Two beauty queens with links to the Gulf have won the latest season of The Amazing Race Asia. After they returned from filming The Amazing Race Asia last summer, Maggie Wilson-Consunji and Parul Shah could barely contain their excitement. “Don’t let our invisible crowns fool you. We are beauty-queen fighting machines,” they told their fans on social media. “We are scared but also super excited. We cannot […]
WASHINGTON U.S. defence and security agencies said they believed the threat of militant attacks inside the United States was low during this New Year’s holiday, yet some chance of an attack was “undeniable,” according to security assessments reviewed on Friday. “There are no indications of specific threats to the U.S. Homeland,” said a “situational awareness” bulletin issued to U.S. Army personnel this week by the Army’s Training […]
Italy’s antitrust chief has called for EU member states to set up a network of public agencies to combat fake news. Giovanni Pitruzzella said the regulation of false information on the internet was best done by the state rather than by social media companies such as Facebook. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Pitruzzella, head of the Italian competition body since 2011, said EU countries […]
MANILA, Philippines – The military is eyeing the Maute terror group in the bombing of the town plaza of Hilongos, Leyte last Wednesday night. In line with initial military findings, Col. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief, said the Maute group could have launched the Leyte bombing to divert the attention of government troops conducting offensive operations against the group in Butig, Lanao del Sur. […]
How do big data people go about making end-of-year reviews and predictions? Using data is the obvious answer, but there’s a few issues with that approach: there is no synthesis in data alone — you have to find the story behind data, pick an angle and seek meaning. In addition, that approach does not account for subtle hints, industry knowledge, and big ideas. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, […]
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella says there are no indications that would prompt the declaration of martial law. KING RODRIGUEZ/ Presidential Photo The recent bombings in Leyte and North Cotabato are not “indicators” for a possible declaration of martial law, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said on Thursday. Abella said the separate bombings Wednesday night in Hilongos, Leyte, and Aleosan, Cotabato, were “areas of concern” but were not cause […]
Some of the biggest law firms on Wall Street are scrambling to shore up their defences against cyber attacks, in the wake of a raid by Chinese hackers which led to millions of dollars of profits from insider trading. Preet Bharara, US attorney for the southern district of New York, this week charged three individuals who he said infiltrated law firms over a period of about 18 […]
Within the tech world, there is something known as a Chaos Monkey. It is a software tool that simulates chaos and uncertainty, rampaging through a system pulling at cables and kicking computers. Simulate big problems so you can prepare for them; that’s how the thinking goes. Chaos Monkeys are tame – they are a tool employed by network administrators to make their systems safer and more stable. […]
When the direct trading link between stock markets in Shenzhen and Hong Kong opened this month, local dignitaries were easy to spot at the launch events. Less conspicuous were international investors ready to take advantage of what was billed as a big opportunity to buy into Chinese equities. The link offers foreign investors greater access to shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, home to some of China’s up […]
The remaining population of the cheetah in the wild hints that the world’s fastest mammal is heading toward extinction. Only 7,100 Cheetahs Left In The Wild A new study that looked into the number of the speedy big cat estimated that there are only 7,100 of these animals left in the wild. The findings prompted calls for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to re-categorize the […]
LONDON The world’s fastest land animal, the cheetah, is in danger of extinction because it is running out of space, research led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has found. After a sharp decline in numbers there are now just 7,100 cheetahs in the world, or 9 percent of the historic range, the ZSL, Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera study found. In Zimbabwe, the study found, […]
Over the past year, technology and ‘sharing economy’ start-ups have continued their disruption of traditional industries — from Uber and other ride hailers’ shake-up of the taxi market to Airbnb’s myriad alternatives to conventional hotel stays. But which will be the next businesses to be challenged by further digitisation and automation? FT correspondents have looked ahead five to 10 years to identify those industry sectors and companies […]
