Investors have piled into Russian equity and bond funds over the past week as oil prices have rallied and President-elect Donald Trump named an oil executive with close ties to Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state. Russian stock funds recorded inflows of $451m in the week to December 14, the biggest weekly haul since the first quarter of 2011, according to EPFR. Mutual funds and exchange […]
It has been touted as one of the most exciting Dubai mega-projects of recent years and has now come to fruition. The $735m Dubai Water Canal — carved out of land between Business Bay and Jumeirah — opened to the public last month, creating a water-bound ‘mini-Manhattan’ that flows from Downtown Dubai to the ocean. The 3.2km-long canal is the final segment of the Dubai Creek extension, […]
Photo On the campus of New York University Abu Dhabi. The failure of Georgetown and N.Y.U. to call out the suppression of critical speech suggests the complicity that gulf money buys. Credit Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis WASHINGTON — Cyberespionage may be the new normal, but you wouldn’t think that an American graduate student would be a target for state-level spyware and surveillance. Apparently, though, I am. On May 19, […]
WASHINGTON/BEIJING China’s plan to punish a U.S. automaker accused of price-fixing is a sign of how Beijing could retaliate if President-elect Donald Trump upends decades of relations between the two nations. Trump’s assertion that the United States need not be bound by the policy that Taiwan is part of “one China” would erode a bedrock of U.S.-China ties that has underpinned the vast increase in trade and […]
“If they’ve managed to sleep through the night, bonds traders in the US will have quite a shock when they check their screens in the morning,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, tweeted early on Thursday. Wall Street bond traders and investors will have turned in on Wednesday night already jolted by the Federal Reserve, which under Janet Yellen’s leadership has become synonymous with caution on […]
By Elias Biryabarema | BIDI BIDI, Uganda BIDI BIDI, Uganda Besides bags, blankets and tales of horror, some of the thousands of refugees fleeing South Sudan’s civil war each day carry something else – the ethnic hatred the United Nations says is “fertile ground” for genocide. That hatred, fuelled by continuing reports of ethnic-based killings inside the country, is turning refugee camps on its borders into tinder-boxes […]
Dubai has proven to be the most popular spot for Brits spending Christmas abroad this year, according to booking data by travel company Southall Travel, with neighbouring Abu Dhabi coming in second place. Research conducted by the firm suggests many British holidaymakers are in pursuit of a warm Christmas, with destinations across the UAE enjoying average temperatures in the mid 20s during December. The Thai capital of […]
By Patrick Markey | AL-DHIBANIYAH, Iraq AL-DHIBANIYAH, Iraq His right arm strapped with a tourniquet and numbed by anaesthetic, Azad Hassan sat before the crowd waiting for Islamic State militants to chop off his hand as a punishment. First, he had watch them do the same to his brother. Freed from Islamic State rule in Mosul by Iraqi forces who are fighting to recapture the city, the […]
Theresa May on Thursday embarked on a Brexit charm offensive in Brussels, amid warnings from a senior diplomat that a final exit deal could take a decade to complete. Mrs May will tell an EU summit that Britain will play a full role in tackling migrant flows from north Africa to Europe, even after Brexit. She will also reassure fellow leaders from Latvia and Lithuania that Britain […]
Thursday 11:00 GMT Overview Stock markets are trading cautiously as Treasury yields hit fresh highs after the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates for only the second time since the financial crisis. The prospect of the US central bank perhaps having to tighten policy faster than expected to reflect any additional boost to growth from president-elect Trump’s fiscal plans is lifting the dollar to a 14-year […]
By Howard Schneider and Lindsay Dunsmuir | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and signaled a faster pace of increases in 2017 as central bankers adapted to the incoming Trump administration’s promises of tax cuts, spending and deregulation. The increase in the federal funds rate to a range of between 0.50 percent and 0.75 percent was widely expected. But the prospect of […]
The peaks of fine dining just keep getting higher and higher. A caravan of roving chefs and their 15 guests is currently making its way up the Himalayas toward the base camp at Mount Everest, where, 17,500 feet above sea level and amid the lashing winds and bone-penetrating chill of the Nepalese winter, food will be served. The One Star House Party, as the project has been […]
