By Sofia Menchu | GUATEMALA CITY GUATEMALA CITY Guatemala on Wednesday arrested the brother and a son of the country’s president, who swept to victory with an anti-graft campaign, for their alleged involvement in corruption. Jimmy Morales was elected president in 2015 pledging to clean up Guatemalan politics after riding a wave of public anger over a corruption scandal that led to the arrest and trial of […]
Senegalese troops were massed last night on the Gambian border, preparing for a possible invasion if Yahya Jammeh, Gambia’s president, refused to step down by midnight. Minutes after midnight, the official end of his term in office, there was no word from Mr Jammeh. As the clock ticked down on Mr Jammeh’s term, diplomatic efforts to persuade him to go had continued. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritania’s […]
ABIDJAN Heavy gunfire erupted after dark on Wednesday in Ivory Coast’s second port city, San Pedro, residents said, as two weeks of military uprisings that have tarnished the West African nation’s image as a post-war success story showed no sign of letting up. The shooting came just hours after the other main port in the commercial capital, Abidjan, reopened after paramilitary gendarmes firing in the air temporarily […]
Via ConvergEx’s Nicholas Colas, Want to know why US stocks feel so fragile? Perhaps we can blame Wall Street analysts. Even after two months of market buzz about lower taxes, infrastructure spending and less regulation juicing investor expectations for better earnings growth, they refuse to bump their revenue or earnings estimates for 2017. Our monthly look at revenue expectations for the companies of the Dow […]
Net profit of QAR 427 million by the end of 2016 Total Assets rose by 7% to QAR 60.6 billion Loans and Advances grew by 5% to reach QAR 35.2 billion by the end of 2016 Deposits reached QAR 32.2 billion, up 4% from the previous year Doha, January 18, 2017 Al Khalij Commercial Bank (al khaliji) P.Q.S.C, in Qatar, released its consolidated financial statements for the […]
US financial stocks have come under pressure since the start the year, denting a sharp rise that began after the election, in the latest sign that the Trump trade has begun to run out of steam. The S&P 500 financial sector has fallen 1.1 per cent since the end of 2016, bucking the broader index that has risen by 1.4 per cent. While the financial index was […]
Saudi Electricity Co (SEC), the Gulf’s largest utility firm, sank to a deeper net loss in its fourth-quarter results as it was hit by higher energy prices and increased operating costs. The company, which the government is aiming to restructure to improve efficiency, made a net loss of 2.34 billion riyals ($624 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, according to a bourse statement on Wednesday. […]
As smartphones and data plans became more affordable in India, the South Asian nation swept aside the U.S. and Brazil to become the world’s top consumer of Google Play applications last year. In terms of the number of times people in India downloaded apps from the store, which is part of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, India outpaced both the U.S. and Brazil who were above it the year before, […]
There has been a lot of discussion about Twitter lately, most of it negative—it can’t make money on advertising, growth is down, and online bullies remain a problem. Meanwhile, Donald Trump tweets daily; more every day since the election. This alone, you’d think, would draw more attention to Twitter and make it more popular. Twitter actually does over $2.5 billion in revenue, but tech companies […]
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD A jailed Pakistani doctor believed to have helped the CIA hunt down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will be neither released nor handed to the United States, Pakistan’s law minister has told legislators, media reported on Wednesday. Dr. Shakil Afridi, hailed as a hero by U.S. officials, was arrested after U.S. forces killed bin Laden in May 2011 in a […]
The White House declined to disclose what decision Mr. Obama had reached, but some administration officials believe it is unlikely that he will resolve the contentious issue in the waning moments of his presidency. Continue reading the main story That such a pivotal decision has been left to Mr. Obama’s final weeks in office reflects the complexity of the debate about working with the Y.P.G., as the […]
By Tom Westbrook | SYDNEY SYDNEY The Australian government said on Wednesday it was not ruling out a future underwater search for a missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet as families of those on board criticised the decision to suspend the hunt after three fruitless years. The location of Flight MH370 has become one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries since the plane, a Boeing 777, disappeared in […]
