By Anne Mireille Nzouankeu YAOUNDE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Sitting in a circle with several other young men in a charity’s offices in Cameroon’s capital, Fleur listens intently to the speaker talk about gay sex before slowly raising his hand. “Can we catch AIDS by swallowing sperm?” he asks, prompting laughter from his peers at the group discussion held by Alcondoms, an organisation promoting the rights and […]
Google’s first ever self-branded smartphone effort, the Google Pixel and its larger sibling, the Pixel XL, having dropped the Nexus naming scheme altogether, has so far received warm acclaim, even being heralded as the best Android smartphone today. But the pair isn’t without its problems. Those who are planning to get Google’s flagships should best learn some of its known issues. Sure, it’s an excellent smartphone bearing […]
BANGKOK Devotees of a Buddhist abbot suspected of money laundering barricaded entrances to their temple on Tuesday as more than 700 police assembled outside, preparing to raid the sprawling complex north of Bangkok. The Wat Phra Dhammakaya Temple commands a huge following and is supported by influential Thai politicians and business folk, but critics say it exploits people and religion for money. Thailand’s attorney general said in […]
As the world’s reaction to news of George Michael’s death at 53 spread on social media, his UAE fans paused to fondly remember the pop legend. Taher Afridi, 36, a Pakistani who was born and raised in UAE, still recalled dancing to his favourite Michael song, Fast Love, when the pop-star played at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City stadium in December 2008. “There are many reasons why […]
The prime minister defended his retaliation. “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek,” he said. “This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.” Continue reading the main story The Security […]
JAKARTA An Indonesian court will proceed with a controversial blasphemy case against Jakarta’s Christian governor, who is accused of insulting the Koran, a judge said on Tuesday. A panel of judges rejected a call by lawyers defending Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama to strike down the case because it had violated the ethnic Chinese politician’s human rights and breached procedures. “The exception by the defendant will be considered […]
TAIPEI A group of Chinese warships led by the country’s sole aircraft carrier is heading towards China’s southern island province of Hainan through the South China Sea, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, in what Beijing describes as a routine drill. The carrier group has already rounded Taiwan, passing first between the southern Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa and then skirting southern Taiwan via the Bashi […]
The NBA has teamed up with NextVR to provide basketball fans with a whole new way of watching the games of their favorite teams. Through virtual reality, fans can watch NBA games as if they are in the stands, and sometimes, even courtside. NBA Enters Virtual Reality “I mean, the players are like, there. I should be touching them but I’m not,” said CBS News correspondent Dana […]
Thousands gathered on Monday to watch Dubai Festival City’s new attraction, which transforms Festival Bay with multi-media. It features the latest entertainment technology in water, pyrotechnics, lasers, lights, 3-D projections and dramatic effects. Cedric Ribeiro / Getty Images The show, entitlted A Show Like No Other, attempted to break a Guinness World Record for fireworks displays. Seen here, a 3D Projection during the show at Dubai Festival […]
Stacie Overton Johnson and Adam Workman pick their favourite restaurants of the year, based on great decor and ambience as well as fabulous food. • Reviewed meals are paid for by The National and conducted incognito. Contact the restaurants as prices may have changed since our original reviews newslide Abu Dhabi Butcher & Still Very few of us will ever be cool enough to recreate the Al […]
The European Central Bank has said that Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s capital shortfall has risen to €8.8bn from €5bn, significantly increasing the price tag of the rescue of Italy’s third-largest lender by the government. In a statement released late on Monday, MPS also revealed that the ECB had warned that the bank’s liquidity had suffered a “rapid deterioration” over the past month, as it tried in […]
ACE Hardware, the world’s largest hardware retail cooperative, is to open at First Avenue in Dubai’s Motor City, becoming its main anchor retail tenant. The retailer said in a statement that it will operate on the ground floor across an area of almost 6,500 sq ft. ACE stores sell a wide variety of hardware products to maintain and fix homes and businesses. “The pace of demographic growth […]
