By Tife Owolabi | YENAGOA, Nigeria YENAGOA, Nigeria At least six Nigerian soldiers have been killed in new military campaign against militants in the country’s restive Niger Delta oil hub, security officials said on Friday. The southern swampland has been largely quiet since the start of the year because militants halted attacks against oil pipelines to give the government a chance to conduct peace talks. But in […]
Credit: fdecomite More than 3 million people (three times previous estimates) are estimated to be actively using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, finds the first global cryptocurrency benchmarking study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. While many members of the general public may have heard of “bitcoin”, the first decentralised cryptocurrency launched in 2009, a new report from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) paints a broader […]
05 May 2017 Roads & Transport Authority – Nashwan Atta’ee: RTA’s Customers Council has opened a direct discussion with the public via Twitter under the theme (Chat with RTA). The session saw huge interaction of people from all occupations and nationalities. Over two hours tweeters rolled out suggestions, observations and ideas about various services offered by the RTA in the field of taxis; which was the focal […]
Justin Bieber plays football in Dubai – video May 5, 2017 DUBAI // Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber played a game of football at the Habtoor Grand Hotel in Dubai on Friday afternoon before his gig on May 6. The singer is set to thrill fans when he brings the exceptional live production of his Purpose World Tour to Dubai, where is expected to play to packed […]
BANGKOK Thai police found 35 migrants from Myanmar abandoned and wandering in a southern forest on Friday, raising fears that smuggling and trafficking routes are flourishing despite a crackdown by authorities. The 28 men and seven women were discovered by villagers in Tha Sala district in Nakorn Si Thammarat province, police said. They were on their way to Malaysia and had no identification cards on them. “They […]
ANKARA A Turkish court on Friday rejected an appeal by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia against a government decision to block access to its website, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, a case that has heightened concerns about censorship in Turkey. An Ankara court rejected the appeal from the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, Anadolu said. It quoted the court as saying that while freedom of speech was […]
Dubai-based DP World and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) have signed an agreement to develop the logistics sector in India. The agreement comes as a result of the visit to India in February 2016 of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, DP World Group chairman and CEO, a statement said. DP World announced at the […]
JAKARTA About 200 prisoners in Indonesia broke out of an overcrowded jail on Sumatra island on Friday, tearing down a gate near a mosque in the prison complex after being allowed out of their cells to pray, officials said. Inmates had complained about their treatment in the jail in Pekanbaru, Riau province, and accused some guards of being violent, said Ferdinand Siagian, head of the regional office […]
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Clashes erupted between Pakistani and Afghan troops on Friday along their disputed border and at least one person was killed, Pakistan’s military said, in another blow to already tense relations between the neighbours. -Reuters
By James Pearson and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL In February 2016, Yoo Chang-geun and around 120 other South Korean businessmen frantically pulled their staff out of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, jointly run with North Korea. Seoul had ordered it closed after Pyongyang defied international warnings and tested a long-range rocket. Now, with South Koreans in next week’s presidential election almost certain to elect liberal Moon Jae-in, […]
Saudi Arabia is seeking foreign investment in its healthcare industry as it plans to turn hundreds of government-owned hospitals and thousands of primary care centres into better-run corporations, Health Minister Tawfig Al-Rabiah said. Nearly 80 percent of health care in Saudi Arabia is provided by the government, Al-Rabiah said in an interview in Boston. But the kingdom “is trying to move the private sector to invest more,” […]
PARIS Greenpeace climbers unfurled a banner emblazoned with the French republican slogan “Liberty, Equality Fraternity” and the word “Resist” on the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Friday, a message urging people to vote against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s presidential election. “We wanted to say we are against the rise of nationalism and authoritarianism in France and in other countries. This is our way of […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police said on Friday a third Turkish national has been detained, suspected of threatening national security, after two were held earlier this week. The detentions come amid concerns raised by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch that Turks in Malaysia are being held due to pressure from Ankara. Turgay Karaman, the head of an international school, and Ihsan Aslan, a businessman, were arrested on Tuesday. Ismet […]