BEIJING Chinese authorities have asked an unnamed Chinese province to turn off its early warning alert system for smog to avoid mismatches between environment and meteorological authority forecasts, state media reported late on Tuesday. Nearly three years into a “war on pollution”, large swathes of northern China have been engulfed in smog over the New Year, with dangerous air quality readings in major cities like Beijing, Tianjin […]
By Saikat Chatterjee | HONG KONG HONG KONG Asian stock markets held near three-month highs on Wednesday as investors scooped up exporter shares after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump expressed concerns over a stronger dollar. In Asia, MSCI’s ex-Japan Asia-Pacific shares index .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.3 percent, just shy of a three-month high hit last Thursday. Stock markets in Hong Kong .HSI and China .SSEC led the gains. “Trump’s […]
From a domestic murder-mystery and a Serbian folk tale to an Arabian moral fable and an “existential crisis in 10 minutes or less”, audiences can expect a dizzying display of diversity at this weekend’s Short+Sweet Abu Dhabi theatre festival. The competitive event, at New York University Abu Dhabi, will showcase a dozen locally-produced plays – each performed both on Friday and Saturday (January 20-21) – constrained only […]
Cambodia is to scrap an annual joint military exercise with the US in the latest shake-up in security co-operation between Washington and Southeast Asian capitals. The cancellation comes as Beijing and Washington battle for influence in Southeast Asia amid signs that president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration could take a tougher line over China’s maritime territory claims in the region. Countries including the Philippines and Malaysia have already […]
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, sees investment opportunities in China’s fixed income and real estate markets, as well as smaller Chinese companies, its managing director told China Finance. ADIA, which has been investing in China for 25 years, has its largest exposure in listed equities, including a $2.5 billion allocation to the China A market, which lists shares denominated […]
The cruise map is ever expanding and 2017 will see new ports of call make their mark. We look at some of the most unusual and alluring of them. newslide Doha and the UAE The Arabian Gulf cruising market is still relatively young compared to most established destinations such as the Caribbean and Mediterranean, but it’s quite clear that Qatar wants a piece of the action. Doha […]
A much delayed surveillance system to monitor trading in the world’s largest equity market took a big leap forward on Tuesday with the selection of the group to build and operate the project. Founded in 2009, Thesys Technologies, a trading technology provider, beat out the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and SunGard Data Systems. Called the “Hubble telescope” by one regulator, the so-called Consolidated Audit Trail, or CAT, […]
By Caroline Valetkevitch | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as financials and other big post-election gainers lost ground. Biotech and pharma stocks declined after President-elect Donald Trump said in a Washington Post interview over the weekend that he would target companies over drug pricing and that he was ready to unveil a plan to replace Obamacare. The Nasdaq biotech index .NBI was down […]
HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed: “The UAE is playing an active role in driving research in science and technology to identify solutions to tackle global water security challenges. This comes in support of the ambitious innovation and energy strategies of our country” Abu Dhabi-UAE: 17 January, 2017 Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs […]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) said it would create about 10,000 jobs in the United States this year, about the same as in previous years, as President-elect Donald Trump puts pressure on companies to hire more U.S. workers. Most of Wal-Mart’s new jobs will be in 59 new stores planned for the fiscal year beginning in February as well as in e-commerce services, the retailer said on Tuesday. […]
Speaking of Kushner, I was told he refused to meet with a senior French diplomat after a demand from Trump Tower that the Paris conference be canceled was ignored. Get used to my-way-or-the-highway diplomacy with team Trump. U.N. resolution 2334 infuriated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who called it “shameful.” He seemed surprised that ignoring Obama’s veto of an earlier settlements resolution in 2011 would have […]
In PwC’s 20th annual survey of CEOs worldwide, 38% (2016:35%) are very confident about their company’s growth prospects in the next 12 months while 29% (2016:27%) believe global economic growth will pick up in 2017 In PwC’s 20th annual survey of CEOs worldwide, 38% (2016:35%) are very confident about their company’s growth prospects in the next 12 months while 29% (2016:27%) believe global economic growth will pick […]
