Oman is now getting attention for what’s hidden underneath its craggy peaks. Majlis Al Jinn has the world’s ninth largest cave chamber, while the pools and caverns of Wadi Bani Khalid and Wadi Shab attract a growing number of visitors every year. Of the country’s many caves, Al Hootah is the only one with guided tours, and it reopened earlier this season four-years after severe floods in […]
The National Australia Bank (NAB) faced the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics’ review of the performance of Australia’s banking and financial system on Friday, with CEO Andrew Thorburn probed again on the idea of opening up the bank’s application programming interfaces (API) to external parties. By 2018, banks in the United Kingdom will be required to effectively open up APIs to enable consumer data to […]
ERBIL, Iraq Rival Kurdish groups clashed in Iraq’s northwestern Sinjar region on Friday, two Kurdish security sources said, causing deaths on both sides. The fighting erupted when Peshmerga Rojava forces deployed towards the border with Syria, encroaching on territory controlled by a local affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The unrest highlights the risk of conflict and turf wars between the multiple forces arrayed against Islamic […]
The Elizabeth Tower containing Big Ben. Credit: Carl Vivianб University of Leicester A team from the University of Leicester’s Department of Engineering has, for the first time ever, vibration-mapped the famous London bell Big Ben in order to reveal why it produces its distinct harmonious tone. The group, from the Advanced Structural Dynamics Evaluation Centre (ASDEC) at the University of Leicester, measured four of Big Ben’s chimes, […]
April 3, 2016 Panama Papers leaked; Sharif family under spotlight The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists made nearly 11.5 million secret documents public. The documents contained confidential attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities, with the source of these leaks being a Panamanian financial law firm, Mossack Fonseca. Eight offshore companies were reported to have links with the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his […]
03 March 2017 Kuwait City, Kuwait: Ooredoo, Kuwait’s fastest network, attended a number of important meetings during the company delegation’s visit to the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona earlier this week. The company’s delegation, headed by CEO Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani, included a number of the company’s senior managers and chief officers. During the visit, Ooredoo CEO and delegation visited Huawei’s pavilion, which displayed […]
DHAKA Bangladeshi police have arrested the head of an Islamist militant group accused of inspiring followers to kill foreigners, the chief of the counter-terrorism unit said on Friday. Shaikh Mohammad Abul Kashem, who founded an offshoot of the larger Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group, was picked up on Thursday night in the Senpara Parbata area of the capital, Dhaka. Kashem worked alongside Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury and Nurul […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for March 3, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Abu Dhabi Yoga class Start […]
Core inflation has returned to Japan for the first time since 2015, with consumer prices excluding fresh food rising by 0.1 per cent in January over the same month a year earlier. The return to positive territory was driven by energy — petrol prices jumped 9.2 per cent year-on-year after big drops in 2016 — but the rise will be welcome news for the Bank of Japan. […]
Last month, The Intercept published a massive investigation into alleged war crimes committed by members of Seal Team Six, the elite naval special operations unit responsible for killing Osama bin Laden. The investigation, which spans five parts and thousands of words, was written by Matthew Cole, a longtime national security reporter whose resumé includes stints at ESPN the Magazine, ABC News and NBC News. In his capacity […]
There was no mistaking the arrival of King Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and his entourage in Malaysia on Sunday morning. Traffic stood still for 30 minutes as we waited for the 600-strong royal party to make their way from the airport to the centre of Kuala Lumpur — a near-endless stream of limos, lorries, outliers and ambulances, sirens screaming. This is King Salman’s first trip […]
Branden Spikes says he has led a charmed life. Boasting an IT career that started in Silicon Valley when the web was born, Spikes was in the midst of the “awesome craziness” that occurred as a result of the dotcom boom — not to mention “the craziness” that he said followed. “The invention of the web was happening right in my backyard at a time when I […]
Doha, Qatar; March 2, 2017 The third edition of Qumra, the industry initiative by the Doha Film Institute that aims to mentor and nurture next generation filmmakers, has received tremendous support from Qatar’s government entities, industry leaders, educational & cultural organisations and a wide spectrum of global film bodies. To be held from March 3 to 8 at Souq Al Waqif and the Museum of Islamic Art, […]
ABU DHABI // A robot arm developed to help stroke patients regain movement may be sent to war zones to protect the lives of bomb disposal crews. Students from UAE University designed the 3D-printed device to help rehabilitation after motion loss and are looking at a wider range of uses. “The idea started with a rehabilitation robot for people who had a stroke and lost their motion,” […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to confirm retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Carson, who ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and later endorsed Trump, becomes the only African-American in the Trump Cabinet. The Senate confirmed his appointment by a vote of 58 to 41. Carson was sworn in by […]
The law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal has quit New Zealand. The offices of law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama City (file). Photo: AFP Mossack Fonseca hit the headlines last year when a massive leak revealed its role in helping its clients hide their wealth around the world, including in New Zealand New Zealand became a popular destination for Mossack Fonseca to set […]
The last thing many people before they do before they go to sleep is browse through their social media feeds until their eyes get too tired and they eventually turn in for the night–probably with their smartphone in or next to their bed. While they are shutting down for the day, chances are they aren’t powering down their phones. And the first thing they do when they […]
ABU DHABI // Jet fighters soared across the skies and tanks rolled along the beaches to the delight of the thousands who turned out for the largest military spectacle yet seen in the UAE. Complete with paratroopers, helicopters, surveillance aircraft, fighter jets and ground combat troops, Union Fortress – an Armed Forces event that included a mock hostage rescue from a ship off Abu Dhabi Corniche – […]
Uber’s US rival Lyft is seeking $500m in a new fundraising round to provide fresh ammunition as the transportation company takes its fight with Uber to a growing number of US cities, according to two people close to the process. The fundraising comes at a time when Uber has been struggling with a series of public relations crises, including allegations of sexual harassment and a video of […]
Uber is now in the process of getting a permit from the California DMV to resume testing its self-driving vehicles on public state roads. Uber started testing its self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs in San Francisco last year – but the state DMV ultimately opposed the tests since Uber had not applied for its autonomous testing permit prior to beginning service. While Uber took its test fleet of XC90s […]
Nanoengineers have 3-D printed a lifelike, functional blood vessel network that could pave the way toward artificial organs and regenerative therapies. The new research addresses one of the biggest challenges in tissue engineering: creating lifelike tissues and organs with functioning vasculature — networks of blood vessels that can transport blood, nutrients, waste and other biological materials — and do so safely when implanted inside the body. (via […]
Technology accelerates by leaps and bounds, which can only spell doom for most workers’ economic prospects. How long before a robot or algorithm can do your job, leading to mass “technological unemployment?” Machines are learning to master once-unthinkable tasks. Yet, even though our software can best us at Jeopardy! and our hardware has learned to run and jump, there’s still no consensus among economists that […]
NOUAKCHOTT Mali’s main jihadist groups said on Thursday they will merge under Islamist leader Iyad Ag-Ghali whose fighters have claimed multiple attacks on Malian, French and U.N. peacekeeping forces, Mauritania’s Nouakchott News Agency (ANI) reported. ANI said Ag-Ghali’s Ansar Dine would join with al-Mourabitoun, led by Algerian jihadist and smuggler Mokhtar Belmokhtar, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a military camp in northern Mali […]
It was a campus polarized by racial tensions, rallies against discrimination and sexual violence, debates over freedom of expression. This was Columbia University in the 1980s, where Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch spent his formative college years and first drew attention as a student journalist. In his three years at Columbia, Judge Gorsuch worked on […] (via WSJ)
