By Martin Petty and Manuel Mogato | MANILA MANILA Across Asia, more and more countries are being pulled into Beijing’s orbit, with the timid stance adopted by Southeast Asian nations on the South China Sea at a weekend summit a clear sign this fundamental geostrategic shift is gathering momentum. U.S. President Donald Trump’s flurry of calls at the weekend to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and […]
By Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Negotiators in the U.S. Congress reached a deal late on Sunday on around $1 trillion in federal funding that would avert a government shutdown later this week, while handing President Donald Trump a down payment on his promised military build-up. The full House of Representatives and Senate must still approve the bipartisan pact, which would be the first major legislation to […]
By Yesim Dikmen and Mehmet Emin Caliskan | ISTANBUL ISTANBUL Police in Istanbul fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a group of May Day demonstrators on Monday, a Reuters witness said, as authorities detained more than 200 people at protests around the city. Protests for May Day, the international workers’ holiday, are an annual occurrence in Turkey and have in the past been characterised […]
Perhaps it’s telling that journalism is so absent in The Circle, the movie based on the Dave Eggers novel that paints a dark picture of a future that has nearly arrived. Emma Watson plays Mae Holland, a recent college graduate who takes up the faith of the Silicon Valley digital-life media company she works for called The Circle. Holland comes to believe that omnipresent artificial intelligence embedded […]
Design masterminds from the fashion world have always extended their creativity and influence way beyond the runway and retail spaces, to infuse their iconic style into everything from everyday items like water bottles, all the way to fully fledged furniture collections. Amongst the most interesting projects for some of the top fashion designers are collaborations on hotel properties that represent their unique touch and taste across rooms, […]
GENEVA The United Nations is continuing to receive signals that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen could attack the key port of Hodeidah, causing humanitarian suffering and loss of life, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said on Monday. A Saudi-led military coalition backing the internationally-recognised government in its war against the Houthi rebels has been preparing an assault on Hodeidah. “The U.N. is concerned about […]
22 February 2016 – Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia posted the first major hint that the biggest scandal in Maltese history was about to break. “It’s traditional to eat lamb on Easter Sunday, so Konrad Mizzi and his estranged wife Sai Mizzi Liang will be getting theirs from New Zealand, courtesy of their fixer Brian Tonna, who has a desk at the Auberge de Castille”. […]
GENEVA U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein voiced deep concern on Monday at mass arrests and sackings and renewal of the state of emergency in Turkey, saying terror should not be tackled at the expense of human rights. “It is highly unlikely that the suspensions and detentions will have met due process standards,” Zeid told a news briefing after the latest round of suspensions […]
WELLINGTON // They may not have lost themselves in the music or the moment but a judge and nine lawyers in a New Zealand courtroom did listen politely to Eminem’s Lose Yourself as a copyright trial involving the country’s ruling political party began on Monday. The Detroit-based music publishers for Eminem are suing New Zealand’s conservative National Party, alleging the rapper’s acclaimed 2002 song was copied in […]
BANGKOK/MOSCOW Several passengers were injured on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Bangkok when their Boeing 777 ran into “severe turbulence” 40 minutes before landing at the Thai capital on Monday, the Russian airline said in a statement. The airline said the crew was unable to warn passengers of the approaching danger as the turbulence occurred in a clear sky. “Several passengers were injured,” the statement said. […]
Dubai crown prince Sheikh Hamdan on Sunday launched “Dubai Font”, Microsoft’s first font to be created by a city and named after it. “The launch of the Dubai Font to the world is a very important step for us as part of our continuous efforts to be ranked first in the digital world,” state news agency WAM quoted the crown prince as saying. “We are confident that […]
ROME Matteo Renzi, staging a political comeback less than five months after resigning as Italy’s prime minister, easily regained the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) on Sunday with an overwhelming victory in a primary election among party supporters. According to partial results, Renzi had about 72 percent of the vote, held in makeshift polling booths around the country. About 2 million party members voted in […]
By Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The White House on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s decision to invite Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to Washington, saying his cooperation was needed to counter North Korea, even as the administration faced human rights criticism for its overture to Manila. Trump issued the invitation on Saturday night in what the White House said was a “very friendly” phone conversation with Duterte, […]
DUBAI // Hundreds of displaced residents of Tamweel Tower, which was badly damaged by a blaze in 2012, may finally return this Ramadan after a key document confirming completion of cladding work was submitted to the authorities. The document signed by eight companies was submitted last week to Dubai Civil Defence stating that the installation of the new cladding complied with fire safety requirements. The 34-storey Jumeirah […]
MEXICO CITY Mexican soldiers killed seven suspected gang members in a weekend gun battle in the north of the country, the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office said on Sunday. According to a statement on the attorney general’s website, a convoy of 15 soldiers was passing near the town of La Grulla in Chihuahua state around 2 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Saturday when a group of […]
When North Korea deployed hundreds of artillery units, submarines and soldiers to take part in its largest live-fire drill, it was intended as a chilling display of the reclusive regime’s military might. The country boasts the world’s fourth-largest standing army, with more than 1m troops as well as 7m reserves, and last week’s military exercise came as US President Donald Trump ramped up the pressure on Pyongyang […]
World sport power broker Sheikh Ahmad al Fahad al Sabah announced his resignation Sunday from the FIFA council, saying did not want to be a distraction while fighting corruption allegations. Aside from serving on FIFA’s top body, the Kuwaiti is also president of the Olympic Council of Asia and holds other senior roles in sport administration, including with the Asian Football Confederation (FIFA). Sheikh Ahmad has been […]
30 April 2017 COLOMBES, France–(BUSINESS WIRE/ME NewsWire)– OT (Oberthur Technologies), a leading global provider of embedded security software products, services and solutions and a forerunner in the payment sector, has been selected by Mashreq Bank to deploy Instant Card Issuance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Mashreq Bank is one of the UAE’s leading financial institutions. Established in 1967 by the Al-Ghurair Group, it is the largest […]
President Donald Trump was a distracting entertainment from the moment he launched his campaign in June of 2015 — until he wasn’t. His opening speech, in which he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and told the world he would be the best jobs president “God ever created,” was looked at as the ravings of a man whose outsized ego was too big to be anything but hilarious. News […]
SAN DIEGO A man drinking a beer from one hand and brandishing a gun in the other opened fire beside a pool at a San Diego apartment complex on Sunday, wounding several people before being shot dead by police, according to local media accounts. An apartment complex resident who witnessed part of the incident told television station KFMB-TV, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, that five to […]
We are already aware that dragonflies can do some incredible things for the survival of its species, like long-distance flying and anticipating a prey’s movements for a swift kill. The colorful fliers also exhibit some unusual behavior but it is not until now that a zoologist has been able to discern the peculiar behavior exhibited by females of the Aeshna juncea species. A study published on April 24 reveals that […]
ABU DHABI // The Sawab Centre, a joint UAE-US initiative combating online propaganda by ISIL and other extremist groups and promoting positive alternatives, has announced the launch of a new anti-youth recruitment campaign on social media. Using the hashtag #DeludedFollowers, the four-day campaign will run until May 3 in Arabic and English on Sawab’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube sites. Even as its territory in Iraq and […]
Ibn Arabi, undoubtedly one of the world’s great spiritual teachers, provokes mixed reactions. There are those that consider the 12th century mystic, philosopher, Islamic scholar, poet and sage to be the foremost spiritual leader and Sufi master in Muslim history. Others regard him as a heretic or even an apostate. There is rarely much middle ground. Ibn Arabi – known as Muhyiddin (the Revivifier of Religion) and […]
“Expression knows no boundaries or limits,” the video said. “Expression is strength and freedom. It defines who you are.” Continue reading the main story As it turns out, though, there are quite a few boundaries and limits on expression in Dubai and across the United Arab Emirates, where the news media is censored to remove criticism of the government or the coalition of royal families that controls […]
