Arabian Post Special

A Saudi Morals Enforcer Called for a More Liberal Islam. Then the Death Threats Began.

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — For most of his adult life, Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi worked among the bearded enforcers of Saudi Arabia. He was a dedicated employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — known abroad as the religious police — serving with the front-line troops protecting the Islamic kingdom from Westernization, secularism and anything but the most conservative Islamic practices. […]

July 12

A Saudi Morals Enforcer Called for a More Liberal Islam. Then the Death Threats Began.

July 12

Bombing Kills More Than 140 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — As celebrations for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan stretched past midnight into Sunday in central Baghdad, where Iraqis had gathered to eat, shop and just be together, a minivan packed with explosives blew up and killed at least 143 people — the third mass slaughter across three countries in less than a week. The attack was the deadliest in Baghdad in years — at […]

July 05

Millions of Health Records Reportedly Appear for Sale on Dark Web

Two days after reporting that 655,000 healthcare records were found for sale on the dark web, the site DeepDotWeb said today that another insurance database with at least 9.3 million patient records is being shopped around by an anonymous hacker. Over the weekend, a hacker using the name “thedarkoverlord” was offering for sale records taken from databases managed by three healthcare organizations in Missouri, Georgia and the […]

June 29

Uber Aims To Give Upfront Price, Kills Off the Scary Lightning Bolt

A lot of people love Uber, the San Francisco-based vehicles-for-hire company. What they don’t love is being uncertain about how much they will have to pay to hire those vehicles. Uber has come under fire for its so-called surge pricing, which jacks up the amount of users’ fares when demand for rides exceeds the number of drivers available. Now, the company is modifying its app to make […]

June 25

Will WhatsApp Win Messaging Wars? What Is WhatsApp Anyway?

Backed by the wide-scale social influence of Facebook, WhatsApp appears poised to have an even greater impact on the global communications market, including voice calling as well as text messaging services. Yesterday, the Facebook-owned mobile messaging service announced it is now supporting more than 100 million voice calls every day, a service it began offering just 18 months ago. WhatsApp also rolled out a desktop version of […]

June 24

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Ramadan is not an excuse to slow down at work

It is the duty of all to work hard with full dedication during shortened working hours Ramadan is a month for Muslims to feel closer to God and look inward into their soul. It is a time to foster bonds with family and loved ones. It is a month of caring, empathising with the needy and doing good deeds. But with this journey of introspection also comes […]

June 22

Google Makes Two-Step Verification Easier With New Prompt

Security experts regularly urge people to make their online accounts safer with two-factor authentication. Now Google has introduced new settings designed to make that easier for Google Apps administrators and users. By changing their Google sign-in and security settings, users can now opt for an alternative to the six-digit codes Google usually sends out to enable identity verification via mobile devices. Instead, Google Apps users can choose […]

June 21

Reading Nation auction of rare Quran manuscripts in Dubai

Rare Quran manuscripts, paintings and number plates auctioned to raise funds for Reading Nation campaign A priceless collection of historic manuscripts and artifacts is being auctioned at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai to raise funds for the ongoing Reading Nation Ramadan campaign. Here’s our coverage of the event as it happened. (Inputs from Mary Achkhanian, Staff reporter) Campaign collects Dh40 million The charity auction held for Reading Nation campaign launched by […]

June 21

Baghdad Journal: Falluja Restaurant Is Reborn in Baghdad, Offering Nostalgia With Its Kebab

BAGHDAD — Long before Falluja was known the world over for deadly jihadists, it was known all over Iraq for its kebab — fatty lamb, ground and mixed with onion, grilled on a skewer over an open fire and served with a pinch of sumac — at a joint called Haji Hussein. Everyone, it seemed, ate at Haji Hussein: locals, soldiers, tourists and businessmen traveling the Baghdad-to-Amman […]

June 21

SugarCRM Touts Intelligent CRM Strategy at SugarCon Event

During its annual SugarCon conference last week, customer relationship management (CRM) firm SugarCRM unveiled a new machine learning-based offering that’s currently in development: Sugar Intelligence Service. The service, which will be delivered through a Siri- or Cortana-like artificial intelligence (AI) agent called “Candace,” will combine companies’ in-house data with other outside sources to provide predictive analytics and a more 360-degree view of customers. No release date or […]

June 20

Oracle Unveils New Cloud Partner Platform

A new enterprise offering introduced by Oracle today is designed to enable independent software vendors (ISVs) to transition their businesses to the cloud, the company said. The new platform, called the Oracle Cloud Platform Ready for Independent Software Vendors, will allow ISVs to quickly register and publish their Oracle Cloud-compatible applications on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace, allowing them to fast-track new business opportunities in the cloud. Oracle’s […]

June 20

Columns

Brexit, sterling and UK bank shares

|By Matein Khalid| Sterling sell off in the world currency markets and the sheer populist appeal of Boris Johnson suggests the world should not rule out a geopolitical shock that will unnerve financial markets and lead to the mother of all rate cuts at the Bank of England. If Britain votes to leave the EU, the only currency I want to own is the Swiss franc and gold, […]

June 16

Off the Cuff

Bird brain? Ounce for ounce birds have significantly more neurons in their brains than mammals or primates

The macaw has a brain the size of an unshelled walnut, while the macaque monkey has a brain about the size of a lemon. Nevertheless, the macaw has more neurons in its forebrain — the portion of the brain associated with intelligent behavior — than the macaque. That is one of the surprising results of the first study to systematically measure the number of neurons in the […]

