MOSCOW Syrian President Bashar al Assad told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he was ready to observe a ceasefire agreement in Syria, the Kremlin said on Thursday. Putin and Assad spoke on the phone and agreed that the opening of Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan would be “an important step towards the ultimate resolution of the crisis,” the Kremlin said in a statement. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; […]
Diagnosing illnesses can sometimes take a lot of time and money. Some medical procedures that go beyond mere prodding can also be very painful. However, thanks to a new device developed by researchers in Israel, doctors could soon determine a person’s illness simply by getting a quick read of their breath. Just one puff is all it takes. Prof. Hossam Haick and his colleagues at the Technion-Israel […]
Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that Kim Kardashian West has grappled with a tumultuous past few months, including being robbed at gunpoint in Paris in October and dealing with divorce rumours surrounding her marriage with rapper Kanye West, who was hospitalised earlier this month due to “temporary psychosis.” The reality television star is likely welcoming 2017 with the prospect of a fresh start. She […]
MOSCOW Russia’s embassy in Damascus was hit by a mortar shell on Thursday afternoon, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. The blast caused no casualties, Zakharova said in a statement on the ministry’s website. The embassy had been hit by shells twice on Wednesday. The ministry said the attacks were a provocation aimed at derailing a peace settlement. [nNRA33wvkr] (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Kevin […]
“We have seen pro-Israeli presidents all along, and Israel First was the standard policy of the United States of America over the last 50-plus years,” Mr. Abdulla said. “But Trump is going much further than that. It seems he is even more Zionist than the Zionists.” Continue reading the main story Sympathy for the Palestinians has historically been among the few issues that united Arabs across political […]
Russia is set to round off a year of rejuvenated global standing with the distinction of watching its currency stand apart from other major economies and resist US dollar strength. The rouble has been the only major currency to appreciate against the dollar since the end of September and, so far this year, has outperformed rivals, up more than 21 per cent against the dollar to Rbs60.48. […]
ANKARA The countrywide ceasefire in Syria guaranteed by Russia and Turkey does not include Islamic State or the Kurdish YPG militia, a spokesman for Syrian rebels said on Thursday. Speaking at a news conference in Ankara following the announcement of the deal, Osama Abu Zaid, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance, also said the Syrian Kurdish PYD political party would not be part of […]
ROME Italian police have searched three houses in and around Rome, where the man suspected of killing 12 people last week at a Christmas market in Berlin may have spent time, a judicial source said on Thursday. Anis Amri, a Tunisian, first arrived in Europe by boat to the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2011, and was shot dead by police in Milan four days after the […]
BEIJING China has persuaded a fugitive suspected of graft to return home as part of “Operation Skynet” that seeks to capture corrupt officials who flee abroad, the top graft agency said on Thursday. Zhang Jun, the former general manager of Shanghai Sports Investment Management Co Ltd, fled to Australia in 2014 under suspicion of corruption, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement on […]
From an architecture pioneer to legends of screens, music and stage , the Arab world has lost its share of icons and stars in 2016. Here are some of those who we bid farewell to. Zaha Hadid October 31 1950 – March 31 2016 Born in Baghdad, Iraq, the award winning Iraqi-British architect pushed architectural boundaries with her designs and broke new grounds for female architects in […]
Photo The body of a 15-year-old girl at a makeshift morgue on Thursday in the rebel-held town of Douma, Syria, on the outskirts of Damascus, after reports of airstrikes. Credit Abd Doumany/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images MOSCOW — The Syrian government and its most important ally, Russia, announced on Thursday that they had reached a cease-fire agreement with Syrian rebels and with Turkey — a potential turning […]
By Isabel Coles and Stephen Kalin | NEAR MOSUL, Iraq NEAR MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi security forces on Thursday began the second phase of their offensive against Islamic State militants in Mosul, pushing from three directions into eastern districts where the battle has been deadlocked for nearly a month. Since the offensive to capture Mosul began 10 weeks ago, counter-terrorism forces have retaken a quarter of the city, […]
