Authored by Carl Bildt, originally posted at Project Syndicate, In August 2015, I tweeted that if Donald Trump were to be elected President of the United States, we would have to “head for the bunkers.” A Trump presidency was considered highly unlikely back then; but here we are. And while heading for the bunkers might not be the most appropriate response (yet), where we are is undoubtedly […]
By Andrew Osborn and Nick Tattersall | MOSCOW/ISTANBUL MOSCOW/ISTANBUL President Vladimir Putin said he and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan are working to organise a new series of Syrian peace talks without the involvement of the United States or the United Nations. In a snub to Washington, Putin made clear on Friday that the initiative was the sole preserve of Moscow and Turkey and that the peace […]
BEIJING China expressed dissatisfaction on Friday after exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama met President Pranab Mukherjee, saying it hoped India would recognise the Nobel Peace Prize winning monk as a separatist in religious guise. Mukherjee hosted the Dalai Lama and other Nobel Peace laureates at a conference on children’s rights at the presidential palace on Sunday. Those who attended, and spoke, included Princess Charlene of […]
Facebook announced today that it is taking several steps to reduce the reach of fake news. One of the initiatives announced by the social network, third-party fact-checking, will allow verified fact-checkers in the United States to review stories to determine if they are true or false. If enough fact checkers mark a story as fake, the post will be marked as such in users’ News Feeds. The […]
By Andrés González | MADRID MADRID French media tycoon Vincent Bollore is bidding for a stake in Spain’s largest sports broadcasting rights firm at the same time as facing off with former Italian president Silvio Berlusconi for control of Mediaset (MS.MI). Bollore’s Vivendi (VIV.PA) is one of 10 bidders, alongside a number of Chinese and U.S. investors, hoping to land either a 30 percent or 51 percent […]
Photo A member of the Syrian government forces watched the evacuation operation of rebel fighters and civilians from Aleppo on Friday. Credit George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — The process of evacuating residents from the last rebel-held section of Aleppo broke down on Friday, a day after Syrian government buses and ambulances began taking residents out of the besieged area. The reason for halting […]
TOKYO Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up two days of talks on Friday with numerous economic deals but no big breakthrough on a territorial row that has overshadowed ties between the countries since World War Two. The following list details energy and other alliances and agreements between Japanese and Russian companies and government enterprises announced during the summit meetings: HEALTHCARE – […]
The Abu Dhabi Childhood Obesity taskforce has announced the launch and immediate implementation of a comprehensive plan to address the growing health issue in the emirate. The plan which focuses on six key categories, is a result of a cross-sector evaluation that assessed existing efforts to fight childhood obesity, challenges and opportunities, in addition to benchmarking against World Health Organisation recommendations, news agency WAM reported. The focus […]
BEIJING The family of prominent Chinese legal activist Jiang Tianyong is unable to locate him despite police saying that he had been released on Dec. 1 after spending nine days in detention, his family’s lawyer said on Friday. Disbarred lawyer Jiang, 45, has spoken out about a government crackdown on legal defenders and has been involved in high-profile cases of dissidents who have angered authorities, including blind […]
Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan has announced an independent review into the “unprecedented failure” of the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) storage hardware that took its online services offline earlier this week. The ATO’s website, tax agent, and business portals initially crashed on Monday, as a result of a “world first” hardware issue. The outage continued through Tuesday, which is when the ATO called in Hewlett Packard Enterprise […]
ALEPPO, Syria The evacuation of people from eastern Aleppo was suspended on Friday and a Reuters witness heard at least four blasts at a location where buses had been departing. A state-run Syrian TV station reported that rebels had breached an agreement with the government by trying to take prisoners with them during the evacuation. A Syrian official overseeing the evacuation told Reuters it had been obstructed […]
ANKARA A camp to host people evacuated from Syria’s Aleppo will be set up inside Syria near the border, senior Turkish officials told Reuters on Friday, and Turkey will continue to accept sick and wounded coming from the city. Two potential sites, around 3.5 km (2.2 miles) inside Syria, have been identified to set up a camp, which will have the capacity to host up to 80,000 […]
