By Sophie Sassard | LONDON LONDON Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA.O) aims to make a firm cash bid for British broadcaster Sky (SKYB.L) this week, valuing the company at 10.75 pounds ($13.60) per share, several people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Fox and Sky have agreed to press ahead with a scheme of arrangement which could make it easier for Fox to get the […]
Britain’s exit from the European Union will mean it can forge free trade deals with Gulf Arab allies, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday in a speech also heralding closer defence ties to the conservative monarchies. Johnson was speaking at a conference in Bahrain a day after footage was published of him accusing Saudi Arabia, an important ally for Britain, and Iran of stoking proxy wars […]
HONG KONG, December 12 Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary John Tsang has resigned his post pending an announcement he will run for the city’s top job next March, Cable TV news reported on Monday. The resignation ends months of speculation on whether 65-year-old Tsang, currently topping popularity polls, wanted to run for Chief Executive of Hong Kong. It comes after unpopular incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced last […]
Photo: Bullit Marquez, AP FILE – In this Dec. 2, 2016, file photo, protesters burn a mock American flag during a protest against the planned joint US-Philippines military exercise in central Philippines in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines. The Philippines has again thumbed its nose at the U.S., its longtime defense ally, saying it won’t be used as a springboard for U.S. ships and […]
LONDON A major shareholder in British pay-TV company Sky (SKYB.L) will vote against Twenty-First Century Fox’s (FOXA.O) $14 billion takeover bid, the investor told Reuters on Sunday, while another said it is unhappy about the offer. Rupert Murdoch’s Fox offered 10.75 pounds ($13.52) a share in cash on Friday in its second attempt to buy the 61 percent of the business that it does not own, with […]
More than ever before, these articles pulled the curtain back on how an estimated $100 billion in undeclared money has been siphoned from Canada into offshore tax havens. Since the first investigations were published, the federal government has invested almost $500 million in the Canada Revenue Agency aimed at tougher tax enforcement, launched investigations into 85 Canadians identified in the Panama Papers and compelled banks to divulge […]
AMMAN Russian air strikes forced Islamic State fighters to retreat to the outskirts of Palmyra on Sunday, a day after they had stormed the ancient city in eastern Syria, a war monitor said. The militants were now fighting in orchards on the fringe of Palmyra, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its jets had launched 64 strikes and killed more than […]
British actor Bill Nighy walked the red carpet at the Dubai International Film Festival on Friday night at a gala screening of his latest movie, the Second World War drama Their Finest. But with the fifth film of the Underworld franchise still in local cinemas, and given that he played Vampire elder Viktor earlier in the series, it seems his mind was at least partly on all […]
DUBAI // Ten years ago, divers off the UAE coast revelled in regular sightings of many shark species. But overfishing and a demanding market in Asia for shark fins have put that number in decline, to the point of extinction in many cases. Conservationists hope they can help to halt that decline with a film festival in Dubai educating people about the important role sharks play. The […]
DUBLIN A group of British and Irish lawyers are seeking to challenge Britain’s decision to leave the European Union in the Irish High Court to try to establish if Brexit can be reversed once divorce talks have been triggered. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty by the end of March, kicking off up to two […]
By Laila Bassam and John Davison | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT Syrian’s military and Russian warplanes bombarded rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Saturday as Damascus’s allies said victory was near, but insurgents fought back and army advances halted after rapid gains during the week. The United States said it was meeting a Russian team in Geneva to find a way to save lives, but an agreement looked […]
LONDON Rupert Murdoch’s new takeover approach for British pay-TV firm Sky should be investigated by the UK’s competition authorities, according to the former minister who referred the tycoon’s previous bid. Vince Cable, who was Britain’s business secretary at the time of Murdoch’s first bid in 2010-11 told BBC radio the media tycoon’s new takeover attempt would not be in the public interest. On Friday Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century […]