India’s former central bank chief Raghuram Rajan was once described as a “rock star” economist but the Reserve Bank of India’s new deputy governor has actually written an album of songs. Viral Acharya, a New York University professor, was on Wednesday named as a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Not only does Mr. Acharya have an impressive professional and academic record, he is also […]
HELSINKI The former head of Helsinki police’s drugs squad was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in jail for drug smuggling, official misconduct and other crimes including tampering with evidence. Jari Aarnio faces a total of 13 years in prison, including a previous three-year jail term related to the purchase of police surveillance equipment. The case is rare in Finland, whose public sector ranks second least corrupt […]
(Image: file photo) Legacy vendors and the cloud The cloud has devastated revenue, growth and margins of legacy vendors. Any CFO can look online to see what similar capacity, performance, and higher availability costs compared to the huge capital costs of traditional RAID arrays. 2016 saw the world’s largest independent storage company — EMC — bought by Dell, after shopping itself to all the big system vendors. […]
MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed topics including the situation in Syria during phone calls with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Kremlin said on Thursday. (Reporting by Peter Hobson; editing by Katya Golubkova) ‘); $(‘.second-article-divide’).append($(‘.slider.slider-module’)); $(‘.third-article-divide’).append(”); var median = (relatedItemsTotal / 2); var $relatedContentGroupOne = $(‘.related-content.group-one ul’); var $relatedContentGroupTwo = $(‘.related-content.group-two ul’); $.each($relatedItems, function(k,v) { if (k + 1 Also […]
29 December 2016 Munich. As 2016 comes to a close, BMW is able to look back on a highly successful year with well over 50 national and international awards and distinctions. As in the past, vehicles of the brand were highly rated by juries across a range of different categories and topics, frequently finishing at the top of the winners’ rostrum. The awards reflect not just outstanding […]
BEIJING A Chinese general is being investigated for suspected bribery, the defence ministry said on Thursday, a man connected to the jailed former domestic security chief and one of the most senior incumbent military officials to be targeted for graft. Military prosecutors had already opened a case into Wang Jianping, a deputy chief of the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military Commission, ministry spokesman Yang […]
Shares in Toshiba fell 17 per cent to ¥257 on Thursday, taking the total loss of equity value to more than 40 per cent since the Japanese company announced that it was facing a multibillion-dollar writedown at its US nuclear division Westinghouse. As investors continued to digest Tuesday’s warning, shares in some of Japan’s biggest banks slid after the electronics-to-nuclear conglomerate raised the prospect of losses on their […]
On the other were Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump, firing back at what they deemed a hypocritical betrayal of America’s closest friend in the Middle East. Continue reading the main story If Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry were playing for history, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump were playing for time. The departing administration intended for the speech to lay out a path to peace that they had […]
ISTANBUL Prominent Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik on Thursday said he was being detained by authorities over a Twitter statement he made while an opposition lawmaker who spoke to him said the reporter was being accused of terrorist propaganda. At least 81 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), with more than 130 media outlets shut since a failed coup […]
SHANGHAI China’s environment ministry on Thursday warned northern regions to get ready for emergency action to tackle another bout of heavy smog expected over the New Year. Large parts of the north were hit by hazardous smog in mid-December, and authorities ordered hundreds of factories to close and restricted motorists to cut emissions. “Unfavorable weather” was expected to bring more smog to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well […]
Saudi Arabia has announced a timeline for implementation of a tax on harmful products including soft drinks and cigarettes, and said it has completely ruled out income tax contrary to previous reports, according to an official document. The Fiscal Balance Program 2020 report, published by the Saudi government last week, said the kingdom would impose a 50 percent tax on soft drinks and a 100 percent tax […]
MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened corrupt government officials with the prospect of being thrown out of a helicopter mid-air, warning he has done it himself before and had no qualms about doing it again. The fiery-tempered former prosecutor said he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter. “If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter […]