When NPR’s David Folkenflik was growing up in the Southern California town of Laguna Beach, he would occasionally visit an enormous newsstand where readers could find almost anything they wanted to read. The Economist was next to Time. The surfer magazines were next to the tattoo magazines. The fake or dubious news — the National Enquirers of the world — were also in their own slots, somewhere in the […]
By Saikat Chatterjee | HONG KONG HONG KONG Asian stocks declined for a third consecutive day on Friday as fresh falls in commodities raised concerns about the health of the global economy, though the euro bucked the broad weakness on receding concerns about France’s presidential election. Chinese stocks led regional losers, falling to a three-month low as concerns about tighter financial regulations weighed on banking shares while […]
BEIJING China has ordered private think tanks to register with the authorities, who will also keep tabs on research activity, under new rules published by state media, the ruling Communist Party’s latest move to stamp its authority on intellectual bodies. President Xi Jinping has overseen a drive to place the party back at the centre of China’s media, academia and charities, while cracking down on civil society […]
Photo Gholamali Khoshroo, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting in February. Credit Mark Lennihan/Associated Press Iran responded angrily on Thursday to criticisms by Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, accusing him of acts that violate the United Nations Charter and calling his kingdom an instigator of “dangerous ambitions in the region and beyond.” The Iranian response came in a formal protest letter […]
Bahrain-based Ibdar Bank has announced the appointment of Ayman Sejiny as its new CEO. The Islamic investment bank said in a statement Sejiny has previously held roles at Barclays, Citi Bank and ABN Amro. Previous to his appointment with Ibdar, Sejiny was the Group CEO of Bahrain-based Bank Alkhair, which has a presence in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey and Malaysia. Ibdar chairman Tareq Sadeq said: “Ibdar is […]
PARIS A quarter of the French electorate is due to abstain in the presidential runoff on Sunday, many of them left-wing voters disappointed after their candidates missed reaching the runoff, according to a poll by Odoxa. The projected abstention rate would be the second-worst for a presidential election runoff since 1965, underscoring the disillusionment of many voters at the choice between centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader […]
SHANGHAI China’s home-grown C919 passenger jet is set to take to the skies on its long-delayed maiden flight on Friday, a major step for Beijing as it looks to boost its profile in the global aviation market. The narrow-body aircraft, which will compete with Boeing’s (BA.N) 737 and the Airbus (AIR.PA) A320, is a key symbol of China’s ambitions to muscle into a global jet market estimated […]
Throw them into the bay, or throw them into jail? Those were two possible replies to a poll set up by a user on Twitter. He wanted to know how to deal with “treacherous journalists” – the journalists in question were reporters working for the Panamanian daily newspaper La Prensa. The paper’s newsroom lies just 7.2 miles away from the offices of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm […]
Abu Dhabi, UAE – 04 May, 2017 ITWORX Education, the front-running education services provider, has won the BETT Middle East Game Changer Award for its Children in Distress program, powered by its social learning solution: WinjiGo. The award is a tribute to the innovation ITWORX Education brings to the Ed-Tech landscape and the impact it continues to make in delivering sustainable, quality education to children around the […]
MEXICO CITY Eight Latin American nations denounced Venezuelan authorities’ “excessive use of force” against civilian protesters, Mexico’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, after the death toll from anti-government unrest in Venezuela rose to 36. The eight nations, Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico y Paraguay, urged the Venezuelan government to respect human rights of its citizens. (Reporting By Alexandra Alper; Editing by Sandra Maler) -Reuters
Infrastructure work at Downtown Jebel Ali in Dubai has reached a major milestone, with deep utilities work complete at half of the 200-hectare mixed-use project, according to master developer Limitless. Sewerage, storm water and water works have been completed at 50 percent of the project, with roads now underway, a statement said. Deep utilities work is ongoing at the rest of the development, with anticipated completion this […]