2016 was another fantastic year in mobile technology where we find people using their smartphones as their primary source of information and social interaction. I’ve been blessed to now write here on ZDNet for more than a decade and look forward to an exciting 2017. This year-end post includes my ten most viewed posts from 2016, some “best of” titles for this year, answers to last year’s […]
By Jeffrey Heller | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM Benjamin Netanyahu has been unrelenting in his criticism of the Obama administration over what he condemned as its “shameful” decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement-building. But with the clock ticking down on Barack Obama’s presidency, a possibly more amenable Republican Donald Trump waiting in the wings and a $38 billion U.S. […]
By Stephen Kalin | EAST OF MOSUL, Iraq EAST OF MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi forces will resume their push against Islamic State inside Mosul in the coming days, a U.S. battlefield commander said, in a new phase of the two-month-old operation that will see American troops deployed closer to the front line in the city. The battle for Mosul, involving 100,000 Iraqi troops, members of the Kurdish security […]
PARIS The Tunisian suspect behind the truck attack that killed 12 people in a Berlin Christmas market last week appears to have passed through Lyon in France as he fled to Italy, a French judicial source said on Monday. Video surveillance footage showed Anis Amri at the Lyon-Part-Dieu train station on Thursday, and officials believe it was at the station that he bought a ticket for Chambery, […]
MANILA A typhoon weakened as it cut across the Philippines on Monday after bringing down trees and power lines, and authorities warned of flash floods and mudslides although casualties were few with police reporting only two deaths. Typhoon Nock-ten’s wind speed eased to 130 kph (80 mph) as it headed west toward the South China Sea, passing through provinces south of the capital Manila at a speed […]
Infrastructure works for two new berths at King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City will be finished in the next few weeks, significantly boosting capacity. Berths 5 and 6 are part of the port’s expansion plan, which aims to significantly uprate the port’s capacity, thus boosting its standing in the maritime industry, both regionally and internationally, a statement said. “With the two new berths, […]
Researchers have, for the first time, successfully demonstrated the basic operation of spintronics-based artificial intelligence. (via WSJ)
BOGOTA Errors by the pilot, airline and Bolivian regulators are to blame for a plane crash in Colombia that killed 71 people last month, including most of Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer team, Colombia aviation authorities said on Monday. The plane, operated by Bolivia-based charter company LaMia, crashed on a wooded hillside near Medellin because the pilot failed to refuel en route and did not report engine failures caused […]
A powerful typhoon blew out of the northern Philippines on Monday after killing at least six people and spoiling Christmas in several provinces, where more than 380,000 people abandoned celebrations at home to reach emergency shelters and other safer grounds. Typhoon Nock-Ten cut power to five entire provinces due to toppled electric posts and trees, dimming Christmas revelries in Asia’s largest Catholic nation. More than 300 flights […]
By Humeyra Pamuk | ISTANBUL ISTANBUL Turkish authorities have arrested the cafeteria manager of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper for insulting the president after he said he would not serve tea to Tayyip Erdogan, one of the manager’s lawyers told Reuters on Monday. Senol Buran, who runs the cafeteria at the Istanbul office of Cumhuriyet, was taken into custody after police raided his home late on Saturday, lawyer […]
DARPA is well known for creating robots and other cool things for the American military, and there is no end in sight. The company is preparing to put into production its LUKE bionic arm, a robotic device that has been in development for the last eight years. This interesting bionic limb will eventually make it to the commercial market, but DARPA wants to allow war veterans to […]
26 December 2016 Middle East Payment Services (MEPS) – a leading, innovative payment services provider in the Middle East – has formally activated its acceptance of UnionPay cards at points-of sale (POS) across the Kingdom. This step follows the signing of a partnership agreement between MEPS and UnionPay International (UPI), a leading global payment services provider. Under the terms of the agreement, MEPS will not only accept […]
