Photo The Roman amphitheater, left, in Palmyra, Syria, in 2016. Satellite pictures on the right show the structure before it was damaged, above, and after. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times Islamic State militants have destroyed the facade of a second-century Roman amphitheater and another ancient monument in the historic city of Palmyra, Syria, the Syrian state-run news agency reported on Friday. The news agency, […]
At the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, I recall a strong feeling of shame as I waited for then-Prime minister Stephen Harper and former President Barack Obama to emerge from a meeting. I was the designated pool reporter with The Canadian Press, killing time with my Associated Press counterpart. I sheepishly admitted that reporters were forbidden from asking the prime minister an unscheduled […]
In my 35 years covering the tech market, I have heard from executives—over and over—how their inventions will change the world. And while at times, this is true—the semiconductor, PC, and smartphone come to mind—I have been wondering lately if Silicon Valley should take stronger aim at solving the world’s major healthcare dilemmas. On cancer, Silicon Valley has been pretty active already. Nvidia, for example, […]
McDonald’s Corp’s (MCD.N) U.S. comparable restaurant sales fell less than analysts had expected in the fourth quarter as strong demand for its all-day breakfast brought more people to its restaurants. The operator of the world’s largest fast-food chain posted overall quarterly revenue that beat analysts’ expectations. The company’s stock initially rose in premarket trading on Monday, before reversing course to trade down 0.38 percent at $121.95. Sales […]
The Syrian government and rebels opened talks in Kazakhstan on Monday as part of a Turkish and Russian-backed effort to end the Arab state’s near six-year civil war. It is the first time the warring parties have held negotiations in a year, and if successful could mark a turning point in a conflict that has killed an estimated 400,000 people, while also underlining the increasing roles of […]
BERLIN The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) will discipline one of its state leaders over remarks he made criticising Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial, the party’s co-leader said on Monday. Bjoern Hoecke, AfD head in eastern Thuringia state, triggered anger across Germany with a comment about the memorial. He told party members in a speech in Dresden last week: “Germans are the only people in the world who plant […]
Photo Credit Celia Jacobs/ArtCenter ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — “My grandmother told me that the man is the head and the woman is the neck,” said an East European student in my class. “It makes me so mad. I don’t want to be the neck.” The other students in the class, all women, and none of them from the same country (and none from the United […]
January 23, 2017 by: Michael Peel in Manila Business from the US has driven a long boom in the Philippines’ flagship outsourcing industry, but potential political threats to ambitious growth plans now loom in both countries. Global companies are scrambling to work out whether tough talk from Rodrigo Duterte and Donald Trump, the Philippine and US presidents, will mean trouble if they run operations in the Philippines. […]
BEIJING China expects a smoggy Lunar New Year in Beijing and its northern industrial heartland just two weeks after it was blanketed in toxic smog which caused traffic chaos, flight disruptions and port closures. Worsening pollution will engulf four northern Chinese provinces, including Hebei province which surrounds Beijing, in the run up to the Lunar New Year, from Monday through to Thursday, China’s National Environment Monitoring Center […]
RIYADH/ADEN: King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) on Sunday dispatched a convoy loaded with 17 containers of medical supplies and equipment to Yemen, Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, Royal Court and KSrelief Supervisor, said Sunday. The convoy consisted of 11 containers carrying 279 types of medical supplies to the Republican Hospital in Aden and 25 types of medical equipment and supplies for the central medicinal and pharmacology storage […]
Yahoo will be probed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it has been reported, with authorities expected to investigate whether the company should have disclosed its two data breaches sooner to investors. According to The Wall Street Journal, the SEC investigation is still in its early stages, and is expected to look into whether Yahoo’s disclosures about the data breaches complied with civil securities […]
By Scott Malone and Ginger Gibson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Hundreds of thousands of women filled the streets of major American cities to lead an unprecedented wave of international protests against President Donald Trump, mocking and denouncing the new U.S. leader the day after his inauguration. Women activists, outraged by Trump’s campaign rhetoric and behavior they found to be especially misogynistic, spearheaded scores of marches in the United […]
By Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japanese companies believe that neither U.S. President Donald Trump nor Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe want to see the yen weaken significantly, a Reuters poll showed, a development they worry could spark an unwelcome political backlash. The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted Jan. 4-17, also found that Japanese firms want Abe to push Trump hard on trade issues, while nearly a third […]
SAMSUNG CSC Irregularly sized batteries were to blame for the Galaxy Note 7 catching fire and exploding, Samsung has announced after its near four-month-long internal investigations into the matter. Batteries from supplier Samsung SDI were irregularly sized, and while being charged, the battery expanded and contracted. The irregular size, coupled with the lack of space due to the battery’s compactness, caused the fire during charging, DJ Koh, […]
While President Trump chose not to attend the elite extravaganza in Davos last week, choosing instead to lambast the great-est and good-est of the world’s executives in their crony capitalist safe space, the cognitively dissonant CEOs reassured each other by saying ‘ignore the tweets’, confident that “if [Trump] knows the facts, he’ll respond according to the facts.” It depends whose ‘facts’ those are, of course. As Bloomberg […]
SINGAPORE — With salary disputes forming a significant proportion of cases it saw last year, the labour movement’s Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) will push for electronic payments for all foreign domestic workers here, centre chairman Yeo Guat Kwang said yesterday. “Today, it’s still not standardised,” Mr Yeo said at an event at the Singapore Flyer to mark the CDE’s first anniversary and to thank 50 of […]
Shah Rukh Khan has had a busy few weeks, almost single-handedly promoting his new film, the crime drama Raees (Wealthy). The 51-year-old Indian superstar, who visited Dubai for a press conference and meet-and-greet with fans at Bollywood Parks on Saturday, has had to do without help from his co-star, Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, while publicising the film in India and overseas. A recent ban by the Film […]
By Maayan Lubell | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM Israel approved building permits on Sunday for hundreds of homes in three East Jerusalem settlements in expectation that U.S. President Donald Trump will row back on the previous administration’s criticism of such projects. The housing projects, on land that the Palestinians seek as part of a future state, had been taken off the Jerusalem municipality’s agenda in December at the request […]
By Carmel Crimmins and Pamela Barbaglia | DAVOS, Switzerland DAVOS, Switzerland U.S. bankers, buoyed by a resurgence in profits, are advising their counterparts in Europe to think positively about the new administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. But many Europeans still need convincing. At the annual gathering of the world’s political and business elites in the Swiss resort of Davos, U.S. financiers told investors and overseas’ rivals […]
Zverev, a 29-year-old German born in Moscow, ambushed Murray with spectacular net play, sky-hook overheads that fell near the line and stab volleys that just dipped over the net. In an era dominated by baseline rallies, Zverev disrupted Murray by coming to the net 118 times in the match, winning 65 of those points. Continue reading the main story Zverev said his commitment to aggressive play kept […]
PENNE, Italy Twenty-four people are missing from the wreckage of a hotel in central Italy that was flattened by a deadly avalanche, with difficult research and rescue operations still ongoing, authorities said on Sunday. A statement from the national fire service said the number of people missing rose by one after a rescued person said that a hotel employee, of Senegalese origin, was inside the building at […]
BEIRUT The Syrian army and its allies on Sunday drove Islamic State from several villages east of Aleppo, a military media unit run by Hezbollah and a war monitor reported, bringing them closer to territory held by Turkey-backed rebels. Several overlapping conflicts are being fought in Syria, dragging in regional and global powers as well as the government and local groups, complicating the battlefield in the north […]
Here are the market-related questions FT reporters will be examining this week, the first in which a Nato-ambivalent son of a New York property baron will command the world’s most powerful political office. Will the Trump-trades persist with the president in power? The post-election story in markets has largely been about what campaign promises turned into reality could do to a US economy already several years into […]
Energy ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC countries meeting in Vienna on Sunday have struck a positive note regarding their agreement to cut oil output as a committee set to monitor compliance with the deal meets for the first time. “I am satisfied, I am optimistic and, as I said, the markets are on their way to rebalance and it’s happening,” Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said. Compliance […]