ABU DHABI // As Typhoon Nock-Ten struck the Philippines on Sunday, UAE residents voiced fears for relatives in their home country. Officials there warned 2.5-metre high waves and landslides posed the biggest threats as typhoon Nock-Ten, known locally as Nina, closed in on the Bicol peninsula and nearby islands. “It’s Christmas Day and we’re finding it hard to celebrate until we are assured of our family’s safety […]
KABUL There was an angry reaction in Afghanistan to news that the first female fixed-wing pilot in the country’s air force was requesting asylum in the United States after completing an 18-month training course. The Afghan defence ministry confirmed on Sunday that Captain Niloofar Rahmani, 25, had sought asylum after the Wall Street Journal quoted her as saying that she feared her life would be in danger […]
COTABATO CITY—The grenade explosion that left a police officer and 11 others injured outside a Catholic church in Midsayap, North Cotabato, on Christmas Eve was meant for the police, a local official said. Midsayap Mayor Romeo Araña told reporters that the main target of the attack by two men riding a motorcycle were the police officers who were part of the security during the Christmas Eve Mass. […]
MANILA Sixteen people were wounded in a grenade explosion outside a Catholic church during a Christmas eve mass in the Philippines’ restive southern island of Mindanao, a priest and police said on Saturday. Security forces across Southeast Asia are on alert ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, as police in Australia and Indonesia said they had foiled bomb plots and Malaysian security forces arrested suspected […]
ANKARA Turkish authorities are investigating some 10,000 people on suspicion of using social media to support terrorism, the interior ministry said on Saturday, part of a wide crackdown that has alarmed rights groups and some Western allies. Turkey, which faces security threats from Kurdish and leftist militants and Islamic State, has sacked or suspended more than 100,000 people following an attempted military coup in July. It says […]
Weakening encryption is against US nation interests, says a congressional working group. Image: iStockphoto Any attempt to weaken encryption is against the national interest, a group of US lawmakers has warned. The widespread use of strong encryption has lead to complaints from law enforcement agencies that they are unable to access to communications of criminals – the so-called ‘going dark’ issue. This has lead to calls for […]
A hundred years ago, an arms race between the dominant global superpower the (British Empire) and a rising power (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany) culminated in the mass slaughter of World War One. The deep mistrust between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has all the potential to spawn a traumatic chapter in international relations. Despite its “pivot” to Asia, the Obama White House was cautious […]
The suspect in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack was killed in a pre-dawn shoot-out with police in a suburb of the northern Italian city of Milan on Friday, Italy’s interior minister said. “The man killed was without a shadow of doubt Anis Amri,” Marco Minniti said, referring to the 24-year-old Tunisian who is suspected of driving the truck that smashed through a Berlin market on Monday […]
Eileen Eagar was a single mom, working at a steel mill in Chicago. Feeding her two kids sometimes meant going out on a date, ordering the biggest steak on the menu and bringing the leftovers home. When we met her in the fall of 2016, she had married, moved to Arizona and started a career in real estate — the “best darn” realtor in Tucson, her husband […]
WASHINGTON U.S. federal authorities cautioned local law enforcement on Friday to be aware that supporters of Islamic State have been calling for their sympathizers to attack holiday gatherings in the United States, including churches, CNN reported. The warning, issued in a bulletin to local law enforcement, said there were no known specific, credible threats, CNN said. The notice from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. State Department on Friday warned Americans travelling to Jordan of threats from terrorist groups after several recent attacks in the country. More than a dozen people were killed, including a Canadian tourist, in two attacks by Islamist militants this week in the southern city of Karak. “The Department of State reminds U.S. citizens that terrorist and extremist organizations have expressed a desire to conduct […]
By Manuel Mogato | MANILA MANILA The United States provided the Philippines with $127 million in security assistance in the 12 months ended in September, the biggest sum in about 15 years, overlapping with a stream of angry threats from President Rodrigo Duterte to sever their defence alliance. The U.S. embassy in Manila on Friday confirmed its longtime Asian ally had received a 154 percent increase in […]
