13 of the popular RPG, in addition to inserting a bit of political color into the game. The updates, 1.06 and 1.07, introduce several other additions to Final Fantasy XV in advance of the arrival of the game’s first DLC, Episode Gladiolus. Changes To ‘Final Fantasy XV’ Chapter 13 In December of last year, […]
The bagpiper striding across the bottle label wears flowing green tartan, a luxuriant black moustache — and a red turban. Bagpiper whisky, distilled by Diageo through its United Spirits subsidiary in India, is one of India’s most popular brands, available even in a tetra pak. But at Rs300 ($4.50) for a 750ml bottle, it is not a brand that will power a rapid return on Diageo’s £1.9bn […]
Mr. Netanyahu, several experts said, wants to talk to Mr. Trump about how best to confront Iran. But the administration’s policy toward Iran is still taking shape, making it less fruitful for the Israeli leader to come to Washington for a face-to-face meeting with the president. Continue reading the main story In his video appearance — after joking that he skipped the conference to avoid standing in […]
SEOUL South Korea’s family-run conglomerates are facing calls for a shakeup in their governance from a leading candidate in May’s presidential election, following the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal. The conglomerates known as chaebol have come under the reform buzz saw before, only to emerge bigger and stronger than ever. The country’s four biggest chaebol groups account for around half the […]
Last week we noted that Mexico’s Economy Minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, was somewhat less than completely supportive of Trump’s impenetrable, yet “aesthetically pleasing”, 30-foot border wall and issued a stark warning to Mexican companies that it would not be in their best “interests” to participate in the project even though there would be no explicit legal restrictions or sanctions to stop them if they tried. Per Reuters: “We’re […]
Livestock grazing could affect the sage grouse population across 11 states in the western region of the United States and two Canadian provinces in western North America, according to a study. Its effect, either positive or negative, is determined by the amount of grazing and when it occurs. The study said some grazing could still be beneficial to chicken-like grouse if grazing occurred during the later part of […]
Vocus Communications has announced selling its 16 percent stake in Macquarie Telecom, offloading 3,358,511 MAQ shares at a price of AU$12.20 per share for a total of around AU$41 million. Vocus sold 100 percent of its interest in Macquarie Telecom to both institutional and retail shareholders via a block trade, it announced to the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday morning. According to Macquarie Telecom, the sale of […]
By Ayesha Rascoe | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Following the failure of a healthcare bill backed by President Donald Trump, his administration plans to take a lead role in crafting major legislation to cut taxes with an eye toward meeting an August target date, the White House said on Monday. Trump’s pledge to cut taxes, including a lowering of the rates paid by corporations, was a pillar of his […]
The location and energy potential, in terawatt hours, of eastern and southern African renewable resources (wind, solar photovoltaic and concentrating solar power). Credit: UC Berkeley As Africa gears up for a tripling of electricity demand by 2030, a new Berkeley study maps out a viable strategy for developing wind and solar power while simultaneously reducing the continent’s reliance on fossil fuels and lowering power plant construction costs. […]
LONDON British police said on Monday they had found no evidence that Khalid Masood, who killed four people in an attack on parliament last week, had any association with Islamic State or al Qaeda, but he was clearly interested in jihad. Masood drove a car through a crowd of pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing three and injuring about 50, then ran through the gates of parliament and […]
March 27, 2017 by: Roger Blitz in London and Eric Platt and Robin Wigglesworth in New York Financial markets shuddered on Monday as investors absorbed the collapse of US healthcare reform last week, with some fearing pro-growth policies like tax reform could be stymied by government inaction and a Republican party in disarray. Global stocks retreated, US banks slid into correction and the dollar index fell to […]
