By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi | BEIRUT/AMMAN BEIRUT/AMMAN As the Syrian government and its allies prepared to ramp up their attack on Aleppo in November, one of the rebel groups defending the opposition-held part of the city took up arms against another, seizing its stores of ammunition, fuel and food. The incident near an Aleppo frontline underlined the rebel rivalries that only worsened in the face […]
Europe’s mainstream political parties have voiced their relief after Austria voted against a far-right nationalist becoming president in an election that had been seen as the first of two tests of populism on the continent on Sunday. Alexander Van der Bellen, a Green politician who ran as an independent, won 53.3 per cent of the vote while his far-right opponent, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party, won […]
Expert Panel At Telematics Middle East 2016 to Discuss Impact of the OEMs’ Changing Role in the Mobility Market and How Connected Cars will change the industry? Expert Panel At Telematics Middle East 2016 to Discuss Impact of the OEMs’ Changing Role in the Mobility Market and How Connected Cars will change the industry? Dubai, UAE – December 4, 2016 Bright Box, a global vendor of connected […]
A new scientific approach uses a model inspired from Google’s algorithm to determine the degree of stability of the planetary systems. The researchers employed a machine learning technique in order to create a mechanism that is 1,000 times faster than traditional methods when it comes to predicting stability. The study, published Nov. 23 in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, was carried out at the University of Toronto Scarborough […]
Apple CarPlay, Image: Ford Apple in a November letter to US regulators publicly acknowledged work on autonomous vehicles for the first time, after years of reports surrounding Project Titan. Steve Kenner, Apple’s director of product integrity, sent a five page letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, urging regulators not to impose too many restrictions on self-driving as the iPhone maker begins testing the technology. “The […]
By Saif Hameed and Ulf Laessing | BAGHDAD/BARTELLA, Iraq BAGHDAD/BARTELLA, Iraq Islamic State fighters retreating in the face of a seven-week Iraqi military assault on their Mosul stronghold have hit back in the last two days, exploiting cloudy skies which hampered U.S.-led air support and highlighting the fragile army gains. In a series of counter-attacks since Friday night, the jihadist fighters struck elite Iraqi troops spearheading the […]
VIENNA Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez has played down suggestions the Swiss drugmaker could bid for Swiss biotech group Actelion, which is in talks with U.S. healthcare group Johnson & Johnson about a transaction. Asked by Swiss Sunday newspaper SonntagsBlick whether Novartis could emerge as a white knight, he said: “We have always said that we will concentrate on complementary acquisitions in the range of $2 billion […]
Beijing’s infamous smog spiked on Sunday despite draconian measures in surrounding cities to reduce persistent pollution during the winter in northern China. The thick layer of haze has become a political liability for the ruling Communist party and has driven China’s participation in the Paris climate accord to limit emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases. An air monitor index released by the US embassy in Beijing breached 600 […]
Good morning. Here’s our daily summary of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. The rise of “fake news” inspires the press to uncover its many practitioners worldwide, discern its economics and herald the alleged guilt-ridden soul-searching by its greatest enablers, Facebook and Google. But the media dances around another reality with the dexterity […]
Liberty plays football in Division I’s second rung. The university is run by Jerry Falwell Jr., a godly sort who understands the need for occasional accommodation with the secular world. Earlier this year he strolled around the Republican National Convention with his candidate, Donald J. Trump, a thrice-married man whom numerous women have accused of sexually harassing them. Photo Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, […]
Motorists heading to Dubai from Sharjah were met with congestion on Mohammed bin Zayed Road until the third bridge and on Shiekh Zayed Road from the World Trade Center roundabout towards the first bridge, according to Dubai Traffic Department. TrafficDXB reported an accident on the E66 Dubai – Al Ain Road near the Mohammed Bin Zayed Road intersection on Dubai which also caused delays. Commuters experienced congestion […]
By Yun Hwan Chae and Nataly Pak | SEOUL SEOUL As protesters march through Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul, the centre stage of huge weekly demonstrations calling for South Korean President Park Geun-hye to step down, nearby restaurants hustle to prepare for a busy night. Many bars and restaurants in the area, home to government offices and near the presidential Blue House, have been doing roaring business […]
