By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:31pm IST U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the French hostage situation during his visit to Pellissippi State College in Knoxville, Tennessee, January 9, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Related Topics Dozens of world leaders lead hundreds of thousands of French citizens in an unprecedented march. Pics WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will highlight plans next week to […]
|By James G. Neuger |The bodies haven’t been buried and the killers are on the loose, but that didn’t prevent anti-Islam politicians across Europe from seizing on the Jan. 7 massacre in Paris. The rhetoric varied in intensity across the European Union’s 28 countries, each with its own religious and social phobias, many gripped by an economic recession that makes convenient scapegoats out of immigrants — especially […]
The Jetsons probably had no idea how soon the average American would see robots become a reality. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, a number of devices showed the futuristic concept is here and now. Robotics exhibits at CES grew 25 percent from last year’s show, according to the event’s organizers. “It speaks to the category’s growth and ability to disrupt and transform […]
Oil extended losses below $48 a barrel amid speculation that U.S. inventories will expand, deepening a global supply glut that’s driven prices to a five-year low. Futures declined for a fourth day. Stockpiles in the world’s biggest oil-consuming country probably rose by 700,000 barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey showed before a government report tomorrow. Oil slumped almost 50 percent in 2014, the most since the […]
Camp Taji Journal American military personnel, recently deployed to Iraq, found remnants of the previous United States military presence, mostly untouched since their comrades left Camp Taji three years earlier. By TIM ARANGO January 6, 2015 CAMP TAJI, Iraq — The calendar on the wall reads November 2011. On the ground is a half-filled tin of Copenhagen smokeless tobacco. Scattered here and there are bottles of Gatorade, cans of […]
INTERNATIONA. Oil fell in 2014 by the most since the 2008 global financial crisis as U.S. producers and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ceded no ground in their battle for market share amid a supply glut. The U.S. benchmark ended at a five-year low yesterday, capping a 46 percent drop in 2014, as stockpiles of crude oil and gasoline reached seasonal record highs and as OPEC […]
DUBAI // At Dh22 million and at more than 5km in length, the emirate can now lay claim to the world’s longest handmade gold chain. More than 100 people worked 10-hour days for weeks to make the four million individual segments of the 22-carat gold, 5.52km-long chain that set a new Guinness World Record on Monday. The Dubai Celebration Chain, which weighs in at 256kg, forms the […]
Wanted: Ched Evans is set to join League One side Oldham Photo: PA By Rowan Pelling 6:01AM GMT 05 Jan 2015 It’s been 13 years since John Leslie waved goodbye to his TV career. Some readers may be scratching their heads, as they try to remember his original claim to fame and what led to his downfall. Then they might gradually recall how the former Blue Peter and […]
World Briefing By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS January 4, 2015 Al Qaeda bombed an office of the Shiite Houthi rebels south of the capital on Sunday, killing six Houthis and wounding 31, officials said. The police said the bombing in Dhamar Province, about 60 miles south of the capital, Sana, hit a local headquarters of the Houthi movement, which has seized a string of Yemeni cities, including the capital. Al Qaeda’s […]
SHANGHAI Sun Jan 4, 2015 7:47pm IST Lei Jun, founder and chief executive officer of China’s mobile company Xiaomi Inc, introduces the new features of Xiaomi Phone 4 at its launching ceremony, in Beijing, July 22, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee/Files Related Topics Stocks Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone turns 29. Pics SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Fast-growing Chinese tech firm Xiaomi Technology Ltd Co booked 74.3 billion yuan […]
Falling world oil prices will hurt countries across the Middle East unless Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, takes action to reverse the slump, Iran’s deputy foreign minister told Reuters. Hossein Amir Abdollahian described Saudi Arabia’s inaction in the face of a six-month slide in oil prices as a strategic mistake and said he still hoped the kingdom, Tehran’s main rival in the Gulf, would respond. […]
Reporting about widespread government surveillance of ordinary citizens helped win the Guardian and the Washington Post a Pulitzer Prize in 2014. But many ordinary citizens themselves have offered a “Ho-hum everybody does it” response to the spying revelations made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The lackadaisical public reaction does not bode well for the future of privacy. And that’s the same conclusion that the […]
