SEOUL South Korea’s special prosecutor investigating a corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye said on Sunday it was considering whether to raid the presidential offices and if it did so, it had no choice but to do so publicly. Special prosecutors are investigating allegations that Park colluded with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, and aides to pressure big companies to contribute to foundations set up to back her […]
In 300 B.C., Carthage was one of the world’s largest cities with up to 700,000 people living within its walls. The Carthaginian republic was a force to be reckoned with, controlling inconceivable amounts of wealth and land all around the Mediterranean. However, just over a century later in 146 B.C., Carthage was burnt to the ground by the Romans. The destruction of Carthage was so thorough that […]
MANILA, Philippines — A powerful typhoon is on its way to slam into the eastern Philippines on Christmas Day as officials struggled to divert people’s attention from family celebrations and travel. A provincial governor offered roasted pigs to entice villagers to move to emergency shelters. Typhoon Nock-Ten packed maximum sustained winds of 114 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour) and gusts of up to 158 mph […]
JERUSALEM Israel will re-assess its ties with the United Nations following the adoption by the Security Council of a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday. The vote was able to pass the 15-member council on Friday because the United States broke with a long-standing approach of diplomatically shielding Israel and did not wield its veto power as it […]
Saudi Arabia’s government plans to provide 200 billion riyals ($53 billion) of incentives to the private sector over the next four years in its drive to diversify the economy beyond oil, according to an official planning document. A reform programme launched this year, after a plunge in oil prices slashed state revenues in the world’s top oil exporting country, envisions the private sector investing tens of billions […]
The haiku is a powerful poetic form derived from the original Japanese style, with its structured three lines of five, seven and five syllables. David Lanoue, haiku poet and author, defines it as: “A one-breath poem that discovers connection.” They’re beautiful but not something you expect to find many of in the FT. However, in a fit of experimentation earlier this year, we created an algorithm that […]
More than a month after the election, the following sentence has become a cable news cliché: Journalists in New York and Washington, D.C. are out of touch with the rest of the country. It’s true. There’s a lot of local nuance that doesn’t make the national news. And it’s even true within cities like New York — growing up in the Bronx often meant watching reporters based […]
The Observatory on Social Media at Indiana University has launched a powerful new tool in the fight against fake news. The tool, called Hoaxy, visualizes how claims in the news — and fact checks of those claims — spread online through social networks. (via WSJ)
MANILA, Philippines – A powerful typhoon was heading for a Christmas Day collision with the central Philippines. The U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said Nock-Ten was a super typhoon with winds of up to 240 kph (150 mph) late Christmas Eve local time (1200 GMT), though it was expected to weaken before landfall. The Philippines’ own weather bureau said the province of Catanduanes was likely to […]
ABU DHABI // The UAE proclaimed its message of tolerance, hope and peace last night to a world confronting the darkness of militant extremism. In Europe, many Christmas festivities were muted by a climate of fear after terrorist attacks last week in Germany and Switzerland. In Iraq, a once vibrant Christian community of 1.5 million has been shattered by ISIL, many families driven out of their homes […]
The Turkish Army and police won, but victory brought an Aleppo-like landscape. Two dozen acres of the old city have been cleared of the rubble so far, leaving a featureless circular gash on aerial maps. The damage is mostly invisible from street level though, because alleyways leading up to the most devastated areas have been walled up where they intersect with streets that have reopened for business. […]
President-elect Donald Trump ‘triggered’ the social media world into a frenzy Friday night with a tweet that praised Russian president Vladimir Putin’s criticism of Democrats. As The Hill reports, Putin on Friday deflected accusations of Russian interference in the U.S. election, saying at a press conference: “Democrats are losing on every front and looking for people to blame everywhere. They need to learn to lose with dignity.” […]
Researchers have developed a method that irradiates biological enzymes with light to expand their highly efficient and selective capacity for catalysis to new chemistry. (via WSJ)
By Lawrence Delevingne | NEW YORK NEW YORK When six executives of Platinum Partners, including founder Mark Nordlicht, were arrested on Monday on federal charges of running a more than $1 billion hedge fund fraud, people who had long alleged they were harmed by the New York-based firm felt some vindication. But the possibility that each defendant might face prison terms has done little to soothe their […]
A recent study shows that one in every six women diagnosed with breast cancer chose to have a double mastectomy. The results are worrying because many of the subjects do not seem to be properly informed regarding the risks and benefits of the radical procedure. A Difficult Choice In recent years, health specialists have noticed an increasing tendency among women diagnosed with breast cancer to have both […]
The power of a good interview to shed light on the personalities and themes driving the news agenda was demonstrated clearly in the year of tumult that has been 2016. As geopolitical shocks spread, a roll call of politicians, business leaders, celebrities and cultural figures sat down with the Financial Times to share their thoughts. In the UK, Theresa May revealed some insights into her brisk management […]
Christian Arbeit, a press officer for the club, joked that the renown of Union Berlin’s Christmas party had overshadowed the fame of the team itself. Mr. Arbeit, who served as the M.C. on Friday night (and also played a few songs on the trumpet in an ensemble that featured his mother on the clarinet and his father on the trombone), said the aim was to retain the […]
Real estate markets in the UAE witnessed contrasting trends in November with sales prices and rents up in Dubai but values falling in Abu Dhabi, according to a new report by Bayut.com. Property website Bayut said the real estate market in Dubai was buoyed last month by a spate of project launches, stirring up interest in the market but activity in Abu Dhabi was slow, resulting in […]
It turns out there is a downside to spending 120% of your annual income every year from the time you graduate college until that day you turn 40 and finally realize that you’re getting old and have absolutely no liquid assets and no hopes of ever retiring. While the above strategy seemingly makes sense to our elitist, Ivy League-educated central planners at the Fed who have waged […]
By Philip Pullella | ROME ROME Security for the long Christmas weekend was heightened throughout Italy and at the Vatican on Saturday following the killing by police of the man believed to be responsible for the Berlin market truck attack. As investigators sought to determine if Anis Amri had accomplices in Italy, and associates of the 24-year-old were arrested in his home country of Tunisia, national security […]
MOSCOW Rosneft’s (ROSN.MM) plans for next year allow it to be flexible with production volumes, Russia’s top oil producer said on Saturday, after Moscow clinched a deal with OPEC to cut production to bolster weak oil prices. State-controlled Rosneft, which accounts for over 40 percent of Russian oil production, said its board has looked into plans for 2017-2018. “The plan is formed on the basis of actual […]
Owners of the Honor 8 smartphone – which debuted to an overwhelming response, raking in 1.5 million unit sales worldwide within a few months of its release – will be pleased to learn that the handset is poised to benefit from the much-awaited Android 7.0 Nougat software update in early 2017. Come February 2017, the 5.2-inch phablet is set to receive a bump-up from Android Marshmallow and get […]
Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat is trying to explain what he loves most about superhero movies. He talks excitedly about the cape and the mask. The importance of a hero’s “normal” life. “When Superman doesn’t work, it’s because there’s not enough Clark Kent,” he says. And then there’s the romance. “There’s always a good one at their heart – and Clark Kent/Lois Lane is certainly the only […]
A round up of some of 2016’s most significant corporate events and news stories. Smartphone sales © EPA A bright start to the year for Samsung Electronicswent up in smoke, after it took the unprecedented decision to axe its Galaxy Note 7 line, following a spate of safety issues that saw the smartphone banned from aircraft, writes Nic Fildes. The 2016 Galaxy Note iteration won substantial praise […]