Long-term borrowing costs for lower-quality US investment-grade companies are nearing 5 per cent — the highest level in nine months — as investors anticipate rising inflation and higher growth, reversing from the six-decade low touched earlier this year. The average yield on the closely followed Moody’s Baa index has climbed to 4.9 per cent, the highest since March when the US credit market slowly recovered from a […]
· Acquisition to be funded by a Placing of up to 9.99% of the issued share capital of the Company and through new debt facilities 14 December 2016 UAE – NMC Health plc. (NMC), the leading integrated healthcare provider operating across the United Arab Emirates, is pleased to announce the proposed acquisition of Al Zahra Hospital in Sharjah from Gulf Medical Projects Company (“GMPC”) for AED 2,058 million […]
BEIJING A court in eastern China on Wednesday sentenced the former Communist Party chief of the major city of Nanjing to 12-1/2 years in jail, after finding him guilty of corruption. Yang Weize, Nanjing’s top official, was put under investigation early last year by the party’s internal anti-graft watchdog. The court in Ningbo said Yang accepted bribes, either directly or through his wife, worth 16.4 million yuan […]
Ambitions to turn London into a hub for the $70bn insurance-linked security market, one of its fastest growing sectors, face being scuppered by a slow moving regulatory approach. The government wants to introduce new rules that would make it possible to issue these ILS securities in the UK, but industry insiders say that the proposed timetable for approving them would make the new regime uncompetitive against established […]
SYDNEY Investigators looking for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are making their last sweep of the search area in the Indian Ocean, Australian authorities leading the search said on Wednesday. Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese, en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Its whereabouts have become one of the world’s greatest […]
Dec 14, 2016 10:30 am IST As for the rest of the world, 2016 has been an eventful year for India. From the cash crunch to pollution to terrorist attacks to the Rio Olympics, there has been plenty for Indians to talk about online. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have ranked the most talked about events, videos, people and hashtags of 2016. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Twitter said Indian Prime […]
Saudi Arabia’s 2017 state budget is likely to show Riyadh has shrunk a huge deficit caused by cheap oil faster than expected, which may let it spend more to bolster a shaky economy This year was one of the most painful for the Saudi economy in decades. Growth slowed sharply and speculators bet against the Saudi currency as the government fought to curb a deficit that totalled […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 13, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Performances Visit Nation Galleria and enjoy fun, family-friendly performances by Italian street acts, including Raoul the Pizza Guy, who will serve up comedy, improvisation and interactive gags at his restaurant today. Catch […]
13 December 2016 Riyadh – Over 1,400 digital leaders gathered at the ArabNet Riyadh conference to discuss the latest in digital innovation and entrepreneurship, following the launch of Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program (NTP). The event was held under the patronage of the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEA), and hosted by King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology (KACST) and the Badir […]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has deepened its rift with its Gulf allies over the ongoing conflict in Yemen, blocking a transfer of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia because of concerns about civilian casualties that administration officials attribute to poor targeting. Administration officials said on Tuesday that the White House had made the decision to block the sale by Raytheon of about 16,000 guided munitions kits, which […]
ERBIL, Iraq — The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that a United States airstrike had killed three Islamic State operatives who were involved in mounting terrorist attacks in Europe, including the deadly assault in Paris in November 2015. The three men were killed on Dec. 4 in an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State’s declared capital, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary. He described the men […]
The Abu Dhabi government has signed an agreement with a US-based research firm to study the feasibility of a Hyperloop transport system between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT) announced in a statement on Monday that it had inked a deal with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (Hyperloop TT) – one of several companies working to bring the technology first conceived by […]
