By Jussi Rosendahl | HELSINKI HELSINKI Finnish foreign minister Timo Soini said on Sunday he would step down as leader of the nationalist and eurosceptic Finns party in June, a move which could challenge the future of the country’s three-party government. The departure of Soini paves the way for a more hard-line leadership, surveys have suggested, as many of its core voters bridled at compromises he made […]
The 20th century was a bull market for literacy, freedom, prosperity, health, and technology. As a result of these gains, wealth has increased exponentially, and world poverty is now at all-time lows. Life expectancy continues to improve in most countries, global literacy is near 90%, and there are well over 100 democracies throughout the planet. But, as VisualCapitalist’s Jeff Desjardins notes, not every positive trend can keep […]
A fiber optic undersea link connecting Angola’s capital Luanda to the Brazilian city of Fortaleza is reported to be about 50 percent complete, with operations set to begin later this year. With more than 6,200 kilometers in length, SACS (South Atlantic Cable System) system will be the first fiber optic cable to connect Africa to the Americas via the South Atlantic sea. According to Angola Cables, the […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia has arrested six foreigners and one Malaysian for suspected links to militant groups including Islamic State, the police chief said on Sunday. The Southeast Asian nation has been on high alert since suicide bombers and gunmen linked to Islamic State launched multiple attacks in Jakarta, the capital of neighbouring Indonesia, in January 2016. A grenade attack on a bar on the outskirts of the […]
ISTANBUL A Syrian air force pilot who bailed out as his warplane crashed on Turkish territory has been found by a Turkish rescue team and is being treated at a hospital in the Hatay region, a hospital spokeswoman said on Sunday. Dogan news agency said the pilot, who crashed his plane on Sunday, had been found around 40 km (25 miles) from the wreckage. He was first […]
By Firas Maqdisi | PALMYRA, Syria PALMYRA, Syria Islamic State militants have severely damaged a major Roman monument in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, an antiquities official said after visiting the site on Saturday. Under heavy Russian air cover, the Syrian army and allied militias drove the jihadist group out of the UNESCO world heritage site on Thursday, two months after it had seized it in […]
After the Android bug bounty, Chinese researchers now receive the most rewards and the most cash from Google. Image: Google Google has raised its top reward for remote code execution bugs in its Google, Blogger and YouTube domains from an even $20,000 to $31,337, marking a 50 percent rise plus a bonus $1,337 or ‘leet‘ reward. It’s also bumped up its ‘Unrestricted file system or database access’ […]
By Ernest Scheyder | HOUSTON HOUSTON The biggest names in the oil world come together this week for the largest industry gathering since the end of a two-year price war that pitted Middle East exporters against the firms that drove the shale energy revolution in the United States. When OPEC in November joined with several non-OPEC producers to agree to a historic cut in output, the group […]
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The White House budget director confirmed Saturday that the Trump administration will propose “fairly dramatic reductions” in the U.S. foreign aid budget later this month. Reuters and other news outlets reported earlier this week that the administration plans to propose to Congress cuts in the budgets for the U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development by about one third. “We […]
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 8:31 AM Powerful aftershock hits Philippine city. Credit: Supplied One person was killed and several others injured on Sunday when a powerful aftershock hit a southern Philippine city still recovering from a quake last month, authorities said. The 5.9-magnitude quake struck the southern city of Surigao and surrounding areas, causing some walls to collapse, government seismologists and civil defence officers said. One woman […]
China has lowered its annual economic growth target to “around” 6.5 per cent, as Beijing plans to focus on risk control in the final year of President Xi Jinping’s first term. The figure, down from the government’s target growth range of 6.5 to 7 per cent for 2016, was revealed on Sunday morning by Premier Li Keqiang in his annual “work report” to China’s parliament, the National […]
By Christian Shepherd and Philip Wen | BEIJING BEIJING China pledged more support to its military on Sunday including strengthening maritime and air defences amid efforts to safeguard sovereignty, but in a highly unusual move did not give spending figures for 2017 despite promises of transparency. Parliament’s spokeswoman Fu Ying said on Saturday defence spending for this year would rise about 7 percent, accounting for around 1.3 […]
