By Gabriela Baczynska | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS European Union leaders will discuss on Thursday their agreed plan to cut immigration from Libyan shores to Italy but they increasingly fear that calmer spring weather will bring a new surge of arrivals from Africa. Arrival numbers from lawless Libya are already higher than last year. Some 9,000 people made the perilous voyage in January and February last year, compared with […]
ROME A prize-winning racehorse dubbed the “Blonde Bombshell” and a thoroughbred colt were stolen from their stables in Italy on Tuesday, in a blow for an industry reeling from years of crisis. The abduction of the chestnut mare, called Unicka, and the colt, named Vampire Dany, was discovered by the horses’ trainer at the Wave stables near Pisa, northern Italy, when he went to feed them on […]
The Ivanka Trump boycott appears to have backfired. One month after several brand name retailers announced they would no longer carry the 35-year-old’s clothing and accessories, Ivanka Trump’s women’s fashion line has seen record February sales. The collection said they had some of the highest performing weeks since the brand was launched last month. “Since the beginning of February, they were some of the best performing weeks […]
A new study suggests it was the power of the eyes and not the limbs that first led our aquatic ancestors to make the leap from water to land. The researchers discovered that eyes nearly tripled in size before — not after — the water-to-land transition. Crocodile-like animals saw easy meals on land and then evolved limbs that enabled them to get there, the researchers argue. Source
Apple says it is working fast to fix vulnerabilities in the iPhone and other products after WikiLeaks released material said to show the Central Intelligence Agency was stockpiling malware to break into devices. “While our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked were already patched in the latest iOS [operating system for iPhones and iPads], we will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities,” […]
By Fatos Bytyci | PRISTINA PRISTINA Kosovo signalled on Wednesday it would turn its security force into a national army, plans opposed by its ethnic Serb minority that drew immediate criticism from NATO and the territory’s biggest foreign supporter, the United States. Nearly two decades after the Kosovo war, relations between Belgrade and Pristina remain strained and Serbia continues to regard Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, […]
KINSHASA Three mass graves have been discovered in central Democratic Republic of Congo, where hundreds have been killed since July in clashes between security forces and a local militia, the top U.N. rights official said on Wednesday. At least 400 people have died and 200,000 have been displaced since the fighting broke out with the Kamuina Nsapu militia. Police killed its leader, Kamuina Nsapu, last August, causing […]
By Ginger Gibson and David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON When the bosses of some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies headed to Washington in January to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, it had all the makings of a potentially hostile meeting. Just weeks before, Trump had sent drug stock prices plummeting after accusing the companies of “getting away with murder” by charging too much for medicines. But […]
MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi forces saw off a nighttime Islamic State counter-attack near Mosul’s main government building hours after recapturing it, a military official said on Wednesday, as troops sought to push the militants further back. The Islamic State fighters had used several car bombs in the assault, Major General Ali Kadhem al-Lami of the Federal Police’s Fifth Division told a Reuters correspondent near the site. “Today we’re […]
US-based Hyperloop One on Tuesday put the cost of traffic congestion between Dubai and Abu Dhabi at almost $800 million in lost working hours. Nearly 4,000 vehicles travel on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway every day as majority of the people, who work in the UAE capital, reside in Dubai which offers cheaper housing options. “Reducing this commute to 12 minutes opens a whole new realm of options,” […]
ABU DHABI// A new 2.4-kilometre canal on Reem Island is undergoing final testing before opening next month. Developer Aldar Properties said commissioning work on the project is well under way ahead of the scheduled flooding in April. The canal, which is crossed by 10 bridges, runs through the Shams development and features landscaping with 450 trees, covering an area of 46,000 square metres. “Shams is becoming one […]
Photo A convoy of United States armored vehicles in Manbij, northern Syria. A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that the deployment was intended as a “visible sign of deterrence and reassurance” to dissuade Turkish-backed militias and other groups from attacking the area. Credit Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — The top American military officer met Tuesday with his Russian and Turkish counterparts to discuss how to […]