MUMBAI Sat Jan 3, 2015 7:26pm IST A worker displays a Micromax mobile phone inside a store in Kolkata December 4, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files Related Topics Stocks Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone turns 29. Pics MUMBAI (Reuters) – Micromax Informatics, India’s second-largest smartphone maker, plans to raise as much as $500 million through a stock market listing in its financial year beginning in April, […]
Gulf stock markets rose on Sunday despite oil’s weakness as Saudi Arabia’s plan to maintain government spending at a high level boosted investor confidence. The Saudi government released a 2015 state budget last Thursday that provides for a 0.6 percent increase in spending from this year’s plan. That cheered the retail investors who dominate Gulf stock markets; they had feared falling oil revenues would trigger spending cuts […]
Marka, a retailing and restaurants start-up, has agreed to buy a sporting goods retail firm from state-owned conglomerate Dubai World for 220 million dirhams ($60 million), in a move that will make Marka operationally profitable in 2015, it said on Sunday. The acquisition of Retailcorp, a subsidiary of Dubai World’s investment unit Istithmar World, will be funded by the Marka’s own funds and bank facilities, said the […]
Iran is to expand what it calls “smart filtering” of the Internet, a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning them completely, as it used to, the government said on Friday. The Islamic Republic has some of the strictest controls on Internet access in the world, but its blocks on U.S.-based social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians […]
India’s long-held position as the world’s top diamond polisher is being challenged by soaring output from China, compelling the south Asian country to seek help from ally and top rough diamond supplier Russia to defend its market share. India has traditionally relied on the middlemen in trading hubs of Antwerp, Tel Aviv and Dubai for its supply of rough diamonds, which mainly come from Russia or Africa. […]
Saudi authorities pledged to curb wages and push ahead with investments next year as the world’s largest oil exporter seeks to counter the effect of tumbling crude prices on the economy. The government said it expects the budget deficit in 2015 to widen to 145 billion riyals ($39 billion), from 54 billion riyals this year, the Finance Ministry said today. That amounts to about 5 percent of […]
In Saudi Arabia, where the currency has been fixed at about the same rate for 28 years, even the tiniest swings in the futures market reflect concern the peg will be broken. So the 0.2 percent drop that traders see by next year shows this is the most worried they’ve been about it since 2009. For Standard Chartered Plc and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, that speculation […]
Bisco Misr… bidding battle Kellogg outbids Abraaj third time for Bisco CAIRO, 2 days ago Breakfast cereal maker Kellogg Co has again raised its bid for Egyptian snack maker Bisco Misr, outbidding private equity group Abraaj for the third time and snatching the lead in a $140 million takeover battle. Kellogg said on Thursday it would improve its offer to EGP86.36 ($12.04) per share, hoping to secure […]
DUBAI, 2 days ago Developing countries in Asia—particularly China and India—are rapidly becoming the biggest trading partners with Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries ahead of other regions, according to a new report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in conjunction with Falcon and Associates. The study, entitled ‘GCC Trade and Investment Flows,’ explored the GCC’s economic ties with each world region and identifies major growth drivers. […]
Watan inks strategic tie-up with Natixis RIYADH, 2 days ago Natixis, the corporate arm of France’s banking group Groupe BPCE, and Saudi Arabia’s Watan Investment & Securities Company have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The signing, which took place at the Council of Saudi Chambers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marks the start of expectantly a long-term cooperation between the two institutions on a wide range of Natixis […]
Gulf governments seek to improve the livesof citizens and create jobs. Oil slump won’t derail $500bn Gulf infrastructure plan DUBAI, 2 days ago Slumping oil prices will not halt a massive ramp-up in Gulf infrastructure spending, as rich nations deploy huge reserves to maintain a breakneck development pace and the rest turn to buoyant funding markets. However, states are being urged to consider the most effective funding […]
Cancer and heart disease death rates have fallen. Global population living 6 years longer than in 1990 LONDON, 2 days ago Global life expectancy has risen by more than six years since 1990 thanks to falling death rates from cancer and heart disease in rich countries and better survival in poor countries from diarrhoea, tuberculosis and malaria. In an analysis from the 2013 Global Burden of Disease […]
