DUBAI // Housewives are risking fines and even jail by selling clothes, beauty products, home accessories and other items on social media without securing approval or a licence from authorities. The women, from India and Pakistan, are using sites such as Facebook and Instagram to sell their wares, which they either make themselves or bring from their home countries. This form of cottage industry is common on […]
By Maria Tsvetkova and Peter Hobson | MOSCOW MOSCOW Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal after the three countries held talks in Moscow on Tuesday and adopted a declaration which set out the principles any agreement should adhere to. The countries made the announcement after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted talks with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. It could be called the “NBC Very, Very Late Nightly News With Brian Williams.” Instead, it’s “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” on MSNBC — a new show starring an old face who’s honorably doing what he does well in […]
Submitted by Jayant Bhandari via Acting-Man.com, India’s Currency Ban – Part VI India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced on 8th November 2016 that Rs 500 (~$7.50) and Rs 1,000 (~$15) banknotes would no longer be legal tender. Linked are Part-I, Part-II, Part-III, Part-IV, and Part-V, which provide updates on the demonetization saga and how Modi is acting as a catalyst to hasten the rapid degradation of […]
It started off as one of those typical conversations you have when you’re in a foreign country and the taxi driver recognizes you to be a foreigner. “Where are you from?,” he asks, soon after I get into the bright yellow taxi cab, to which I reply “Sri Lanka.”“Beautiful country,” he responds.“Have you been there?” I ask him politely.“No, but my friend went there for a holiday. He […]
ABU DHABI // Motorists will pay more for their car insurance from January 1 when new tariff rates are introduced and companies pass on the cost of ambulance services and courtesy cars to customers. New maximum and minimum premiums will be set for third-party and comprehensive policies, depending on vehicle type. The UAE Insurance Authority has issued a new vehicle insurance tariff system, on which premiums are […]
With so many toys on the market it can be hard to know which one to buy, especially in the pre-Christmas shopping rush. A Disney figurine might draw gasps of delight, but will it be forgotten after a few weeks? And what about that state-of-the-art, remote-controlled car? Will the lights break off and become a choking hazard for younger siblings? With so much to consider, it’s worth […]
Otsimo provides free games for autistic children to help improve attention spans using machine learning and gamification. Image: Otsimo Autistic spectrum disorders, or ASDs, impose huge costs, both human and economic, on sufferers, their families, and the community. The human toll, in terms of care and impaired relationships, is almost impossible to quantify. Looking at the US alone, the economic expenditure last year was estimated at about […]
Samsung has unveiled a new line of 13.3- and 15-inch Notebook 9 laptops, upgrading the specs under the hood and making the models a whole deal lighter than their predecessors. This announcement comes ahead of CES 2017, an event where manufacturers typically take the stage to showcase new devices. Despite the fact that many competitors have yet to reveal their cards for this year, the South Korean […]
It’s a hot July day in Bethlehem, and white-robed pilgrims from Nigeria stand in the courtyard entrance to the ancient church, singing and beating drums. They’ve travelled more than 3,500 kilometres to enter the church’s low wooden door, pass through a nave under restoration and down one of the staircases in the sprawling church, to the grotto. There, they will kneel in prayer and devotion at the […]
To appreciate this inherent tension, consider Hillary Clinton’s words from the second presidential debate: “It is important for us as a policy not to say, as Donald has said, we’re going to ban people based on a religion. How do you do that? We are a country founded on religious freedom and liberty.” Here Clinton establishes a minimum standard of liberal decency that few American Jews would […]
Peek into a tide pool along the shore and you may see a starfish clinging quietly to a rock. But that secure adulthood comes at the expense of a harrowing larval journey. Tiny starfish larvae — each smaller than a grain of rice — spend 60 days and 60 nights paddling the open ocean, feeding to accumulate the energy needed to metamorphose into the familiar star shape. […]
Six U.S. retailers will no longer require hourly employees to check whether they are still needed for work and risk having their scheduled shifts canceled with little notice, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will announce on Tuesday. Schneiderman and his counterparts in seven states, including California and Illinois, have sent letters to a number of companies in the last year requesting information about their scheduling practices. […]
ABU DHABI // The majority of Emiratis and Arabs identify themselves by their nation state rather than their religion or Arab identity. These were the results of a survey that were revealed at the Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies forum on Monday. This is a major shift from the past decade when many polls suggested that Arabs saw themselves as “being Arab” more than anything else. The […]
In moving 120 miles to the north, Spanos, of course, would risk alienating fans in San Diego, where the Chargers have played for more than a half-century. It is unclear how many of those fans would pay thousands of dollars for seat licenses and tickets, which would undoubtedly be more expensive in Los Angeles. “I’ll drive to L.A. to support them, but only a couple of games […]
Reliance Jio is a great, big, and savvy Indian python that has recently slithered into the telecom space, threatening to swallow the lunch of existing incumbents like Airtel and Vodafone. The question is, will it end up swallowing itself tail-first as well? As I wrote a few months ago, and as you probably may well know, Mukesh Ambani, India’s oil to telecom billionaire who is not known […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Imagine if Snopes, PolitiFact and The Associated Press fact-checked our holiday cards and letters — or many of our daily declarations — for the truth. Facebook, of course, just announced it would team with PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, the Associated Press, ABC […]
Christine Lagarde was found guilty of negligence in public office by a special Paris court on Monday in a ruling that will cast a cloud over her position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Within hours, however, the former French finance minister won the support of her board, clearing the way for her to continue on at the head of the fund. The board’s decision came […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on December 19, 2016 that his artificial intelligence-imbued software “butler”, named Jarvis, is now in service Mark Zuckerberg’s artificial intelligence-imbued software “butler”—named Jarvis—is now in service, and even plays with his family, the Facebook chief said Monday. Zuckerberg took on the personal project this year, devoting about 100 hours to making a system inspired by the “Iron Man” film character Jarvis as […]
Our annual collection of media corrections is, undoubtedly, an excuse to chuckle at our industry’s missteps. But it’s also a recognition of an honorable practice that not everyone follows. Outlets that mark their corrected articles clearly or collect them in one easily searchable section (for example, The Guardian) may be over-represented in this list, but they should be commended. A note on selection: This is a list of media […]
National Assembly session reconvened on Monday but the disorder prevailed as the treasury and opposition benches kept chanting slogans against each, with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders sticking to their demand that PM Nawaz Sharif should address the house and clarify his statement regarding Panamagate issue. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq started the house proceedings by asking Awami Muslim League (AML) Sheikh Rashid to address the session. Talking about Panamagate, Rashid […]
Most players will tell you that the back-to-backs add up to more fatigue and more risk for injury. They have also become a marketing problem for the league, because coaches sometimes bench their stars for one of the games. Continue reading the main story Just last week the Cleveland Cavaliers left LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love at home when the team visited the Memphis Grizzlies […]
VIENNA Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) offered on Monday to act as a go-between for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after signing a cooperation agreement with Putin’s party. Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache and the FPO’s recently defeated presidential candidate Norbert Hofer attended the signing ceremony in Moscow, as did officials of Putin’s United Russia party including Pyotr Tolstoy, a deputy chairman of the […]
Almost 600 people died in police custody in India in the five years up to 2015, a new report from Human Rights Watch says. During that period, not a single police official was convicted of a custodial death, the report “Bound by Brotherhood,” from the New York-based organization said. Deaths in custody are attributed to suicide, illness or natural causes, the report said, however “in many such […]