Ghana re-established its reputation as one of Africa’s cleanest democracies on Friday when authorities proclaimed opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, 72, a British-educated lawyer and veteran statesman, as the next president. The victory by Mr Akufo-Addo’s centre New Patriotic party, after eight years of rule by the left-leaning National Democratic Congress, triggered wild celebrations across much of the country. It follows the surprise electoral defeat last week of […]
DUBAI // Bollywood legend Om Puri and former English footballer Vinnie Jones may not sound like the most likely pairing for a new Dubai-produced movie, but that’s what recently launched UAE production company Nugen Productions is offering to the world. At a barely publicised event on Thursday, the producer of the new film, Solar Eclipse, Pankaj Sehgal and cast members, including Puri and Grammy-winning composer Rob Diggy […]
“When we took the land in Dubailand and talked about our plans to launch a sustainable project, many thought we were just bluffing. Today, when people come and see our project they are simply amazed,” says Faris Saeed, sitting in his temporary office in one of the solar-powered villas in The Sustainable City. Ironically, the new city is the result of a failed development called The Lagoons, […]
Pearson, Microsoft and Google collaborate on state-of-the-art learning technology. Dubai,UAE, 9 December 2016 Pearson launched its latest augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) educational technology in the Middle East. This includes content for Microsoft HoloLens, the brand new augmented reality viewer, as well as content for VR including interactive 360° courseware. Microsoft’s HoloLens, is the world’s first untethered augmented reality system. HoloLens is a device that […]
Relegated to the backbench of the UK parliament, George Osborne has a great deal more time on his hands after the very public failed Brexit ‘Remain’ campaign. The former British chancellor is using the downtime to investigate why a wave of populist nationalism is currently sweeping across the world – and how it managed to bruise his political career as well as that of former prime minister […]
Brexit may have come at the most fortunate time for the GCC. As the Gulf seeks greater support to fend off security risks in the region, including Iranian actions, and avenues to shore up bilateral trade in replacement of lost oil revenues, the UK is reaching out to old friends in a bid to strengthen non-mainland European relationships. “We will make it a priority, when the UK […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The Daesh group is calling for its followers to launch attacks in Bahrain, including those targeting American military personnel stationed on the tiny island.The call came in a video that also urges militants to attack the island’s Shiite population.Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, as well as an under-construction British naval base. Officials with 5th Fleet and the Bahraini government […]
I spot the ship long before the car pulls up to the cruise terminal at Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed. Part of the Celebrity Cruises fleet, the stately Celebrity Constellation – dark blue and white, and marked with a distinctive “X” logo at the top – stands 13 decks tall. Orange lifeboats hang high on Deck 5, and the shaded gangplank looks like a tunnel boring into the […]
In a glass cube inside a MK2 cinema near France’s national library in Paris, viewers can choose between HTC Vive, Playstation VR and Oculus Rift headsets, or they can go for “full body immersive” simulators The first wave of virtual reality cinemas, heralding what their creators claim will be an entertainment revolution, rolls out across the world this month. The first screening room in France opened Wednesday […]
A British regulator said on Wednesday that it fined pharmaceutical company Pfizer 84.2 million pounds, or about $107 million, for increasing the price of an epilepsy drug by as much as 2,600 percent. From $3.57 To $85.06 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that the New York-based drug company broke competition law for the excessive and unfair pricing of the phenytoin sodium capsules in the United […]
Not many former nurses have set up a multimillion-pound global skincare company, let alone one that has 100 per cent chemical-free oils and balms, which are some of the purest on the planet. Nor have many developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the extraordinary healing uses of plants; run private yoga, massage and meditation retreats for Hollywood actresses and New York fashion queens; helped revive frankincense production in […]
Britain plans to deepen security cooperation with Gulf Arab countries and work with them to counter Iranian actions in the region, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday. Addressing a meeting on the sidelines of the Gulf Cooperation Summit in Bahrain, May said Britain would invest more than 3 billion pounds in defence spending in the region over the next decade. “Gulf security is our security,” May […]
