Photo Russian soldiers patrolling in Aleppo, Syria, this month. A bomb last week brought the number of Russian combat deaths in Syria to 27. Credit Omar Sanadiki/Reuters MOSCOW — Four Russian servicemen were killed and two were wounded in Syria last week when their car was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday, citing a statement by the Defense Ministry […]
As the world’s oil traders descend on London this week, the hot subject will be how to keep North Sea Brent, the benchmark for the global oil price, fit for purpose. S&P Global Platts , the oil pricing agency, is trying to execute the biggest overhaul of North Sea oil trading in a decade, with plans to rejig how prices in the region are set ahead of […]
A tourist bus ferrying mostly college students on a camping trip on Monday lost its brakes and hurtled downhill in Tanay, Rizal province, rammed an electric post and left 13 of its passengers and the driver dead, authorities said. Ten of the victims were killed on the spot and four others died in two hospitals, said Tanay disaster response officer Berlito Bati Jr. More than 40 others […]
Partnership will allow partner-drivers to connect with on-demand medical professionals United Arab Emirates, 20 February 2017 Uber, the smartphone app-based technology company, has announced a partnership with Altibbi, an online medical mobile application, to connect Uber partner-drivers with on-demand doctors. The application allows partner-drivers to connect with a selection of certified doctors, and get round-the-clock affordable medical consultations over the phone. This gives partner-drivers access to safe […]
Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com, I am unsure who first came up with the idea of taxing robots, but the proposal has been embraced by academia, socialists, and in general, the radical Left. Today, entrepreneur Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, endorsed the idea. What does Gates want to do with the money collected? Here’s the answer: Flush it down the toilet. In a Quartz interview, Bill […]
By Stephen Kalin and Maher Chmaytelli | SOUTH OF MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq SOUTH OF MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq U.S.-backed Iraqi forces fought Islamic State fighters on Monday to clear the way to Mosul’s airport, on the second day of a ground offensive on the jihadists’ remaining stronghold in the western side of the city. Federal police and elite interior ministry units known as Rapid Response are leading the charge toward […]
So what can schools near roads do about their air quality? Closing a school’s doors and windows won’t keep traffic pollutants out (though that helps). Heavy-duty air filters — higher quality than the typical filters in schools — can substantially reduce what gets into the air the kids and teachers are breathing inside. Filters rated MERV 16, characterized as surgery-grade, have been installed in dozens of Southern […]
For President Trump, the designation debate is an election promise made good. He has made no bones about taking an approach to the Middle East that is narrowly focused on counterterrorism, and that plays to domestic supporters who view all Islamist movements — or even all Muslims — as potentially hostile. Continue reading the main story In much of the Middle East, though, the rapid pace and […]
Here we go again. The premium investors are demanding to hold French over German 10-year debt has hit a fresh post-eurozone crisis high today – exceeding 0.81 percentage points for the first time since August 2012. The yield gap has swollen to its highest in over four years this month, reflecting investor jitters about France’s upcoming and unpredictable presidential elections in three months’ time. France’s 10-year bond […]
KUALA LUMPUR The son of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of the North Korean leader who was murdered in Kuala Lumpur last week, will arrive in the Malaysian capital late on Monday, according to an airline source and a media report. An airline source said Kim Han Sol was arriving in Kuala Lumpur on an AirAsia flight from Macau. Malaysian authorities have said they will release […]
PCLinuxOS 2017.02 KDE Desktop Image: J.A. Watson One of my oldest ‘friends’ in the world of Linux distributions is PCLinuxOS. I have watched it change over the years from a group of add-on packages for Mandake Linux to its own distribution, and seen it become one of the most solid, stable, and best community-supported distributions available today. I have seen the founder and primary moving force behind […]
Two Filipino films are screening at this week’s Glasgow Film Festival, which opened in the Scottish city yesterday (February 15) and will run until February 26. Lav Diaz’s acclaimed film, Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left) will screen as part of the festival’s CineMasters section, which features works by renowned veteran directors from across the globe. Shot in black-and-white, The Woman Who Left won the Golden […]
