ROME Virginia Raggi, the anti-establishment mayor of Rome elected by a landslide last year after pledging to crack down on rampant corruption, has been put under investigation for abuse of office and false testimony. Raggi herself announced the investigation in a Facebook post on Tuesday. She will be questioned by prosecutors on Jan. 30, a judicial source said. “Today I’ve received a subpoena from the Rome court,” […]
Despite the supposed cease-fire agreement, new clashes were reported in Wadi Barada, a besieged rebel-held area and source for most of the drinking water for Damascus, the Syrian capital. Water supplies have been cut off for weeks, and the government and rebel sides have blamed each other. Continue reading the main story The agreement among Iran, Russia and Turkey was announced a day after the Syrian factions […]
By Pedro Fonseca | RIO DE JANEIRO RIO DE JANEIRO A small plane carrying a Brazilian Supreme Court justice overseeing a political bribery investigation did not suffer any obvious mechanical failure when it crashed into a bay amid heavy rain and killed all five on board, investigators said on Tuesday. That preliminary analysis came from what investigators heard on the final 30 minutes of audio captured by […]
By John Irish and Andrew Osborn | ASTANA/MOSCOW ASTANA/MOSCOW Peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Kazakhstan were a coup for their international sponsors, but exposed the limits of what Russia, Turkey and Iran can achieve in their efforts to resolve the six-year-old war. It was the first time in nine months the two sides had come together, albeit briefly and unhappily, and the first […]
By Steve Holland and Valerie Volcovici | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Tuesday to move forward with construction of the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, rolling back key Obama administration environmental policies in favor of expanding energy infrastructure. While oil producers in Canada and North Dakota are expected to benefit from a quicker route for crude oil to […]
Of the many quandaries investors must grapple with this year, high on their list is Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin. Not far behind is this — should they throw off their instinctive caution about Russia and its president, and push the rouble a lot higher? The turnround in the Russian rouble’s fortunes largely reflects the recovery in the price of oil, the country’s biggest export. That […]
Oil and gas company Saudi Aramco has invited banks to pitch for an advisory position on what is expected to be the world’s biggest initial public offering, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley and HSBC are among banks that have received the request for proposals, one of the sources told Reuters, with the other adding that the invitation was to evaluate Aramco’s […]
An 18-year-old woman and her family have won a battle in an Indian court to gain access to a restricted tuberculosis drug that her doctors say she needs to survive. In a consent order from the High Court of Delhi, the Indian government agreed to make the drug, bedaquiline, available to the young woman. She has extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, a rare and dangerous form of […]
BAGHDAD Iraq’s oil is the property of Iraqis, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday, in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump who argued that the United States should have taken possession of the nation’s crude reserves. In a speech to CIA officials on Saturday, Trump suggested the United States should have taken Iraq’s oil in reimbursement for the 2003 invasion that put an end to Saddam […]
Alibaba Group has reported a 54 percent year-on-year revenue growth to US$7.67 billion for the quarter, ended December 31, fuelled by record sales from China’s Singles Day online shopping festival. The Chinese e-commerce operator said revenue from its core commerce business, which included its Taobao and Tmall online platforms, climbed 45 percent to US$6.71 billion (46.58 billion yuan). It pointed to record sales from the November 11 […]
Donald Trump is now president. This challenges many of us, not least members of the press. Countless reporters are still shaken and stunned by how he singled out a CNN reporter, one of the most respected news outlets in the world, to attack and humiliate him during his first press conference since winning the elections. Worryingly, none of his fellow journalists in the room stood up for […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. A fashionista friend in the White House press corps answered this lingering question after Sean Spicer’s much-anticipated first briefing: What exactly was the glaring color of that jacket worn by Kellyanne Conway? “Tomato?” she guessed. Well, it was especially vivid […]
BERLIN Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said it will halt production at one of its biggest auto-making factories in Germany on more days than originally planned because of shrinking demand for the Passat saloon and estate models. Production of the Passat at VW’s northern German plant in Emden will be stopped on Feb. 16-17 and Feb. 21, a spokesman said, adding to disruptions agreed earlier this month. Europe’s largest automaker […]
DUBAI // Pupils from across the country listened as satellite engineers from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre shared their experiences and discussed the obstacles they had to overcome to develop the nation’s first satellites. Speaking at the Project Space Forum on Tuesday, Salem Al Marri, assistant director-general for scientific and technical affairs, explained how in 2006, a group of young Emirati engineers went to South Korea […]
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare company, blamed a stronger dollar as it forecast that 2017 profits and sales would fall below Wall Street expectations, sending the group’s shares down by more than 2 per cent. Dominic Caruso, chief financial officer, said it appeared that many Wall Street analysts had not updated their models to account “for the negative impacts of currency movement” as J&J became […]
Photo Construction in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on Sunday. The Israeli government is showing signs that it is increasingly willing to disregard international condemnation of its settlements. Credit Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press JERUSALEM — Israel on Tuesday approved the construction of 2,500 housing units for Jews in West Bank settlements, throwing off diplomatic restraint just a few days into the beginning of the Trump administration. […]
By Bernie Woodall | DETROIT DETROIT Ford Motor Co (F.N), in a bid for a piece of the rapidly growing global auto parts market, is launching a new brand called Omnicraft to sell parts to Ford dealers and independent repair shops to fix competitors’ vehicles. Omnicraft joins Ford’s established Motorcraft which makes parts for Ford vehicles. Frederiek Toney, president of Ford’s customer service division, said the global […]
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, “Racist” is the favorite epithet of the left. Every white person (except leftists) is a racist by definition. As we are defined as racists based on our skin color, I am puzzled why we are called racists a second, third, and fourth time due to specific acts, such as favoring the enforcement of immigration laws. For example, President Donald Trump says he […]
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) announced on Tuesday it has appointed PwC to conduct an independent review into the “world first” hardware issue the ATO experienced in December. The tax office expects the consultancy firm’s review will provide insight into what actually happened and why, and what needs to be done to ensure the same incident does not occur in the future. The ATO said it chose […]
When it came out, the Galaxy Note 7 was nearly universally revered for standing as a sterling flagship released by Samsung in the second half of 2016. That is until several units began exploding. Thought at first as simply battery charging mishaps, a continuous influx of reports soon revealed that the problem was more insidious, and it may have stemmed from battery flaws or the phone’s manufacturing process. […]
A wave of about 25 African, European and South American countries is set to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank this year, reinforcing Beijing’s determination to push a global agenda even as US President Donald Trump rails against the ills of economic globalisation. Jin Liqun, president of the AIIB, said on Monday that an expanded membership would help boost lending by the $100bn multilateral organisation, which […]
By Denis Dyomkin and John Irish | ASTANA ASTANA Syria’s warring sides met for their first talks in nine months on Monday, with their Russian and Turkish backers pushing to cement a ceasefire that could pave the way for political talks. The meeting in the Kazakh capital comes at a time when Turkey, which backs the rebels, and Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, each want […]
Center for Public Integrity: What are your aspirations for a Trump presidency? Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher: A strong economy and a strong military and more security for the American people. One of the big promises that Trump has made is “draining the swamp.” What does that mean to you and how do you think he’s going to do that? That means getting rid of some career […]
By Luke Baker and Matt Spetalnick | JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s team spoke often about moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But since taking office, the contentious issue has become more nuanced and may already be moving to the backburner. In a statement issued before a first post-inauguration phone call between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]
