Ardi

U.N. Report on Gaza Finds Evidence of War Crimes by Israel and by Palestinian Militants

JERUSALEM — A United Nations investigation found “serious violations of international humanitarian law” that “may amount to war crimes” by both Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during their bloody battle last summer, according to a report released on Monday in Geneva. The report, written by a two-member independent commission of inquiry and submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, said that “impunity prevails […]

June 22

My Ramadan: An expat fasts for understanding

ABU DHABI // In her first Ramadan in the UAE, trainer and triathlete Roisin Thomas has pledged to fast Ramadan both to challenge herself, to become a better athletic professional and to empathise with others. “Living here I see the workers on the streets and the carwash boys that go through hours of sweating, so I can really empathise with them,” said Ms Thomas. “I want to […]

June 21

What's On

WikiLeaks Dumps More Sony Docs, Include Secret Apple Deal

A second cache of 276,394 documents stolen from Sony Pictures Entertainment — possibly by hackers in North Korea — was posted online Thursday by the not-for-profit media organization WikiLeaks. Posted on the third anniversary of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange’s asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the latest Sony documents include confidential memos from executives on coming films, notes on IT strategies, financial forecasts and movie marketing […]

June 19

Karzai, Vowing That He’s Done, Discusses His Afghanistan Legacy

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Thursday called for a radical transformation of politics, economics and individual lifestyles to confront environmental degradation and climate change, as his much-awaited papal encyclical blended a biting critique of consumerism and irresponsible development with a plea for swift and unified global action. The vision that Francis outlined in the 184-page encyclical is sweeping in ambition and scope: He described a relentless […]

June 18

Private wealth in the UAE will see the strongest growth in the GCC with a projected CAGR of 10.7% over the next five years, BCG study finds

UAE. Private wealth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) showed solid growth in 2014 (8.4 percent), according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Global Wealth 2015: Winning the Growth Game, being released today. In the UAE, the growth of private wealth was driven mainly by equities. After all, between 2013 and 2014, the amount of wealth held in equities rose by 13.8 percent […]

June 17

What's On

Big Gaming Guns Come Out at E3

The theme so far this week at the three-day Electronic Entertainment Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center has been video-gaming, with Sony claiming the keynote address slot. Here are nine announcements from the conference so far: New “Doom” on the Way Bethesda got E3 under way by showing off the latest installments of first-person shooter “Doom” and post-apocalyptic role-playing saga “Fallout 4.” The latter game will […]

June 16

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Egyptian Court Confirms Death Sentence for Ousted President Morsi

Video | Morsi Death Sentence Confirmed by Judge A judge in Egypt announced the confirmation of last month’s sentence of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK June 16, 2015 CAIRO — An Egyptian judge slammed the rule of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi as “a black night that lasted a whole year” and confirmed a death sentence against […]

June 16

Shetty’s NMC buys ProVita for $160m

|By TAP Staff| LSE-listed leading UAE healthcare player NMC Health announced entering into an agreement to acquire ProVita International Medical Center, provider of long-term medical care in the UAE, for an equity consideration of $160.6 million. The payment will be made in cash, from TVM Capital Healthcare Partners, the Olayan Group, Al Zarooni Emirates Investment and other minority shareholders, the company said. ProVita is a pioneer in […]

June 15

UK politicians back motion to return QE2 from Dubai

ABU DHABI // Thirty-six members of the British parliament have signed a motion calling for the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner to be returned to Scotland from its Dubai berth. The early day motion, a measure to call for a formal debate in parliament, has been predominantly backed by members of the Scottish National Party (SNP). After expressing “grave concern” at the condition of the vessel, the […]

June 13

Explosion Destroys Ancient Cultural Heritage Site in Yemen Capital

Video | Explosion in Old City of Sana A Unesco world heritage site was damaged on Friday by a blast that witnesses said was caused by airstrikes in Yemen’s capital. By RICK GLADSTONE June 12, 2015 A protected 2,500-year-old cultural heritage site in Yemen’s capital, Sana, was obliterated in an explosion early Friday, and witnesses and news reports said the cause was a missile or bomb from a Saudi […]

June 12

Dubai's private sector output expands at slightly faster pace in May, but growth remains weaker than at the start of 2015

UAE. Dubai private sector companies indicated a modest rebound in output growth from the 18-month low recorded during April, according to the latest Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker™ report. The latest survey also pointed to a slightly faster expansion of incoming new work, while modest job creation and positive sentiment regarding the business outlook was sustained. Of the three key sub-sectors monitored by the survey, construction was […]

June 11

Supreme Court Backs White House on Jerusalem Passport Dispute

By ADAM LIPTAK June 8, 2015 WASHINGTON — Against the backdrop of generations of conflict in the Middle East and the longstanding tensions between Congress and presidents on the conduct of foreign policy there, the Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law that allowed American parents of children born in Jerusalem to obtain passports saying the children were born in Israel. The vote was 6 to 3, with […]

Trial begins for Kuwaiti politician accused of insulting Abu Dhabi Crown Prince

ABU DHABI // A Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood politician has been legally named as a felon after he failed to appear in court to answer charges of publicly insulting a leading member of the royal family. Mubarak Al Duwailah – who is being tried at the Federal Supreme Court in his absence – is also accused of saying that the Judicial Department had fabricated evidence against the group […]

What's On

Apple WWDC Brings Updates to OS X, watchOS, iOS and More

Tech giant Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off Monday at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco with the headlining keynote address. Among the topics discussed during the address were new capabilities for OS X, updates coming to iOS, native apps for the Apple Watch, a streaming music service, and a new version of the watchOS operating system. At the event, Apple also introduced […]

