In a vote in the early Wednesday morning hours, the Senate approved the final version of the first overhaul of the US tax code in more than 30 years, handing President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans their most significant legislative victory of 2017. The bill passed along party lines, 51-48 with the final result announced…
MICHAEL Kors Holdings Limited, Ralph Lauren Corp and other fashion brands are locked in a high-stakes contest this Christmas. But the winner won’t be the company that sells the most – it’ll be the one that winds up with the least amount of unwanted merchandise. After years of struggling to manage their inventory, brands are…
RIYADH – Saudi Arabia will allow women to attend sports events in stadiums for the first time from next year, officials say. Families will be able to enter the stadiums in three major cities – Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. It is another move towards giving more freedom to Saudi women, who face strict gender segregation…
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump’s latest bid to impose travel restrictions on citizens from eight countries entering the US has suffered a court defeat. A federal judge slapped a temporary restraining order on the open-ended ban before it could take effect this week. The policy targets Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North…
WELLINGTON – New Zealand’s small nationalist party which holds the balance of power after an inconclusive election held talks on Sunday with Prime Minister Bill English and separately with the opposition Labour leader as both try to form a coalition government. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has said he would only make a decision…
NEW YORK – Hurricane Nate has made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) says. The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 85mph (137km/h), is moving north, and a second landfall is expected on the Mississippi coast later. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida earlier…
NEW YORK – Two weeks ago, Lacy MacAuley was shocked when she opened her email inbox to find a message informing her that the US Department of Justice had served a warrant to Facebook to access her personal account. “I had heard that Facebook was fighting some warrants, but I certainly didn’t give it much…
LAS VEGAS – More than twenty people have been killed and at least 100 injured in a mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert. A gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel toward an open-air music festival being held close by. Police said a suspect identified as a local resident,…
NEW YORK – Donald Trump’s first major speech at the United Nations has been denounced by some of the member nations he singled out for criticism. The US president included Iran among “a small group of rogue regimes”, and said the US would “totally destroy” North Korea if forced to do so. Iran’s foreign minister…
PYONGYANG – The United Nations has imposed a fresh round of sanctions on North Korea after its sixth and largest nuclear test. The measures restrict oil imports and ban textile exports – an attempt to starve the North of fuel and income for its weapons programmes. The US had originally proposed harsher sanctions including a…
