By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. employers boosted hiring in November and the unemployment rate dropped to a more than nine-year low of 4.6 percent, making it almost certain that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this month. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 178,000 jobs last month after increasing by 142,000 in October, the Labor Department said on Friday. The solid employment gains likely reflect […]
ABU DHABI // “Building nations is not complete without safeguarding heritage,” Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed told the Safeguarding Cultural Heritage Conference in the capital on Friday. The deputy chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council was addressing the first day of the conference, where attendees heard reports of past atrocities as a prompt to forging meaningful outcomes for the future. The conference concludes Saturday, with the adoption of […]
By Emily Stephenson | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was set to interview more candidates for top jobs in his administration on Friday and said he expected to have most members of his Cabinet announced next week. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, is still weighing who to choose as secretary of state. The Republican president-elect said on Thursday he had chosen retired […]
When Dala Farouki Kakos was a child, her parents invested in three Syrian chests, with matching mirrors, in the traditional sadaf style – on the understanding that they would be passed on to Kakos and her two siblings once they were grown up and had homes of their own. Beautifully embellished with mother of pearl, Kakos’s set has accompanied her on her travels around the world, and […]
Eight new rural solar energy projects are now operational across the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in western North Africa, doubling the UAE’s total contribution to the country’s clean energy capacity to 31.6 megawatts (MW). Delivered by Masdar, the Abu Dhabi clean energy company, the 16.6MW of additional solar power will supply up to 30 percent of the electricity demand of the remote communities of Boutilimit, Aleg, Aioune, […]
December 2, 2016 by: Maggie Fick, West Africa correspondent Voters in the tiny nation of Gambia appear to have unseated their president of more than two decades, who had pledged to rule for “a billion years”, an unexpected result after a year of elections that have cast doubt on the state of democracy in Africa. The Gambian electoral commission on Friday declared that Adama Barrow, the main […]
The threat of disruption means CIOs and their c-suite peers are under more pressure than ever before to develop creative solutions to business challenges. Almost three quarters (73 per cent) of companies around the world believe they are exposed to digital disruption today, according to Tech Research Asia. Such is the threat of change that 61 per cent of these firms are taking affirmative action and trying […]
Pérez made it clear that Benítez was safe as long as he picked what the president felt was his strongest team: an adventurous lineup that included the Colombian midfielder James Rodríguez. Such a selection ran against Benítez’s cautious instincts. He would have preferred the more defensively minded Brazilian Casemiro as a bulwark against Barcelona’s formidable attack, but eventually Benítez relented. Continue reading the main story Rodríguez started; […]
The effects of climate change will likely cause smaller but stronger storms in the United States, according to a new framework for modeling storm behavior. Though storm intensity is expected to increase over today’s levels, the predicted reduction in storm size may alleviate some fears of widespread severe flooding in the future. (via WSJ)
Symantec After four years of investigation, Europol, and other agencies have moved against the prominent Avalanche botnet platform which acted as a hub for malware campaigns worldwide. Europol publicly disclosed the operation on Thursday, made possible through partnerships with the FBI, the US Department of Justice (DoJ), the German Public Prosecutor’s Office Verden Eurojust and technology firms including Shadowserver and Symantec. Law enforcement agencies moved 30 November […]
Good morning. Here’s our daily summary of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Since Jim VandeHei and John Harris proved most everybody to be idiots, VandeHei can only hope that reflexive suspicion of his new gambit again proves to be entrepreneurial bliss. The two journalists famously pitched the notion of an all-politics digital […]
Despite powering dashboards for at least two years, Android Auto lacked a Google service that is probably one of the most useful for driving, which is the OK Google voice command. Interestingly, the feature had a low-key rollout. As of this writing, Google has not officially issued a statement announcing the update. If not for Reddit user neo5468, the world would probably have trundled on, without ever […]
An independent English-language news site in Qatar accused the Gulf state of censorship on Thursday, saying two internet service providers had blocked access to its website. The Doha News, which stirred a debate about the limits of tolerance in the conservative country in August with an opinion column on gay rights in Qatar, said the two internet firms had simultaneously barred access to its website on Wednesday. […]
MIT researchers have developed a computational model which aims to capture the human elements of facial recognition and implement it in our artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems. On Thursday, MIT revealed the research, conducted at the Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines (CBMM), headquartered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers designed a machine learning system which implements the new model and they have […]
Photo The fully-restored 3,800-year-old jug with a human statue that resembles Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker,” which was found in Yehud, Israel. Credit Israel Antiquities Authority/Clara Amit European Pressphoto Agency Reading this article right now, you might resemble this 3,800-year old statue resting its cheek upon its hand. It’s a common pose for computer browsing, but a rare sight in Bronze Age pottery. A group of high […]
Since the Maltese Parliament and government have not taken concrete action on tax avoidance and evasion, even in light of the Panama affair, Alternattiva Demokratika said it hopes that EP inquiry will shed light where others have failed. Alternattiva Demokratika Chairperson, Prof. Arnold Cassola, said: “The European Parliament administration yesterday approved the request from the ‘Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and […]
The Cohort is Poynter’s bi-monthly newsletter about women kicking ass in digital media. Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I caught up on several post-election podcasts. Nearly all of the conversations veered towards self-care. From Another Round’s Heben Nigatu and Bim Adewunmi to Call Your Girlfriend’s Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, the women I listened to checked in with each other and offered up their go-tos for feeling good. […]
Zahid says all component parties should help each other out, especially during the next general election. KUALA LUMPUR: Other Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties must work as hard as Umno, says the party’s acting deputy president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Zahid said he had met with the presidents of BN component parties to discuss this and was confident that a “huge change” would happen soon. “I have urged […]
Coutts, the taxpayer-owned bank, provided offshore services to controversial clients including a member of the Brunei royal family accused of stealing billions from his own country, and a banker charged with assisting the sons of Egypt’s deposed president, Hosni Mubarak, in financial crime. Known as the Queen’s bank after its most famous customer, Coutts is revealed to have managed secretive tax haven structures for the Sultan of […]
An Indian aerospace startup has said that it will launch its mission to the moon in a year’s time, as it takes part in a Google-funded competition to become the world’s first-ever privately held company to make a soft landing there. A group of more than 100 scientists and engineers, including around a dozen former ISRO scientists, make up Axiom Research Labs’ Team Indus. The team is […]
By now, you know the photo — some version of it, anyway. President-elect Donald Trump is smiling over a bowl of young garlic soup. Across the table, former Republican nominee and current Secretary of State candidate Mitt Romney is smiling tightly underneath his furrowed brow. The photo, taken at Jean Georges in Trump Tower Tuesday, has since taken on a life of its own on social media, […]
The start of your story hooks a reader, but the ending is what leaves an impression. It deserves as much attention as your opening. Here are three strategies from columnist Leonard Pitts for writing powerful kickers. End with a twist. Give readers a surprise, and take them in a direction they didn’t expect. End with a quote. A great closing quote is rare. But every once in […]
In late July, Moussa Aksar, the director of Niger’s L’Évènement newspaper, answered his phone and heard a familiar voice warning him that he was, once again, in danger. “Be careful,” a friendly source told Aksar. “Look out for yourself and be careful what you say on the phone.” Aksar had just published Niger’s first exposé from the Panama Papers, the investigation based on a leak of documents […]
India, China and Russia on Thursday held their first round of consultation on Asia-Pacific Affairs which included regional security architecture, coordination within regional and multilateral fora, anti-terrorism and other regional issues, according to PTI as reported by The Statesman. The consultation was attended by representatives from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Ministry of External Affairs of India, an Indian […]