India is set to get more Trump-branded projects as local developers seek to capitalize on the brand. A story from The Wall Street Journal Friday took a look at the many projects around the world connected to the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, including those in India. Unimark Group, a developer based in Kolkata, has tied up to rebrand a previously planned residential apartment building in the eastern […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 16, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Festive fun Visit Al Maryah Island for the Winter Wonderland, featuring cosy cottages hosting activities including bauble-decorating, cracker-making and gingerbread-house-decorating. Plus there’s a skating rink and snow park, and live performances of […]
Allergic reactions to peanuts cause around 500 hospitalizations and even some deaths in the United States each year. Food that contains trace amounts, because it was produced with factory equipment or kitchen tools that came into contact with peanuts, can prove fatal for allergic individuals who consume it unsuspectingly. Accidentally ingesting as little as a third of a single peanut — about 70 milligrams — can send […]
Chinese government bond yields retreated slightly after the central bank eased a credit squeeze that has been exacerbated by the US Federal Reserve’s rate increase. On Friday morning the People’s Bank of China injected a net Rmb45bn ($6.5bn) into the interbank market through reverse repos, bringing total net injections for the week to Rmb250bn. This marked a reversal from last week when the central bank drained more than […]
Submitted by Finian Cunningham via Strategic-Culture.org, The US and its terrorist-sponsoring partners are seeing their criminal regime-change project in ruins, as the Syrian army and its allies win a spectacular victory to retake the strategically important city of Aleppo. Western governments and their flunkies at the UN are cynically, perversely decrying a «meltdown of humanity». Closer to the truth is their own «meltdown of sanity». This is […]
TOKYO Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia may relax rules for Japanese citizens to visit the islands in the Pacific that are subject of a territorial dispute between Moscow and Tokyo. Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo after meeting Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Putin also said that a solution needs to be found to the territorial dispute, and he invited Abe to […]
By J.R. Wu | TAIPEI TAIPEI Before getting too carried away with Taiwan’s elevated status under a Donald Trump presidency, President Tsai Ing-wen might want to check her bank balance. Trump’s suggestion that the “one China” principle – that Taiwan is a part of China – was up for negotiation has already prompted sabre-rattling from Chinese state media and some in the military establishment. Taipei’s ability to […]
TOKYO Japanese Emperor Akihito, 82, has a cold and fever and has cancelled morning duties, an official at the Imperial Household Agency said on Friday. The emperor has no planned duties Friday afternoon and this weekend and will rest at the Imperial Palace, the official said. In August, Akihito said he worried that age may make it difficult for him to fully carry out his duties, remarks […]
What brought you into the world of fashion? I always wanted to make sure I did a job that I was passionate about, and one that wouldn’t simply be a 9-5 office job, which fashion allowed me to do. I began my career on the UK High Street where I started off working on own-label brands and really learnt my trade. Following that I moved on to […]
BEIJING China’s military has carried out its first ever live-fire drills using an aircraft carrier and fighters in the northeastern Bohai Sea close to Korea, state media said. China’s growing military presence in the disputed South China Sea has fuelled concern, with the United States criticising its militarization of maritime outposts and holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation. Ten vessels and ten […]
CAIRO — Egypt said Thursday that explosive traces had been detected on the bodies of passengers retrieved from EgyptAir Flight 804, which plunged into the Mediterranean Sea in May and killed all 66 people on board. The announcement by the Civil Aviation Ministry offers the strongest suggestion yet that a bomb might have felled the airliner as it flew to Cairo from Paris. Previously, officials had focused […]
Latest asset of Abu Dhabi’s cruise tourism sector set to change face of ‘winter sun’ tourism in Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi-UAE: December 15, 2016 Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region, Abu Dhabi Ports today has officially opened Sir Bani Yas Cruise Beach, offering cruise ship passengers a new beach destination with unmatched tourism experiences. […]