By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo | TOKYO TOKYO Rattled by North Korean military advances, influential Japanese lawmakers are pushing harder for Japan to develop the ability to strike preemptively at the missile facilities of its nuclear-armed neighbour. Japan has so far avoided taking the controversial and costly step of acquiring bombers or weapons such as cruise missiles with enough range to strike other countries, relying instead […]
Via Soeren Kern of The Gatestone Institute, “The threat to the UK remains from homegrown terrorism, and is heavily youth- and male-oriented with British nationals prevalent among offenders.” — Islamist Terrorism: Analysis of Offenses and Attacks in the UK (1998–2015). “The increased prevalence of smaller cells and individualistic offending, suggests a rise in terrorism cases that feature shorter lead times to offending and fewer opportunities for identification.” […]
KABUL An explosion and gunfire were reported near a military hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul, close to the U.S. embassy, officials said on Wednesday. One official said a “security incident” had been reported at the hospital. (Reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Paul Tait) ‘); $(‘.second-article-divide’).append($(‘.slider.slider-module’)); $(‘.third-article-divide’).append(”); var median = (relatedItemsTotal / 2); var $relatedContentGroupOne = $(‘.related-content.group-one ul’); var $relatedContentGroupTwo = $(‘.related-content.group-two ul’); $.each($relatedItems, function(k,v) { […]
UAE carrier Etihad Airways has advised passengers travelling to the United States from the six banned Muslim nations to check their travel status prior to boarding their flights from Abu Dhabi airport. The notice on its website was issued following the latest developments in the US, the revised executive order – which becomes effective on March 16 – implements a ban on nationals of Iran, Sudan, Somalia, […]
Providing Innovative Financing Solutions to Buyers Interested In Purchasing Residential Units Muscat, March 08, 2017 Sohar Islamic, Bank Sohar’s Islamic Banking Window signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Mass Housing, a developer of integrated housing communities, to provide preferential Shari’ah Compliant financing solutions to potential Omani’s buyers for purchasing residential units in the upcoming Areej project – phase 2 located in Muscat. The purpose of […]
By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Teppei Kasai | NAMIE, Fukushima NAMIE, Fukushima A truck occasionally whizzes past the darkened shops with cracked walls and fallen signs that line the main street of Japan’s mostly deserted seaside town of Namie. Workers repair a damaged home nearby, and about 60 employees busily prepare for the return of former residents in the largely untouched town hall. Not far away, two wild […]
By Saikat Chatterjee | HONG KONG HONG KONG Asian stocks edged lower on Wednesday after a strong start to the week due to profit-taking as investors lacked conviction to buy risky assets before a U.S. policy meeting next week that may see interest rates rising for the second time in three months. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1 percent in early trade, a […]
DUBAI // Etihad Airways is advising some passengers to check with United States diplomatic missions before travelling to the country. US president Donald Trump signed a revised executive order on Monday banning visits by travellers from six Muslim-majority countries. The order takes effect on March 16 and keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the US for citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It […]
Muneera Al Hubail is one of the first women from Abu Dhabi to compete internationally at CrossFit, having reached the finals in the Battle of the East international competition in Kuwait in November. The 28-year-old Emirati passed another important milestone last month when she managed to lift the equivalent of her own body weight over her head. Al Hubail’s ultimate goal is to be a grandmother who […]
A buoyant stock market and improving US economic growth have given the Federal Reserve cover to lift interest rates three times this year, including when it meets in less than a fortnight, a Financial Times survey of top economists has found. About three-quarters of the 43 economists surveyed in March said the Fed would increase interest rates by 75 basis points in 2017, a capitulation from months […]
Banks have structured some unusual and complex deals for European companies to raise capital through a combination of debt and equity derivatives in recent weeks, reflecting investor enthusiasm for convertible securities. Last week BASF launched a $600m bond bundled with warrants, in a so-called neutral structure which effectively makes the chemicals group a middleman between its investors and its banks. The deal, put together by Deutsche Bank, […]
Via Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org, At Mar-a-Lago this weekend President Donald Trump was filled “with fury” says The Washington Post, “mad — steaming, raging, mad.” Early Saturday the fuming president exploded with this tweet: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” The president has reason to be enraged. For what is afoot […]