June 13

Off the Cuff

Light-matter interplay probed: Physicists achieve quantum Hall state with light

Light and matter are typically viewed as distinct entities that follow their own, unique rules. Matter has mass and typically exhibits interactions with other matter, while light is massless and does not interact with itself. Yet, wave-particle duality tells us that matter and light both act sometimes like particles, and sometimes like waves. Harnessing the shared wave nature of light and matter, researchers at the University of […]

June 13

Featured Blogs

Lebanon real estate: Demand for Housing down 13% in first quarter 2016

LEBANON. Byblos Bank issued today the results of the Byblos Bank Real Estate Demand Index for the first quarter of 2016. The results show that the Byblos Bank Real Estate Demand Index posted a monthly average of 42.5 points in the first quarter of 2016, representing a decrease of 12.5% from 48.5 points in the fourth quarter of 2015. The results constitute the ninth steepest quarter-on-quarter decline […]

June 09

Featured Blogs

The widening generation gap – demographic differences dictate Saudi Arabia's starkly diverse media consumption habits

SAUDI ARABIA. According to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the digital age has ushered in a number of trends that have transformed the media consumption habits of each Saudi generation profoundly – and vastly differently. In parallel, with information and connectivity available at everyone’s fingertips – anywhere, anytime – the Kingdom’s traditional media landscape has, in recent years, been disrupted. The findings presented […]

June 09

Science

Lucy had neighbors: A review of African fossils

If “Lucy” wasn’t alone, who else was in her neighborhood? Key fossil discoveries over the last few decades in Africa indicate that multiple early human ancestor species lived at the same time more than 3 million years ago. A new review of fossil evidence from the last few decades examines four identified hominin species that co-existed between 3.8 and 3.3 million years ago during the middle Pliocene. […]

June 06

Muhammad Ali: A titan of boxing and the 20th Century

Ali was the most thrilling if not the best heavyweight ever, but he was more than the sum of his athletic gifts Ali faces the media at the US federal court in June 1967, while on trial for refusing to be inducted into the armed forces. New York: Muhammad Ali, the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion who helped define his turbulent times as the most charismatic […]

June 04

Number 1 car plate fetches Dh18 million in Sharjah auction

Emirati businessman Arif Ahmad Al Zarouni pays Dh18 million in fierce bidding to win Shajah No.1 plate Sharjah: Distinguished car number plates generated millions of dirhams during an auction where plate Number 1 fetching Dh18 million in fierce bidding on Saturday evening. Organisers had a tough time controlling the proceedings in the charged atmosphere. Within minutes after the bidding began, the […]

June 04

Off the Cuff

Shy wild boars are sometimes better mothers

It has been known for years that personality traits of animals, such as aggressiveness, risk-taking, curiosity or sociality, may have far-reaching consequences for reproduction and survival. However, separating the effect of personality from other factors, such as environmental conditions, is not easy. If the natural environment of the animals is subjected to strong fluctuations, the different personalities may have different consequences depending on the prevailing situation. For […]

June 03

Ramadan FAQs: All you need to know about the holy month in the UAE

1. What is Ramadan? Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic (Hijri) calendar. It is the most holy month in the calendar for Muslims as it is believed the Quran was revealed to Prophet Mohammed during Ramadan. During this month, Muslims do not consume any food or liquid between fajr and maghrib prayers (at dawn and sunset), not even water. You can check the exact prayer […]

June 02

AutoMotiv

Letter From The UK: Believing The Hype

In all my long days as an automotive writer, not one single car manufacturer has asked me to attend their display at an international motor show, and drape myself alluringly across the hood of one of their vehicles. Sex Sells When people (in truth, men) discovered sex sells, car makers jumped on the band wagon. They found that a seductive model adjacent to the product seemed to […]

June 02

Yoghurt culture: An array that’s plain confusing

It’s amusing that yoghurt, which originated as a way to make milk last longer before the days of refrigeration, now makes grocery shopping last longer as we try to make sense of the dizzying selection in the refrigerator case. I regularly get questions from people confused about which yoghurt to buy. Here are a few of the most commonly asked with answers to help you choose more […]

June 02

Saudi scholar bans ‘Wi-Fi stealing’

New fatwa matches a view expressed in April by Dubai’s Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department Manama: A Saudi scholar has banned the use of other people’s Wi-Fi without their knowledge, saying that Islam could not tolerate theft. “Taking advantage of the Wi-Fi service illegally or without the knowledge of other beneficiaries or providers is not allowed,” Ali Al Hakami, a […]

June 01

Another G7 meeting with nothing to show for it

Advanced economies must take emerging economies into confidence to get desired results The 2008 financial crisis cast a deep shadow over the recent G7 annual meeting, which kept trying to come up with solutions that could lead to the desired economic results. Over the past eight years, they have been making every possible effort to find practical solutions and bring back growth. Unfortunately, their efforts […]

June 01

AutoMotiv

2016 Toyota Sienna Limited Premium AWD Review

Minivans have gotten a bad rap for a long time, but if you haven’t looked at one recently you are in for a surprise. Toyota builds the Sienna minivan which is attractive on the outside and roomy on the inside. Did we really say attractive? The new Sienna isn’t your typical box on wheels that distinguished the model for so long. It has sleek styling that sets […]

June 01

Caltech Files Lawsuit Against Apple and Broadcom Over W-Fi Patents

A lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in California has alleged that Apple, Broadcom and Avago Technologies, a Broadcom subsidiary, have infringed on several Wi-Fi-related patents held by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Filed Thursday in the Central District of California, the complaint claimed that the companies are wrongfully using intellectual property protected by four U.S. patents awarded to Caltech between 2006 and 2012. […]

May 31