ABU DHABI // Tobacco as well as fizzy and energy drinks are expected to be taxed this year, the Minister of State for Financial Affairs announced. Obaid Al Tayer was speaking on Wednesday as the Federal National Council approved a draft law that paves the way for value-added tax (VAT) and excise duties on selected items, by setting up a legal framework for taxation. While the GCC […]
Mahmoud Said was born into high society. His family were rich landowners from Alexandria in Egypt and his father, Mohammed Said Pasha, served as Egyptian prime minister from 1910 to 1914, and again briefly in 1919. His sister’s daughter, Safinaz Zulficar, became Queen Farida of Egypt, and her reign lasted almost 11 years. Even then, in the early 20th century, as Said simultaneously worked as a top […]
Machine learning is one of the biggest buzzwords in cybersecurity in 2017. But a sufficiently smart adversary can exploit what the machine learning algorithm does, and reduce the quality of decision-making. special feature Cyberwar and the Future of Cybersecurity Today’s security threats have expanded in scope and seriousness. There can now be millions — or even billions — of dollars at risk when information security isn’t handled […]
Towards the end of British writer China Mieville’s latest fantasy novella, his young protagonist, Thibaut, muses: “Something doesn’t make sense.” “Really?” replies Sam, his mysterious sidekick. “Just one thing?” It’s not an altogether unexpected line: after all, Thibaut has just destroyed a centaur that is part giant, part Second World War German panzer tank. In a world in which the Nazis are still in power in the […]
Hackers can exploit the insecurity of IoT devices for the purposes of espionage or DDoS attacks Image: iStock Cyberattacks exploiting the insecurity of the Internet of Things and hackers increasingly attempting to compromise industrial connected devices represent some of the biggest threats to the UK, those responsible for ensuring national security have warned. Citing incidents including the internet crippling Mirai botnet cyberattack and vulnerabilities in a children’s […]
Authored by Thierry Meyssan via VoltaireNet.org, This article is a warning – in November 2016, a vast system of agitation and propaganda was set up in order to destroy the reputation and the authority of President Donald Trump as soon as he arrived in the White House. It is the first time that such a campaign has been scientifically organised against a President of the United States, […]
From the geometric work of Tunisian artist Nicène Kossentini – who spent time in Córdoba’s Great Mosque while on a residency in Andalusia and produced abstracted drawings based on Tawq Al Hamamah (The Ring of the Dove), a 11th-century treatise of love written by Ibn Hazm – to the paintings of Ahmed Morsi, the pieces displayed as part of the 11th edition of Art Dubai hold fascinating […]
Recently, the open-source multi-instant messaging (IM) program Pidgin was updated to version 2.12.0. That’s the good news. It’s a very useful program if you work with people using multiple IM services. The bad news is that its developers couldn’t add support to newer IM platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Slack. Additionally, it will no longer support the deprecated Facebook XMPP, MSN, MySpace, Mxit, and Yahoo. […]
Phishing scams continue to be an effective method. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto Staff are still falling for phishing scams, with social media friend requests and emails pretending to come from the HR department among the ones most likely to fool workers into handing over usernames and passwords. Phishing scams aim to trick staff into handing over data — normally usernames and passwords — by posing as legitimate email. […]
Why Tavira? At the eastern end of southern Portugal’s perma-sunny Algarve region, Tavira has none of the brashness and concrete overdose that afflicts many of the resort towns in the centre. With a proud heritage dating back through Islamic Al-Andalus, the Roman era and Phoenician traders, Tavira has an authenticity that lends historical weight to its good looks. And boy does it have good looks. Built on […]
A major Nor’easter threatens to shut down travel due to heavy snow and strong winds from Washington, D.C., to New York City and Boston early this week, as weather forecasters on Sunday put the U.S. East Coast on a blizzard watch, warning some 50 million people of potential snowfall from 12 to 18 inches, coupled with wind blasts in some areas from Monday night into Wednesday. New […]
Photo Babies are carried away away from destroyed buildings following an air strike in Aleppo, Syria, in 2016. Credit Ameer Alhalbi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Children suffered a “drastic escalation” in violence from the Syrian civil war in 2016, the United Nations said Sunday in a report that showed child deaths jumped at least 20 percent from the year before and recruitment of child combatants more than […]
The anti-Dutch remarks from Turkey inflamed tensions among the Turkish community in the Netherlands, who protested in Rotterdam until the early hours of Sunday, when they were dispersed by police officers wielding batons and water cannons. The police arrested 12 people, and seven were injured, including a policeman, whose hand was broken. Continue reading the main story Though Turkish law technically bars the practice, Turkish ministers are […]
When it comes to renewable energy in Saudi Arabia, there still remains more than a hint of scepticism. Multi-billion dollar plans have come and gone and the kingdom has made little progress developing renewable energy capabilities to harness its advantageous climatic conditions. In 2010, the King Abdullah Centre for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-Care) was established to develop the country’s renewable and nuclear capabilities, as the country […]
Saudi King Salman’s stop in the Maldives on his month-long tour of Asia brings into focus how this tiny archipelago – best known for high-end tourism and an existential battle against climate change – has emerged as a key player in a regional struggle for influence. Both Riyadh and Beijing are currying favour with the strategically located 820km-long chain of Indian Ocean atolls, in efforts analysts believe […]
Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Strategic Culture Foundation, While the world continues to decipher, or digest, the new Trump presidency, important changes are afoot within the grand strategic triangle that lies between Russia, Iran and China Away from the current chaos in the United States, major developments are progressing, with Iran, Russia and China coordinating on a series of significant moves crucial for the future of […]
DUBAI // It’s usually thought of as a cosmetic treatment that can make people look younger. But now Botox injections are being used to relieve the misery of migraine sufferers. Those with chronic neurological conditions, neck pain, muscle cramps, twitching eyelids or even excessive sweating could benefit from injections. Doctors at the German Neuroscience Centre have used Botox on patients who may have developed a resistance to […]
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. British reporter Iona Craig went to the al Ghayil, the Yemeni town stormed by Navy SEALs in the raid that President Trump says was a great success even as it claimed the life of the operator whose widow was honored […]
This report marks the end of a series of three big trains of thought. The first explained how we’re living through the Mother Of All Financial Bubbles. The next detailed the Great Wealth Transfer that is now underway, siphoning our wealth into the pockets of an elite few. This concluding report predicts how these deleterious and unsustainable trends will inevitably ‘resolve’ (which is a pleasant way of […]
Retailers in the UAE need to offer more rewards and offer a personal service to customers to thrive in a marketplace where competition is becoming more intense, according to a new report. New research from ICLP said that despite efforts to engage millennials, retail brands in the UAE are still failing to truly understand this customer base, with only 4 percent of UAE consumers feeling devoted to […]
Beyond the Net Journal: Armenia Chapter #3 Episode When Armenia declared independence in 1991, the Internet access finally became available, allowing people to be part of the world again. The creation of an Internet Availability Center in 2012 (funded by Internet Society’s grant) at the Culture House for the Blind in Yerevan, triggered creative ideas among active members of the center. They came to conclusion that an […]
AJMAN // Four electrical engineering students have designed a one-of-a-kind smart bed for disabled people. The students at Ajman University of Science and Technology saw the problems paralysed people face and came up with the smart bed idea and decided to use it as their senior project. They combined four essentials that paralysed patients need into one bed: a manual and auto controller used to flip the […]
The Abu Dhabi Festival’s main programme kicks off with arguably the most-important singer from the region. Tickets to Mohamed Abdo’s long-awaited concert on Tuesday evening at Emirates Palace have been sold out for a while now. Popularly known as “Fanan Al Arab” or “Artist of the Arabs” (a title he was given in the 1980s during a concert in Tunis by then president Al Habib Bou Rakiba), […]
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com, There is an inherent dilemma for most of the people living in cities. Even those who are aware of the extremely fragile fabric of society are often stuck living urban lives. Perhaps they plan to retire to a country abode, or construct a hideaway to escape to if the need ever arises, but for now, they are stuck in the city […]
Think to log in, please. Credit: Syda Productions/Shutterstock Biometrics – technology that can recognise individuals based on physical and behavioural traits such as their faces, voices or fingerprints – are becoming increasingly important to combat financial fraud and security threats. This is because traditional approaches, such as those based on PIN numbers or passwords, are proving too easily compromised. For example, Barclays has introduced TouchID, whereby customers […]
It’s a tale as old as time, and now the story of Belle and the Beast can be explored in some of Disney’s popular mobile games. In celebration of the upcoming theatrical release of the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, Disney announced that it is adding brand-new content related to the classic film across its library of apps. The new Beauty and the Beast-themed content […]
The report from January was one of hundreds that Mr. Abdul Kareem has made inside Syria in recent years, building his reputation as a unique voice covering the war from rebel-held areas that other Western journalists have fled for fear of kidnapping and beheading by jihadists. Continue reading the main story Along the way, Mr. Abdul Kareem has interviewed foreign fighters from Britain, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere […]
Turkey saw just four percent growth in its internet population, but that means two million more people are online. Image: Getty Images “Digital is growing faster in the Middle East than anywhere else in the world,” Simon Kemp, founder of Kepios, tells ZDNet. Kemp, a marketing strategist based in Singapore, is the author of six annual studies charting the trends in mobile, the internet, and social media […]
Via Dmitriy Sedov of The Strategic Culture Foundation, The things European politicians have had to listen to from Recep Tayyip Erdo?an! Over the 14 years of his administration, this charismatic Turkish leader has managed to tally up a long list of the sins committed by the European Union and has often promised to make the EU pay a price for each of them. European politicians have not […]
DUBAI // The Middle East needs more people like Dr Ismahane Elouafi. In fact, much of the world does. An expert in food and water security, she has a crucial role to play at a time when farmers across the region are increasingly struggling to grow crops in what is clearly a harsh climate. But the director general of the Dubai-based International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture relishes […]
