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Showing posts from May, 2017

Trump in Saudi Arabia: First foreign trip starts as home troubles mount

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The US has signed its largest ever arms deal with Saudi Arabia as US President Donald Trump's first foreign trip begins in Riyadh. Mr Trump and his wife Melania were greeted in the Saudi capital by King Salman on Saturday morning local time. The eight-day trip will also take in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Brussels, the Vatican, and Sicily. The visit comes as Mr Trump faces uproar at home following his sacking of FBI director James Comey. He has strongly criticised the decision to appoint a special counsel to oversee an inquiry into alleged Russian influence on the US election. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the arms deal was aimed at countering the "malign" influence of Iran. "The package of defence equipment and services supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the entire Gulf region," he told a news conference in Riyadh. Mr Trump is accompanied on his visit by his daughter Ivanka, an unpaid White House adviser, and...

Rich List 2017: UK's super-rich carry on making billions

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The UK's richest 1,000 people "kept calm and carried on making billions" amid the Brexit vote of 2016, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.Their wealth rose by 14% over the past year to a record £658bn, it shows. Brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who invest in property, healthcare and oil and gas, top this year's list with £16.2bn - up £3.2bn on 2016. The list includes a record number of British billionaires - 134 - with 14 new ones emerging over the last year. List compiler Robert Watts said: "While many of us worried about the outcome of the EU referendum, many of Britain's richest people just kept calm and carried on making billions." He said a revived stock market had been behind the surge in wealth for the super-rich. 'Equities soared' "We expected to see a chilling effect in the run-up to the EU referendum, but that simply did not materialise," Mr Watts said. "A buoyant stock market usually drives the wealth o...

Nicki Minaj says she'll pay college tuition fees for fans

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Nicki Minaj says she'll pay college tuition fees for fans if they can prove they got straight A's. Responding to dozens of requests on Twitter asking for help with money, she said she'll do it again in the future. People sent her screengrabs of report cards and stories of their financial troubles. The majority of the pleas were for less than $1,000 (£770) but she seemed to agree to pay $6,000 (£4600) to one student if he could be prove what it was for. The fan, called Josh, said it was for tuition fees, accommodation, food and books. She joked that if she didn't stop with the donations she wouldn't have "any money left". Around 30 fans were chosen. Earlier this year, Chance The Rapper donated $1m (£870,00) to schools in Chicago for "arts and enrichment programming". Speaking to reporters he said: "This isn't about politics, this isn't about posturing, this is about taking care of the kids." At the time he put pr...

Kenyan $2m jackpot winner Abisai doubts he will bet again

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A Kenyan punter who won a $2m (£1.6m) jackpot after correctly predicting the outcome of 17 football matches doubts he will ever bet again. Samuel Abisai, 28, won the jackpot after placing about $2 on two separate picks, betting firm SportPesa says. Mr Abisai plans to give some of his winnings back to society, including supporting his local football team in the western region of Kakamega. The payout is reportedly one of the biggest ever paid in Kenya. The average salary of a civil servant in Kenya is about $150 per month. Kenyans are the biggest gamblers in sub-Saharan Africa. Three-quarters of 17-to-35 year olds in Kenya admit to having placed a bet, according to a recent survey. Gambling on phone apps is easy, so many Kenyans regularly make payments through their mobile phones. The government is worried - and has just slapped a 50% tax on bookmakers, lottery companies and sports betting sites. Mr Abisai is, however, not affected as the taxation comes into effect next...

Paris art dealer 'forgets' €1.5m picture in taxi

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An artwork worth €1.5m ($1.6m; £1.25m) has been found after it was accidentally left in a taxi in Paris. A French art dealer, who has not been identified by police, filed a theft report after forgetting the picture in the cab's boot on Thursday. He reportedly became distracted by a call on his mobile and only noticed he no longer had the picture the next day. The work is Concetto Spaziale (Spatial concept) by Argentina-born Italian artist Lucio Fontana, who died in 1968. The dealer had been making his way to a modern art gallery in Paris's third arrondissement. He tried to locate the taxi he had used but was unsuccessful and on Saturday went to police, Le Parisien newspaper reported. But the driver returned the work on Tuesday, AFP news agency quoted police as saying. Fontana's picture is one of a series of abstracts he made featuring the piercing of the canvas to create an actual dimension of space and using light. The artist became known for founding the s...

Syria war: Many dead in IS attack on displaced people's camp

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More than 30 civilians and Kurdish-led fighters have been killed in an attack by Islamic State militants near Syria's north-eastern border with Iraq. They targeted a makeshift camp for displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees at Rajm al-Salibi, near the town of Shaddadi in Hassakeh province. The militants also also clashed with members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stationed at a nearby checkpoint. The US-backed alliance is spearheading the battle against IS in eastern Syria. Its Kurdish and Arab fighters are close to taking control of the strategically important Euphrates River Valley town of Tabqa and will soon launch an offensive to retake the de facto IS capital of Raqqa. At least five IS suicide bombers blew themselves up outside and inside the camp at Rajm al-Salibi, south-east of the town of Shaddadi, at dawn on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory, a UK-based monitoring group, reports. ...

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