Jakarta – Rescuers have recovered a body from the waters off Pulau Lingga, in the Riau Islands, near the crash site of a police transport aircraft that went down on Saturday (Dec 3) morning, said local police. Riau Islands police spokesman S. Erlangga, said in a statement issued at 11pm on Saturday local time, that the body was found by Basarnas, Indonesia’s national research and rescue agency, […]
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has announced that it has repaid in full a $500 million Islamic bond or sukuk from its own resources. The bank said in a statement carried by news agency WAM that the repayment reflected “its strong liquidity position amid difficult market conditions”. The sukuk matured on November 30. The five-year sukuk, which were listed on the London Stock Exchange, were more than […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
By Francois Murphy | VIENNA VIENNA Austria will provide a new gauge of the populist wave sweeping Western democracies on Sunday, as the divided country holds a vote that could deliver the first freely-elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War Two. The knife-edge presidential run-off is all the more dramatic for being a re-run of an election held six months ago – before Britain […]
(Image: Liminal) Australian health insurer Medibank has launched an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience for Australian hospitals on Google Daydream View, in collaboration with a group of neuropsychologists at Melbourne-based VR developers Liminal. The “Joy” experience, which was entirely designed in 3D using Google’s Tilt Brush, provides hospital patients with a virtual experience to attempt to relieve loneliness and isolation, particularly for long-stay patients with restricted mobility. […]
By Ahmed Rasheed | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD No food or fuel has reached Mosul in nearly a week and the onset of rain and cold weather threatens a tough winter for more than a million people still in Islamic State-held areas of the city, residents said on Saturday. Iraqi troops waging a six-week-old offensive against the militants controlling Mosul have advanced into eastern city districts, while other forces […]
Apple has for the first time publicly acknowledged its plans to develop self-driving cars, with a letter that urges the US highways regulator to promote “fair competition” between newcomers to the automotive industry and traditional manufacturers. In an unusually direct statement accompanying the letter, an Apple spokesman confirmed its work on autonomous systems that could be used to transform “the future of transportation”. Apple’s letter touts the […]
By James Macharia | JOHANNESBURG JOHANNESBURG South African President Jacob Zuma has asked the High Court to set aside a report by an anti-corruption watchdog that called for a judicial inquiry into alleged influence-peddling in his government, the president’s office said on Saturday. While stopping short of conclusive findings, the report by the Public Protector watchdog has increased political pressure on Zuma by calling for an investigation […]
This figure compares a traditionally trained algorithm to Aarabi and Guo’s heuristically trained neural net. The left and centre columns show an aggressive and conservative image-recognition algorithm trained to recognized human hair, compared to the more precise heuristically trained algorithm at right. Credit: Courtesy: IEEE Trans NN & LS “Hey Siri, how’s my hair?” Your smartphone may soon be able to give you an honest answer, thanks […]
In returning to competition, Woods, who turns 41 this month, is having to make up the blueprint as he goes. No former No. 1 player has been sidelined from competition for more than a year at Woods’s age and returned to resume his winning ways. Photo Tiger Woods, left, an assistant captain, with Patrick Reed during practice for the Ryder Cup. “You have to joke around with […]
newslide Jolie and Pitt could lose adopted sons Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s troubles just got worse. According to radaronline.com, their adopted sons Pax and Maddox could be taken away from them. Pax’s birth mum, Pham Thu Dung, is set to be released from prison soon and when she is, she says she wants her son back. Jolie adopted 13-year-old Pax when he was three years old. […]
Amanda Wills devoted much of the past year to coverage of the presidential election. So when she listened to voicemails left for CNN after Nov. 8, she expected to hear a lot of screaming from both sides. Instead, she heard perspectives she’d never encountered before, ones that taught her not just about CNN’s audience, but about the country itself. “For me, personally, as a journalist, it’s really, […]
