WASHINGTON The deputy director of the U.S. National Security Agency, the intelligence agency in charge of electronic surveillance and code-breaking, is retiring, an NSA spokesman said on Friday. Richard Ledgett, who just turned 59, will retire in the spring, spokesman Michael Halbig said in an emailed statement. “It has been anticipated that he would retire in 2017 and he decided the time is right this spring after […]
A Saudi soldier has died from injuries sustained in a landmine explosion on Thursday while on duty, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Corporal Younes Mohammed Ali Abu Rasain, a border guard operating in the Jazan region on the Saudi-Yemen border, was declared dead on arrival at hospital, said a spokesman at Saudi’s Ministry of Interior. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have carried out thousands […]
There is a wide range of commercial applications for AR in both consumer and enterprise use. Josh Miller Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are becoming integral components of modern smartphones, and experts say mobile devices will help drive demand for these technologies. special feature VR and AR: The Business Reality Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are going to be useful for far more than just […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. job growth surged more than expected in January as construction firms and retailers ramped up hiring, but wages barely rose, handing the Trump administration both a head start and a challenge as it seeks to boost the economy. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 227,000 jobs, the largest gain in four months, the Labor Department said on Friday. The unemployment rate, however, […]
RedfestDXB has announced new timings for its closing day. It will be held on Saturday, after severe winds forced organisers to postpone the original date. To cater to young fans with Sunday school commitments the festival will run from 2pm to 8pm. Fans and ticket holders are urged to follow the event social media channels for further updates on ticket refunds, updated performance times and opening times. […]
The US on Friday imposed new sanctions on Iran as President Donald Trump followed up on his campaign pledge to take a tougher stance towards the Islamic republic. The Treasury department added 13 individuals and 12 companies — including Chinese, Lebanese and Emirati — to its sanctions list, freezing their assets under US control. Sean Spicer, White House spokesman, said the sanctions were a “very, very strong […]
Investors have warmed to Russian assets, welcoming the country in from the cold. Russian bond funds counted record inflows in the week to February 1 as higher crude prices and improving relations with the US prompted an investor rotation back into the country. Emerging markets more broadly have found renewed investor appetite as the dollar has fallen to an 11-week low. More than $1bn flowed into EM […]
Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) shares fell as much as 4.2 percent on Friday after the company missed Wall Street targets for its closely watched cloud computing business. Shares fell to $804 in early trading, a day after the company reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and said it would continue to spend heavily this year, as it looks to take control of its delivery chain and expand its video service […]
Researchers studying an annual outbreak of mysterious illnesses among children living in India’s northern state of Bihar believe they might have found the cause – lychee consumption. Since 1995, cases of an acute neurological illness have been reported in Muzaffarpur, the largest area for cultivation of the fruit in the country, between the months of May and July. They peak in June to coincide with the month-long […]
By Parisa Hafezi | ANKARA ANKARA Many Iranians who dreamt of quiet, comfortable lives after a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 are starting to worry for the first time in decades they might be bombed in their own homes. Since taking office last month, U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to get tough with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic after its ballistic missile test on […]
MANILA The Maoist-led New People’s Army (NPA) has engaged in guerrilla warfare in the Philippines for nearly five decades, with more than 40,000 people killed in a conflict that has stunted growth in resource-rich areas. Following is a look at the background of one of the world’s longest-running communist insurgencies. – Jose Maria Sison, a political science professor, founded the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in […]
A construction site crane collapsed on Dubai’s main highway on Friday, with initial reports of at least one person injured in the incident. According to a tweet by Dubai Media Office, three cars were damaged by fire, with one person taken to hospital for treatment. No reason was given for the crane collapse but Dubai was being hit by strong winds on Friday. The tweet said civil […]
In a potential boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative, tech giant Apple Inc. is nearing a deal with Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron Corp. to start making products in the southern state of Karnataka, a senior state official said. “The contractual agreement between the two companies is on the verge of being signed,” the Karnataka government official who has direct knowledge of the matter […]
European stocks and S&P futures rose modestly ahead of January US payrolls data, along with the dollar, while Asian shares dropped after China returned from a week-long holiday. Bonds slid, oil rose while the JGB intervened in the bond market to prevent a bond rout, in one of two major surprises during the Asian session. As reported last night, having closed at 0.109% yesterday the 10y JGB […]
The successor of Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) – dubbed the Galaxy J7 92017) has been spotted on GFXBench, which offers a peek into the impending handset. This is not the first time, the smartphone has leaked online. The latest leak of the Galaxy J7 (2017) offer more insight into the handset. The listing on the benchmarking database reveals that Samsung Galaxy (J7 2017) carries the model number […]
The vital survival skills taught to young British merchant marine cadets during the Second World War through the Outward Bound educational initiative might seem redundant in the safe harbour of the UAE, but its newest international chapter is already delivering unique, life-changing experiences to young people from across the Emirates. Outward Bound UAE was set up in December 2016 to provide Emirati and expatriate youth with practical […]
A man who attacked a soldier at the Louvre museum in Paris on Friday cried “Allahu akbar” before he was shot. French police said they believed the man, who was seriously wounded in the incident, intended to carry out a terrorist attack. The man who had two backpacks shouted “God is great” in Arabic and lunged at the soldier at the entrance to the museum shortly after […]
By Michel Rose and Elizabeth Pineau | PARIS PARIS A French soldier on Friday shot and wounded a man armed with a knife after he tried to enter the Louvre museum in central Paris carrying a suitcase, police sources said. One source said the man had been trying to get into the museum’s shopping mall and had attacked another soldier before being shot and seriously wounded. Police […]
Domestic consumption of desalinated water in the region is not only carbon-intensive but contributes to making the Arabian Gulf one of the world’s most salty and potentially most uninhabitable bodies of water, experts say. According to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, 96 per cent of domestic consumption of water – from drinking water to showers – comes from one of the 70 desalination plants located […]
By Colin Packham and Aaron Bunch | SYDNEY SYDNEY U.S. immigration officials have postponed interviews with asylum seekers in an Australian camp on the Pacific island of Nauru since President Trump’s executive order on immigration, suggesting Washington is already blocking progress on a controversial refugee resettlement deal. The deal sparked a rare diplomatic spat between the two staunch allies, with Trump berating Australia’s prime minister in an […]
There’s a whole lot of science — make that DNA changes — behind human height. A new large-scale international study has just found 83 new genetic variations that control height in humans. Of these, some influence adult height by over 2 centimeters or nearly 8/10 of an inch. This is an enormous discovery, according to researchers. “The genes affected by these genetic variations modulate, among other things, bone […]
As an expectant crowd of couples, families, retirees and grizzled world trekkers wait to board our Antarctic-bound ship, the mood is overwhelmingly one of anticipation. Talk is of when the first orca or iceberg will be sighted, and trepidation at the state of the Drake Passage, the notoriously rough sea that sits between us and the pristine ice of Antarctica. As we leave the docks of the […]
Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick has quit President Donald Trump’s business advisory council on the eve of its first meeting, after mounting criticism from passengers and drivers angry over the president’s immigration order. The move will raise the stakes for other executives on the council, including leaders from Blackstone, IBM, GE, GM, Disney, Pepsi and Tesla. Several have already voiced concerns about the travel ban but none […]
ORINOCA, Bolivia Bolivia on Thursday opened a $7 million museum dedicated to President Evo Morales and indigenous peoples in Morales’s birthplace of Orinoca high up in the deserts of the Bolivian antiplano. Morales ordered the museum to be built by decree shortly after he became Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006, creating a place to hold hundreds of his gifts as well as photos, videos and archaeological […]
