BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a striking admission, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said on Sunday that the country’s army faced a manpower shortage and had ceded some areas to insurgents in order to hold onto other regions deemed more important. Mr. Assad also acknowledged in a speech televised from Damascus, the Syrian capital, that many Syrians could not watch the address because of the lack of electricity […]
An AT&T Logo is pictured on the side of a building in Pasadena, California, January 26, 2015. Reuters/Mario Anzuoni WASHINGTON The No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier AT&T Inc (T.N) and the biggest satellite-TV provider DirecTV (DTV.O) became the country’s largest pay-TV company on Friday, completing their $48.5 billion merger after receiving final regulatory approval. The newly expanded AT&T leapfrogs the biggest U.S. cable company Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O). […]
July 24, 2015 By LAILA LALAMI One afternoon last April, I stood in the doorway of my daughter’s room, watching her prepare for a big recital. She was going to perform with her middle-school orchestra in Santa Monica. She packed her violin, rosined her bow, put on a black dress and tamed her wild hair into a bun. ‘‘There,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m ready.’’ How lovely she looked, […]
INTERNATIONAL. In my “Net Assessment of the World,” I argued that four major segments of the European and Asian landmass were in crisis: Europe, Russia, the Middle East (from the Levant to Iran) and China. Each crisis was different; each was at a different stage of development. Collectively the crises threatened to destabilize the Eurasian landmass, the Eastern Hemisphere, and potentially generate a global crisis. They do […]
Apple Inc. shares tumbled, wiping out $32 billion in market value, after disappointing iPhone sales rekindled concerns over whether the company can keep making must-have products. Even though iPhone sales climbed 35 percent to 47.5 million units in the fiscal third quarter, the result fell short of the 48.8 million shipments projected by analysts. That, plus a revenue forecast for the current period that missed estimates, on […]
An Apple iPhone 6 is seen on display at the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. Reuters/Mike Segar Forget that iPhone unit sales were not as strong as many had expected; that the revenue forecast fell short of the average estimate, and that there was no clarity on Apple Watch sales. Analysts, for the most part, remain […]
Citigroup Inc’s consumer bank has been ordered to pay $700 million in relief to borrowers for illegal credit card practices, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said. The CFPB, set up under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act aimed at reforming Wall Street, has been cracking down in recent years on credit card companies offering payment protection, credit score tracking and other add-on products. Citi will also pay civil […]
ABU DHABI // It has gone so fast – and so far, so good. It’s already the third anniversary of work starting on the UAE’s first nuclear power plant at Barakah, near the border with Saudi Arabia. And it is still on budget and set to go live in late 2017, ultimately providing a quarter of the Emirates’ energy needs. But becoming the first new member to […]
Google Inc’s (GOOGL.O) shares soared as much as 16.8 percent on Friday, crossing the $700 mark and adding nearly $68 billion to its market value, as strong growth in YouTube viewership allayed concerns about Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) push into video. The stock’s surge, which sent the Nasdaq composite index to a record intraday high, came a day after Google reported better-than-expected profit for the first time in […]
Sphericam 2 is a spherical, 360º camera; the first to offer global shutter at 60FPS and 4K. It allows you to capture everything around you in high-res with no blind spots & you can watch your videos on a VR headset like Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard or on your iPad, tablet, PC or phone. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – […]
They are as associated with London as Big Ben. They have a reputation for being as clean as a crumpet plate. And they are as recognizable as Parliament. And perhaps they should be, since they have been around for quite the while. Perhaps the best-known is the Austin FX4, which was made from 1958 to 1994. They also have a reputation for being all-black, but they do come in […]
|By Matein Khalid| Last week was a roller coaster and the Nikkei Dow closed at 19,800. Abenomics has had a seismic impact on Japan’s economy, financial markets and banking system. The yen has fallen from 76 on the eve of the election in 2012 to 122 against the US dollar. Corporate profits have exploded. Land price rises, job growth, bonuses, capex and consumer spending have lifted Japan […]
Tonight we here in the US of A bid a fond farewell to Top Gear when the last show featuring the trio of Jeremy “The Orangutan” Clarkson, Richard “The Hamster” Hammond, and James “Captain Slow” May airs on BBC America. I’m sure I don’t need to go into the details about how their run on the show came to an end, but there was some doubt whether […]
DUBAI // Police have ended burglary sprees in which two gangs stole Dh15 million worth of jewellery and other goods from 36 homes around the UAE. Seven Colombians, a Mexican and an American were caught this month and accused of burgling houses in Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Al Safa, Al Rashidiya and Arabian Ranches, and homes in other emirates. “The gangs would target homes whose residents were on […]
Reporter’s Notebook By DAVID E. SANGER and MICHAEL R. GORDON July 11, 2015 VIENNA — Absent real pronouncements 11 days after the hard-and-fast deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran, people have begun looking to the balconies to determine if a deal is imminent. Well, one balcony: Mohammad Javad Zarif’s, Iran’s foreign minister, who on Saturday spent a lot of time in the sun. As the diplomacy churned on, Mr. Zarif was reading […]
People queue outside an Apple store to buy the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in Beijing November 16, 2014. Reuters/Petar Kujundzic SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) stock was heading toward its first five-session losing streak since January on Thursday as investors worried about the economic health of China, a key market for iPhones. Apple shares were down 2 percent at $120.15 in afternoon trade and have […]
TEHRAN — The chants of “Death to America” and the burning of American flags in the streets are as familiar a part of life here as air pollution and traffic jams. With the United States and Iran on the verge of a potentially historic nuclear accord, however, there has been a distinct change in tone: the anti-Americanism is getting even more strident. The rising levels of vitriol […]
Privacy Group Asks FTC To Push Google on U.S. ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ The failure of Google to offer users in the U.S. the same “right to be forgotten” protection available in Europe violates U.S. law on unfair and deceptive trade practices, according to the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. The organization on Tuesday submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking the agency to “investigate […]
JERUSALEM — Robert Turner is recognized everywhere in the Gaza Strip, jokingly called its governor. To most people there, he is known simply as “Mr. Bob.” He departs on Thursday after serving as Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for three years — or, put another way, through two wars between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls the coastal enclave. Mr. […]
China’s biggest stock-market rout since 1992 has done nothing to erode the bullish outlook of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Kinger Lau, the bank’s China strategist in Hong Kong, predicts the large-cap CSI 300 Index will rally 27 percent over the next 12 months as government support measures boost investor confidence and monetary easing spurs economic growth. Leveraged positions aren’t big enough to trigger a market collapse, Lau […]