MANILA Philippine soldiers have found the remains of a German man who was beheaded by Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants last week, a military official said late on Saturday, Both the head and body of Jurgen Kantner were recovered while the troops were conducting combat, search and retrieval operations in Indanan town in the remote southern province of Sulu, Colonel Cirilito Sobejana told reporters. Kantner’s remains would […]
Via Nicholas Eberstadt of CommentaryMagazine.com, On the morning of November 9, 2016, America’s elite—its talking and deciding classes—woke up to a country they did not know. To most privileged and well-educated Americans, especially those living in its bicoastal bastions, the election of Donald Trump had been a thing almost impossible even to imagine. What sort of country would go and elect someone like Trump as president? Certainly not […]
By Abdi Sheikh | MOGADISHU MOGADISHU Some 110 people have died in southern Somalia in the last two days from famine and diarrhoea resulting from a drought, the prime minister said on Saturday, as the area braces itself for widespread shortages of food. In February, United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said the drought in Somalia could lead to up to 270,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition […]
By Kevin Yao and Xiaochong Zhang | BEIJING BEIJING China has cut its growth target this year as the world’s second-largest economy pushes through painful reforms to address a build-up in debt and strives to keep a lid on risks in its financial sector. China aims to expand its economy by around 6.5 percent in 2017, Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening of the annual meeting […]
Well, that didn’t take long at all. The Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s first true foray into hybrid gaming, has hit shelves on March 3, sending faithful anticipants into a frenzy, especially considering Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was concurrently released. Here Comes The Dreaded Drop Tests For The Nintendo Switch But like any new gadget, there’s the inevitable crash test, and the first one for the Switch […]
In the 19th century, English poet and artist William Blake saw the factories of the industrial revolution as dark, satanic mills churning up the countryside and signalling a new, ominous era of human existence. Fast forward 200 years and Sophia Al Maria, a Qatari-American artist and writer, believes those dark mills have been replaced by the bright, fluorescent lights of shopping malls. Both places, she says, “are […]
Standard Life is in late-stage discussions to acquire Aberdeen Asset Management in an all-stock deal that would create the UK’s largest money manager with £660bn of assets and be worth around £11bn. The companies confirmed the talks on Saturday evening in a joint statement that said a deal would “leverage Standard Life and Aberdeen’s combined strengths to create a world class investment company”. They added that Standard Life […]
Photo American armored forces patrol on Friday near Manbij in northern Syria. Credit Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — The United States has increased its forces near the northern Syrian town of Manbij as concerns have grown that fighting could erupt among the complex array of militias and Syrian and Turkish troops who are operating on the crowded battlefield near there. Photographs of American troops […]
PARIS The political committee of French party The Republicans will meet on Monday to discuss the situation of its presidential candidate Francois Fillon, the party said in a statement on Saturday. “Given the evolution of the political situation just seven weeks from the presidential election … the political committee, which includes notably the candidates of the (party) primaries, has been brought forward by 24 hours to Monday […]
WASHINGTON Twenty-one civilians were killed in nine separate strikes by the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria between November and January, the U.S. military said on Saturday. That brings the total number of civilians unintentionally killed by the coalition since the start of operations against the militant group in 2014 to 220, the military said in a statement. “Although the Coalition takes extraordinary efforts […]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has announced the release of his new book, titled “Ta’mulat fi Asa’adah Wl Ejabia” (Reflections on Happiness and Positivity). The Vice President said the book “includes lessons, examples and stories based on a different life philosophy: Positivity as a perspective, and happiness of people as a goal and a lifestyle”. Sheikh Mohammed said that through the book […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for March 5, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Nationwide New movie This Marvel […]
