BEIJING A court in eastern China on Wednesday sentenced the former Communist Party chief of the major city of Nanjing to 12-1/2 years in jail, after finding him guilty of corruption. Yang Weize, Nanjing’s top official, was put under investigation early last year by the party’s internal anti-graft watchdog. The court in Ningbo said Yang accepted bribes, either directly or through his wife, worth 16.4 million yuan […]
Smash-hit smartphone game “Pokémon Go” has finally officially arrived in South Asia – but people in the region have been playing the game for months using a hack. Gamers in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will now be able to download the game from app stores, California-based Niantic Inc., the game’s developer and distributor said Tuesday. The augmented reality game stayed at the top […]
The head of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has told US officials it will invest $10 billion in infrastructure projects inside the United States, sources said, in an apparent boost to the economic plans of president-elect Donald Trump. Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani, chief executive of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), delivered the message to officials including Charles Rivkin, US assistant secretary of state for economic […]
BEIRUT Government forces resumed shelling of rebel-held eastern Aleppo districts on Wednesday, which stopped after about half an hour, Syrian rebel officials and witnesses told Reuters on Wednesday. “There is fierce bombardment by the regime forces on besieged Aleppo, using artillery, tanks, and mortars,” a Turkey-based official in the Jabha Shamiya faction told Reuters, citing reports from the ground. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdulrahman […]
We’ve all been warned that it is coming, but as SHTFPlan.com’s Mac Slavo notes, what is disturbing is that while technology surrounds us and *some* have concerns about privacy, most shrug at the massive amounts of data they are collecting about our lives, and the incredible level of control the system now has over each individual. This bill passed, clinging to the broadest base of “good intentions” […]
By Alex Dobuzinskis | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES A California police officer responding to a report of a man with a gun shot to death an unarmed 73-year-old man who approached the officer without taking his hands out of his pockets, police said on Tuesday. The family of victim Francisco Serna has called the shooting unjustified and told local media he had at least some form of […]
SYDNEY Investigators looking for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are making their last sweep of the search area in the Indian Ocean, Australian authorities leading the search said on Wednesday. Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese, en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Its whereabouts have become one of the world’s greatest […]
A spate of accidents were reported in Dubai this morning. TrafficDXB tweeted at-least six accidents during a 45-minute period in the emirate. One occurred on Sheikh Zayed Road after Oasis Mall heading towards Abu Dhabi, while another was on the E66 near Nad Al Sheba going towards Dubai. Other accidents took place on Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road intersection at E66 going towards Dubai, on Beirut Street […]
Dec 14, 2016 10:30 am IST As for the rest of the world, 2016 has been an eventful year for India. From the cash crunch to pollution to terrorist attacks to the Rio Olympics, there has been plenty for Indians to talk about online. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have ranked the most talked about events, videos, people and hashtags of 2016. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Twitter said Indian Prime […]
DUBAI Eleven headless bodies have been dumped in a nature reserve in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, a local news website reported on Wednesday. The Aden al-Ghad news website quoted a security source in the city as saying that the male bodies were found on Tuesday evening in the al-Hiswa reserve, west of Aden. It was not immediately clear who killed the men and why, […]
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has said he personally killed suspected criminals when he was mayor of a southern city in order to set an example for police. Duterte made the comments in a speech late on Monday night to business leaders as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, which has seen police and unknown assailants kill thousands of people since he became president on 30 […]
BEIRUT An evacuation of rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo was delayed on Wednesday for reasons that were not clear, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, holding up implementation of an agreement to restore government control over the area. Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said the first group of evacuees was due to leave at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), but nobody had left an hour later. A Reuters […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia’s federal court rejected on Wednesday jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s final bid to set aside his sodomy conviction and five-year jail term. A panel of judges ruled there was no merit in Anwar’s application for a review of his conviction, his final legal option for an acquittal. He will now have to serve out the remaining 16 months of his prison term. (Reporting by […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Senate Democrats plan to enlist accountants and legal experts to pore through the business records of Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Democratic aides said. Tillerson could face a rocky confirmation process, given concerns among both Democrats and Republicans about his ties to Russia. If Tillerson can overcome the skepticism of Republicans, […]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has deepened its rift with its Gulf allies over the ongoing conflict in Yemen, blocking a transfer of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia because of concerns about civilian casualties that administration officials attribute to poor targeting. Administration officials said on Tuesday that the White House had made the decision to block the sale by Raytheon of about 16,000 guided munitions kits, which […]
HONG KONG HSBC has launched a $290 million lending facility aimed at technology start-ups and other new industries in China’s Pearl River Delta region, intensifying the battle for a slice of a business that is growing despite a slowing economy. Showered with money from private investors over the last few years, the promising technology start-ups in China, the world’s second-largest economy, have shunned traditional lenders, seeking to […]
In a massive (in a literal sense, printing at 25 pages and over 8,000 words as there is little new information revealed in the piece itself) expose issued by the NYT tited “The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.” and meant to piggyback on the WaPo’s recent reporting and solidify the left-leaning media’s case that Hillary lost the election, the New York Times try to […]
By Matt Spetalnick and Timothy Gardner | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will make his case directly to President-elect Donald Trump not to derail the recent U.S.-Cuba detente, the White House said on Tuesday, insisting that “turning back the clock” would be damaging to American interests and the Cuban people. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the outgoing administration hopes to persuade the incoming Trump […]
newslide Dubai set to become online creation hub Dubai is set to join the world’s leading ‘content creation’ hubs following the revelation at Diff 2016 that YouTube is set to open a YouTube Space in Dubai Studio City. What is a YouTube Space, I hear you ask. According to Jamal Al Sharif, head of Dubai Film Commission and Dubai Studio City, it is everything the UAE needs […]
By Laila Bassam and Angus McDowall | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT Syrian rebels prepared to withdraw from Aleppo on Wednesday after a ceasefire agreement that ended years of fighting in the city and gave President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory yet after more than five years of war. The agreement was a result of talks between Russia, Assad’s main ally, and Turkey, a leading backer of the […]
13 December 2016 Dubai, United Arab Emirates – DAMAC Properties today announced that it has awarded 15 major construction and consultancy contracts valued at AED 1.26 billion during the period between August and November 2016, bringing the total value of contracts awarded so far in 2016 to AED 6.51 billion for projects in Dubai and the UK. The awarded contracts are for the provision of services related […]
By Marc Jones | LONDON LONDON A quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, life satisfaction in Russia and other ex-Soviet states remains stubbornly low, and enthusiasm for democracy and open market economics is wavering, a survey published on Tuesday showed. The study found that only 15 percent of Russians think their households have a better quality of life, compared with 30 percent […]
ERBIL, Iraq — The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that a United States airstrike had killed three Islamic State operatives who were involved in mounting terrorist attacks in Europe, including the deadly assault in Paris in November 2015. The three men were killed on Dec. 4 in an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State’s declared capital, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary. He described the men […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump named the head of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), Rex Tillerson, as his choice for U.S. secretary of state on Tuesday and won backing from some Republican foreign policy figures ahead of a possible Senate fight over the oilman’s ties to Russia. The Exxon CEO potentially faces difficulties getting confirmed in the Republican-controlled Senate. Some lawmakers worry about his […]
