BEIRUT: Turkish-backed Syrian opposition announced on Thursday they had taken full control of Al-Bab from the Daesh group, marking a key defeat for the jihadists after weeks of heavy fighting.The town of Al-Bab, just 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of the Turkish border, was the last Daesh stronghold in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.“We are announcing Al-Bab completely liberated, and we are now clearing mines from […]
IDEX 2017 ends on a high-note with a total of 90 deals valued at more than AED 19.177 billion Abu Dhabi-UAE: 23 February, 2017 At a press conference on the fifth and last day of the 13th edition of the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX 2017), Naval Staff Colonel Fahed Nasser Al Thehli, Official Spokesperson of the fourth edition of the Naval Defence Exhibition (NAVDEX 2017), […]
DUBAI // A Pakistani man is accused of transferring millions of dirhams from a man’s account after posing as him to access his mobile banking. Dubai Criminal Court heard that the 22-year-old accused pretended to be the Afghan man when he went to du to request a replacement SIM card with his old phone number after claiming that he had lost his. After getting a SIM with […]
Many fear electronic voting machines can be hacked and tampered with. Image: iStock The hacking campaign around the US presidential election, cyberattacks against Ukrain’s power grid, and even the internet crippling Mirai botnet DDoS attack all demonstrate how cyberattacks have grown to threaten the very fabric of society itself, NATO has warned. Citing the impact of high profile incidents like these, Jamie Shea, deputy assistant secretary general […]
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik | LAHORE, Pakistan LAHORE, Pakistan Pakistani real estate giant Rafi Group made a ten-fold profit last year from its sale of hundreds of acres of land in the remote fishing town of Gwadar, acquired soon after the government announced plans for a deep-sea port there. The windfall came after 12 years of waiting patiently for the Gwadar port to emerge as the centrepiece of […]
BEIJING China’s defence ministry said on Thursday it was aware of the presence of a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group in the South China Sea and China respected freedom of navigation for all countries in the waters there. The U.S. navy said the strike group, including the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson, began “routine operations” in the South China Sea on Saturday amid growing tension […]
BAGHDAD U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces closing in on the Islamic State-held western half of Mosul stormed the city’s airport and a nearby military base on Thursday, state television said. Counter-terrorism service (CTS) troops and elite interior ministry units known as Rapid Response descended on the airport early on Thursday and the nearby Ghozlani military complex, CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan told state TV. “Our forces started a major […]
By Mubashir Bukhari | LAHORE, Pakistan LAHORE, Pakistan A blast at a market in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore killed at least five people on Thursday and wounded 21, a rescue official told Reuters. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Security forces cordoned off the area and people were not being allowed to leave or enter. “Forensic teams have arrived on the scene and […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities want to speak with a North Korean embassy official and airline employee as part of their investigation into the murder of Kim Jong Nam. The two being sought are Hyon Kwang Song, who worked at the North Korean embassy in Malaysia, and Kim Uk Il, a staff member of the North Korean carrier Air Koryo, Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar […]
Abu Dhabi-UAE: 22 February, 2017 At a press conference on day four of the 13th edition of the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX 2017), His Excellency Staff Brigadier-General Rashid Mohammed Al Shamsi, Official Spokesperson of IDEX 2017, announced 20 new deals worth AED 3,422,120,575. 13 of the deals are with national companies and the remaining 7 with international companies. The press conference, held at Abu Dhabi […]
By Brenda Goh | DANDONG, China DANDONG, China As Beijing tightens its grip on trade with North Korea, the economies of Chinese towns along the 1,400-km border the two countries share are floundering. On Saturday, China said it would ban all coal imports from North Korea, the latest move to enforce United Nations sanctions aimed at depriving Pyongyang of hard currency for its nuclear weapons and ballistic […]
By Gina Cherelus | NEW YORK NEW YORK It cost New York City about $24 million to provide security at Trump Tower, President Donald Trump’s skyscraper home in Manhattan, from Election Day to Inauguration Day, or $308,000 per day, New York’s police commissioner said on Wednesday. The revelation prompted renewed calls for Congress to reimburse the city for the cost of protecting Trump’s private residence on Manhattan’s […]
By Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay | GENEVA GENEVA U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday he did not expect an immediate breakthrough when Syria peace talks restart on Thursday but wanted productive talks that relaunch the process towards a political solution to end the six-year war. They will be the first U.N.-mediated negotiations on Syria in almost a year, during which time the military and […]
Credit: George Hodan/Public Domain Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) Cyber Security Research Center have demonstrated that data can be stolen from an isolated “air-gapped” computer’s hard drive reading the pulses of light on the LED drive using various types of cameras and light sensors. In the new paper, the researchers demonstrated how data can be received by a Quadcopter drone flight, even outside […]
By Luis Echeverria | GUATEMALA CITY GUATEMALA CITY U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Wednesday told Guatemalans not to waste their money trying to get to the United States illegally, detailing how his department was cracking down on undocumented immigrants and would speed up deportations. Speaking after he greeted a plane full of Guatemalans deported back from the United States, Kelly said U.S. authorities were not […]
The smart home is gaining ground, but it’s still a muddle of confusing standards, competing platforms, and gadgets that don’t do what you might expect. But the promise of products that can make your life a little easier is hard to resist, so I’m here to answer the inevitable questions that arise. Whether it’s figuring out the best connected door lock to assembling the right […]
By Amina Ismail and Arwa Gaballa | Al-GAMALIYA, Egypt Al-GAMALIYA, Egypt Thousands of mourners gathered in a small Egyptian town on Wednesday for the funeral of the Muslim cleric known as “the blind sheikh” who was convicted of conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York. Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was also convicted of planning a broader “war of urban terrorism” in the United States, […]
But one option being considered is for American troops to step up their support of the fighters by firing artillery, shooting mortars, helping with logistics and significantly expanding efforts to advise them, much as the United States is doing for Iraqi forces in the battle for Mosul. Continue reading the main story In late January, President Trump gave the defense secretary, Jim Mattis, 30 days to develop […]
By Michael Holden | LONDON LONDON Britain has appointed experienced counter-terrorism officer Cressida Dick, best known for heading an operation which led to the killing of an innocent Brazilian, as the first woman to head London’s police force in its 188-year history. Dick, 56, becomes the most senior officer in the country, heading a force of some 43,000 officers and staff and controlling a budget of more […]
The Vietnamese woman suspected of helping to kill the North Korean leader’s half-brother was a keen singer whose Facebook pages featured pouting portraits and pictures of parties. Four days before Kim Jong Nam was killed at a Malaysian airport, she appears to have posted a picture of herself wearing a shirt emblazoned with the acronym “LOL”, similar to the one on the fleeing suspect caught on CCTV […]
Right to repair is back in the news because Apple is opposing a Nebraska bill that would require electronics companies like Apple to produce repair manuals and sell replacement parts. Apple only got involved because the bill—one of eight nationwide, according to Motherboard—threatens its software licenses. We saw a similar battle between farmers and John Deere, which asserted that ownership of John Deere equipment “does […]
However, neither American nor British officials could say for certain that the militant was the same man as Jamal Malik al-Harith, the man who had been held at Guantánamo. Continue reading the main story The British government also said it could not confirm the Islamic State’s communiqué nor the reports in the British news media. “As all U.K. consular services are suspended in Syria and greatly limited […]
BERLIN A false alarm was sounded in a school in Menden in western Germany on Wednesday, local government officials said on Twitter, after media reported an armed man had entered it. “We can confirm that this was a false alarm,” the local government of Arnsberg, neighbouring Menden, said on its official Twitter account. Earlier, police said they had deployed forces to a school in Menden, near Dortmund, […]
BEIJING Authorities in a violence prone area of China’s western Xinjiang region are offering 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) in rewards for anti-terror tips, state media said, a policy that coincides with a dramatic rise in regional security spending. Hundreds of people have been killed in Xinjiang in the past few years, most in unrest between members of the Muslim Uighur minority, who call the region home, […]