Qataris see anti-Arab bias in scandal

|TAP Special| Sections of public opinion in the Arab Gulf see anti-Arab bias and the grudge in losing the bid for hosting World Cup as the main motivation for the campaign against Qatar in the award of 2022 tournament. As it becomes increasingly clear that the corruption scandal can have very negative implications for the hosting of the tournament, the Arab public opinion is also becoming more […]

GasGuzzlers

Road Music #1: Twistin’ Through the Twisties

/carlustblog.com/ The summer season of long car trips and top-down joyrides is upon us–and we are again confronted with the critical question of what mood music to have playing in the stereo as we drive. Today, we’ll discuss appropriate soundtrack selections for a mad dash down one of the squiggly lines on the map. While music preferences are highly subjective, I propose the following theory for your […]

Brides of Syria Were Joined in Opposition to Violence

Video | Syria: Brides of Peace The sisters Kinda and Lubna Zaour walked through the main souk in Damascus dressed as brides, a symbol of love and peace. They were arrested almost immediately. By ANNE BARNARD June 7, 2015 BEIRUT — The blurry pictures circulating on social media showed several women in white, dressed as brides, standing shoulder to shoulder in a covered market in the old city of […]

June 07

Building sustainable, mixed-use developments

Adams … master-planning is important for sustainable developments. Master-planning key to sustainable mixed-use projects DUBAI, 3 days ago The Middle East has a unique set of challenges and opportunities with regard to creating large, mixed-use developments, says Louise Adams, former country manager UAE at Aurecon, an engineering, planning, project management and consulting company. Adams describes the importance of investing in master-planning, some of the current opportunities and […]

June 07

FIFA under pressure on Qatar World Cup

|TAP Special| The release of a new book, titled The Ugly Game, which claims to contain damning evidence of malpractices within FIFA, is ominously coinciding with a forthcoming debate by European lawmakers on the controversial decision awarding Qatar the right to host 2022 World Cup. The members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have been very critical of the voting process for the award of […]

June 07

Tariq Aziz, Imprisoned Top Aide to Saddam Hussein, Dies at 79

By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 5, 2015 Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister who for decades was the most public face of Saddam Hussein’s government on the world stage, died on Friday in Nasiriya, Iraq, where he had been imprisoned. He was 79. Adel Aldikhaly, the deputy governor of Nasiriya, said Mr. Aziz had had a heart attack after “a long-term incurable disease” and was transferred […]

June 06

Tariq Aziz, Top Aide and Fervent Ally of Saddam Hussein, Dies at 79

Tariq Aziz, left, in 1992 at the United Nations as deputy prime minister of Iraq, talking with Chinmaya Rajaninath Gharekhan, the Indian delegate, at a meeting of the Security Council. By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 5, 2015 Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister who for decades was the most public face of Saddam Hussein’s government on the world stage, died on Friday in Nasiriya, Iraq, where […]

June 06

France Says It Opposes Boycotting Israel

By DIAA HADID June 5, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — France is “firmly opposed” to a boycott of Israel, the French foreign minister said Friday, after the partly state-owned French telecommunications company Orange said it would seek to withdraw its brand from the Israeli market. The company’s decision was seen in Israel as the latest in a rapid succession of blows meant to isolate and punish the country over […]

June 05

Business Continuity risk integral to Internal Audit role

QATAR. Risk, governance, globalization and technology are among the many risks currently facing companies. Internal Audit plays a critical role in addressing these issues while contending with the challenge of complying with the updated Committee of Sponsoring Organizations’ (COSO) Internal Control-Integrated Framework, which is a widely used framework around the world, in which internal control is broadly defined as a process, effected by an entity’s board of […]

June 05

The UAE leads the GCC and the rest of the world with impressive well-being scores, BCG study finds

UAE. According to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the UAE outperforms the GCC and the rest of the world in most dimensions – including income, employment, health, education, infrastructure, income equality, civil society, governance, and environment – when it comes to its current-level Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) scores. Across these dimensions, the UAE topped the average scores of both the GCC and […]

June 03

More arrests coming in FIFA fraud

|By K Raveendran| Qatar has maintained complete silence over any possible connections with the indictment of FIFA officials on various charges, including acceptance of gratification in awarding World Cup editions. The situation continues to hold suspense amidst reports coming from the US that criminal charges are to be brought against more people. Bloomberg reports quoting Internal Revenue Service’s chief investigator that the U.S. investigation of corruption in […]

May 31

Airline passengers happiest when using technology

INTERNATIONAL. Happy passengers are the ultimate goal of airlines and airports and new research from global IT provider SITA proves that technology can help. In a ground-breaking survey, SITA investigated the connection between a passenger’s use of technology and their emotions to discover how passengers around the world feel at every point of the journey. The results reveal that airline passengers are happiest and most excited when […]

May 30

GCC National Oil Companies uniquely positioned to face challenges of continued depressed oil price

UAE. The depressed oil prices predominant since late last year could herald a lasting trend if, as evidence suggests, we are now facing the low-price segment of an oil ‘super cycle’, according to the latest paper from global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. This new situation would pose both challenges and opportunities to Middle East companies and countries. There is still much volatility in the […]

May 30

Record number of pets abandoned over summer in UAE

ABU DHABI // Dogs are a man’s best friend – until the summer holiday season comes around. Animal charities say that this year they are again stretched to breaking point having to care for dogs that have been abandoned by their owners. Jackie Ratcliffe, chairwoman of K9 Friends dog shelter in Dubai, said she hears the same excuses at the start of every summer as pet owners […]

May 30