By Maayan Lubell | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday approved the building of the first new settlement in the occupied West Bank in two decades, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu negotiates with Washington on a possible curb on settlement activity. The unanimous vote in favour of construction of the new settlement in an area called Emek Shilo came after Netanyahu earlier told reporters: “I […]
ZURICH The “political temperature” in the Balkans has risen significantly, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told a Swiss newspaper, citing tensions in Macedonia over the country’s ethnic Albanian minority. Balkan states Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Montenegro all hope to join the European Union, but political feuds, ethnic strife and lingering misgivings over the wars of the 1990s complicate this process. [nL5N1GY69H] Rama, the Socialist Party […]
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, March 30, 2017 The award-winning African Utility Week (www.African-Utility-Week.com ), taking place from 16-18 May in Cape Town, will showcase how the continent is coming up with innovative, home-grown solutions to its energy and water challenges and how these are creating exciting and lucrative opportunities for utilities and industry suppliers alike. Experts from respected partners in the industry such as the World Bank, […]
MUNICH Two Syrian migrants who came to Germany as part of an influx of refugees in the summer of 2015 went on trial in Munich on Thursday accused of fighting in Syria as part of a militant group. More than 1 million migrants have arrived in Germany over the past two years and concerns about security and integration are widespread. Barbara Stockinger, a judge and spokeswoman for […]
LONDON Britain will tell Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft on Thursday to do more to stop extremists posting content on their platforms and using encrypted messaging services to plan attacks. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on Sunday tech companies should stop offering a “secret place for terrorists to communicate”, after British parliament attacker Khalid Masood was widely reported to have sent encrypted messages moments before he killed […]
A previously-undisclosed security flaw in an older Windows web server won’t be patched, despite hundreds of thousands of servers still running the outdated software. The vulnerability in Windows Internet Information Services (IIS 6) web server has been remotely exploited since July last year, according to two security researchers at the South China University of Technology, who released a proof-of-concept exploit for the vulnerability on Github this week. […]
ABU DHABI // The UAE has banned all non-heat-treated poultry products from parts of the United States and Malaysia due to concerns about the spread of bird flu. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment decided to take action following an alert from the World Organisation for Animal Health. The import ban affects all types of live domestic, wild and ornamental birds, as well as chicks, eggs […]
The Samsung Connect Home router and app aim to make it easier for people to manage their connected things. Image: Joshua Goldman/CNET Samsung’s new Connect Home will offer a rival to Google Wifi or the Eero mesh router, but also features Samsung’s SmartThings hub to manage IoT devices in the home. The Korean giant is pitching the product as a convenient answer to the many things that […]
The State Department on Wednesday notified Congress of its intent to proceed with the sale without the conditions, according to Micah Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Congress now has two review periods to examine the sale and raise any objections. Continue reading the main story Mr. Tillerson will attend his first meeting of NATO on Friday in Brussels, where he may run into […]
THE DEAD SEA, Jordan: European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini on Wednesday said the EU and the Arab region are “going through years of suffering. Peace and reconciliation can only come through a truly collective and cooperative approach.”Addressing Arab leaders at the Arab Summit, Mogherini said no regional or global power alone holds the key to stabilizing the Middle East or North Africa.“Peace… requires everyone’s constructive contribution,” […]
29 March 2017 Doha – Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is excited to announce two of the keynote speakers for this year’s Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare who will offer delegates a very different perspective on healthcare provision. One of the keynote speakers is a life-long patient, Ms. Tiffany Christensen, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was six months old. At 12 […]
In 2016, more than 4 billion records were leaked worldwide, exceeding the combined total from the two previous years, according to a report from IBM Security. In its IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2017, Big Blue explained the leaked documents comprised the usual credit cards, passwords, and personal health information, but also noted a shift in cybercriminal strategies, finding a number of significant breaches were related to […]
LastPass, a known password manager, has revealed security flaws in its browser extensions. The company is already patching the vulnerability, which was revealed by a security researcher this week. ( LastPass ) What is worse than a forgotten password? A stolen one. Password manager LastPass is in hot water this week as security flaws were discovered in its web browser extension. On March 26, Google security researcher Tavis […]
ABU DHABI // The amount of certain drugs seized in the UAE has almost tripled, while the number of drug-related criminals arrests has more than doubled in a year, according to the head of anti-narcotics at the Ministry of Interior. Lt Col Saeed Al Suwaidi said the production of Captagon and crystal methamphetamine in the GCC had gone through the roof in recent years because of political […]
“We recognized the nature of the fight was going to change and that we had to ensure that authorities were down to the right level and that we empowered the on-scene commander,” General Votel said. He was speaking specifically about discussions that he said began in November about how the fights in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State were reaching critical phases in Mosul and Raqqa. […]
SEOUL A South Korean court began deliberating on Thursday whether to arrest ousted president Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in a corruption scandal involving charges she solicited bribes from the country’s largest conglomerate. Park could become South Korea’s third former leader to be jailed for wrongdoing. She is accused of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure big businesses to contribute to foundations set […]
JERUSALEM Israel said on Wednesday it would cut a further $2 million (£1.61 million) from its already reduced contribution this year to the United Nations in protest at resolutions taken against it at the world body’s various forums. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also holds the post of foreign minister, instructed the ministry to cut the funds and use the money as aid for developing countries who […]
The commodities trading house Trafigura and a bank are testing blockchain as a way to settle deals in the US oil market, a sign of the potential for digital technology to change how barrels of crude are bought and sold. Blockchain is the electronic ledger originally built to underpin bitcoin markets. Promoters say it will lead to cheaper, more secure ways of settling all kinds of transactions, […]
Managing containers isn’t easy. That’s where such programs as Docker swarm mode, Kubernetes, and Mesosphere can make or break your containers initiatives. Perhaps the most popular of these, Kubernetes, has a new release, Kubernetes 1.6, that expands its reach by 50 percent to 5,000 node clusters. Conservatively, that means Kubernetes can manage 25,000 Docker containers at once. The latest Kubernetes makes managing huge numbers of containers easier […]
By Isabel Coles and John Davison | MOSUL MOSUL Iraqi special forces and police fought Islamic State militants to edge closer to the al-Nuri mosque in western Mosul on Wednesday, tightening their control around the landmark site and in Baghdad a suicide truck bomb killed at least 17 people. The close-quarters fighting is focussed on the Old City surrounding the mosque, where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr […]
Akamai Technologies has snapped up Soasta, makers of application testing and performance analytics software. Specific terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed. Based in Mountain View, California, Soasta’s flagship product is called CloudTest and it has previously counted brands like Apple, Target, Nordstrom, Home Depot and Walmart as customers. The startup raised $30 million in funding in March 2016. Akamai said it plans to integrate Soasta’s […]
By Mark Hosenball and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A U.S. State Department employee with access to sensitive diplomatic information was accused of failing to report her contacts with Chinese foreign intelligence agents who provided her with gifts in exchange for economic information, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. A State Department spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements […]
Two people were arrested in the British city of Birmingham on “suspicion of terrorism offences” on Wednesday, West Midlands police said in a statement. The arrests were not in any way connected to last week’s Westminster attack and there is no risk to public safety, the regional police force added. The man and woman who were arrested, aged 21 and 23, were detained under “terrorism legislation” on […]
British and US bans on laptops and tablet computers in flight cabins are not sustainable in the long term, the head of the association representing airlines said Tuesday. “The current measures are not acceptable as a long-term solution to whatever threat they are trying to mitigate,” said Alexandre de Juniac, director general of the International Air Transport Association. “Even in the short term, it is difficult to […]