Photo Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, left, with Col. Terry L. Anderson, the military attaché, in Munich on Thursday. Credit Sven Hoppe/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Baghdad on Monday, promising that, despite what President Trump said last month, the administration would not try to seize Iraq’s oil. Nor, he said, would the administration repay Iraqis who have worked […]
Chinese technology giant Huawei has opened a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) lab in Australia to provide research and development opportunities around applications, smart devices, and sensor networks. The lab is situated within James Cook University in Cairns, Queensland, with Huawei kitting it out with IoT technology and giving the university funding for research. Its positioning within northern Australia will see it focus on smart applications for […]
By Rozanna Latiff | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR Footage from airport cameras purportedly showing the assault on the half-brother of the North Korean leader emerged on Monday as a row between Malaysia and North Korea escalated over the handling of the investigation into the killing of Kim Jong Nam. Malaysia recalled its envoy from Pyongyang and summoned North Korea’s ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, who again cast doubt […]
By Alexandra Ulmer and Alexandra Valencia | QUITO QUITO Leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno was within striking distance of winning the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election on Monday, as the Andean country’s electoral body counted ballots late into the night. In a nail-biter vote with eight candidates, Moreno was close to the threshold needed to avoid an April runoff and continue a decade-long period of leftist […]
Monday 04:30 GMT Overview Stock markets across Asia were mostly higher though currencies struggled to make much headway in a subdued session. Hot topic The US market is closed on Monday for the President’s Day public holiday. On Friday the S&P 500 climbed 0.2 per cent to a record high, capping a week in which the FTSE All World index topped its previous record peak from May […]
Under Manfred Galdes’ stewardship, the FIAU had started an investigation into the Panama Papers scandal The European Parliament’s Panama Papers committee has formally invited the former chief of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit to meet its MEPs in Malta next Monday. Under the stewardship of Manfred Galdes, the FIAU had investigated the Panama Papers scandal – which revealed that minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief […]
SINGAPORE The U.S. economy is on “sound footing,” a hawkish Federal Reserve official said on Monday in a speech that cautioned against asking the central bank to solve problems beyond its control such as low productivity growth. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, at a forum in Singapore, did not comment specifically on interest rates. However she has dissented in the past in favor of quicker rate hikes […]
ABU DHABI // The British royal navy is strengthening its presence in the Arabian Gulf after it took command of US Task Force 50 – the first time it has led a US force in the Middle East. The force, which has assisted in battling ISIL in Iraq and Syria, plays an important role in the region because it allows free passage of trade throughout the Gulf […]
President Donald Trump sought to refocus on governing on Sunday by interviewing a shortlist of candidates to be his national security adviser having continued to blame media bias for portrayals of chaos in his administration. Following last week’s firing of Michael Flynn amid controversy over his Russia ties, Mr Trump was due to speak to four candidates to replace him in the post — the most crucial […]
Stock markets in the Middle East were mixed in modest trading volumes on Sunday with Saudi Arabia and Qatar outperforming because of support from the banking sector, while Egypt fell as the currency hit a three-month high. Two-thirds of the 12 listed banks on Saudi Arabia’s bourse gained, lifting the index 0.1 percent. Alawwal Bank added 2.7 percent, with most activity occurring in the last hour of […]
By Carl O’Donnell | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. food company Kraft Heinz Co (KHC.O) withdrew its proposal for a $143-billion merger with larger rival Unilever Plc (ULVR.L), the companies said on Sunday, raising questions about whether Kraft could turn its focus to another target. Kraft had made a surprise offer for Unilever to build a global consumer goods behemoth that was flatly rejected on Friday by […]
Last week, as delegations from the new US administration, Russia, China and the EU gathered at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the strategic challenges facing the international community, a very different international assembly was taking place at the Abu Dhabi headquarters of the UAE’s Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development. As ministers in Germany prepared to debate matters diplomats define as “hard power” – military and […]
