MARRAKECH // The UAE is investing in “rain-enhancement” as lack of water could become a matter of national and environmental security, meteorologists have told the Conference of Parties 22. Scientists have been looking at techniques such as cloud-seeding and the first annual grant of US$5 million has been awarded to researchers seeking solutions. “Rain enhancement is a possible solution to water security, which is in turn related […]
Dubai retail firm Marka has reported a Q3 loss of $3.2 million (AED11.8 million), a 15% improvement from the $4 million (AED14.7m) loss it reported last year. Company also reported total revenue of AED 65.9 million ($17.9 million) in Q3 of 2016, a decrease of 15 percent compared to the same period in 2015. In its statement, Marka said the results for Q3 reflect the company’s sale […]
Photo A blanket of smog covered Tehran on Monday. Every year, heavy pollution gets trapped by the Alborz Mountains. Credit Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images TEHRAN — This week, as a yellow blanket of smog settled in for what is typically a winter-long stay, Reza Shajiee, a prominent hipster socialite, posted a picture of himself on Instagram wearing a gas mask under his motorcycle helmet. The […]
newslide ‘The Rock’ talks a future in politics, including potential White House run The Rock may have been voted Sexiest Man Alve by People, but the 44-year-old is interested in topping a more serious poll. After parleying a professional wrestling career as The Rock into leading roles in Hollywood, Dwayne Johnson is entertaining the idea of jumping into the political ring, including perhaps even a run for […]
BERLIN — A German organization that calls itself the True Religion and that is known for distributing German-language copies of the Quran was outlawed on Tuesday, after the authorities accused it of recruiting jihadists to fight in Iraq and Syria. Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, said the government had banned the True Religion organization, which is also known as Read (as in the instruction to […]
SHARJAH // Residents are unhappy with a decision to end free afternoon parking in the city. Sharjah City Council members last week agreed to end free parking between 1pm and 5pm in an attempt to curb abuse from motorists taking advantage of it, especially near marketplaces. For Naser Hamdan, the free parking gave him a chance to rest at home after work before he is forced to […]
During an interview in his office here, Mr. Omgy acknowledged that his company had provided financial services to Al Qaeda. “We had no other option but to comply with them,” he said. “They were the rulers of the city.” Continue reading the main story But he denied the Treasury Department’s charge that he was a Qaeda member, describing his ties to the group as a business relationship […]
November 15, 2016 by: Kathrin Hille in Moscow Vladimir Putin has urged Donald Trump to co-operate on the war in Syria and develop economic ties in his first push to improve strained Russian relations with the US following America’s election. The Russian president spoke by telephone with Mr Trump, the US president-elect, late on Monday and expressed a “willingness to build a dialogue between partners with the […]
By Corina Pons and Eyanir Chinea | CARACAS CARACAS Multinational companies are selling their Venezuelan operations at hefty discounts – or even giving them away – as they to seek to escape the OPEC nation’s soaring inflation and chronic supply shortages. Six firms, including General Mills and oil producer Harvest Natural Resources, have sold operations for as little as half their assessed value on the companies’ books, […]
A day before its official release, OnePlus 3T has already made an appearance at Oppomart. While the item appears to be serving as a placeholder, some of the listed specifications seem to be the real deal and they confirm a number of leaked information in the past few weeks. Confirming OnePlus 3T Leaks For starters, OnePlus is really calling the device as OnePlus 3T. How about the Snapdragon […]
ABU DHABI // Parents can play a role in promoting science education by accompanying their children to the Abu Dhabi Science Festival. As he led officials on a tour of the festival grounds on Monday, Abu Dhabi Education Council director general Dr Ali Al Nuaimi encouraged visitors to make the science festival a family affair. “I urge parents to come and participate with their kids,” said Dr […]
Dubai – 14 November 2016 GFH Capital, a subsidiary of Bahrain based GFH Financial Group, today announced an investment in AMA Group for its growing operations in the Kingdom of Bahrain and beyond. The investment will be in the form of a Shari’a compliant convertible Murabaha facility. The AMA Group manages the largest network of educational institutions across Asia. The AMA Group also has various other business […]
Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and other rightist politicians jumped to make hay of the change. Continue reading the main story Yoav Kish, a Likud member of Parliament, called for the expansion of Israeli sovereignty into the West Bank; Meir Turgeman, the chairman of Jerusalem’s municipal planning committee, said he would now bring long-frozen plans for thousands of Jewish homes in the fiercely contested […]
BRUSSELS: The European Union extended its sanctions on Syria on Monday, banning the country’s central bank chief and its finance minister from traveling in Europe and freezing their assets in a further step to isolate President Bashar Assad.The decision to target Central Bank Gov. Duraid Durgham and Finance Minister Maamoun Hamdan, along with 16 other government ministers, made good on the EU’s threat last month to increase […]
New London office construction activity has fallen 42 per cent from a year ago as Brexit and other uncertainties cast a shadow over the property market. Work began on 40 new office developments totalling 2.8m square feet over the past six months, down from a record 4.8m square feet recorded a year earlier, according to Deloitte Real Estate’s Crane Survey. Total development activity rose slightly from a […]
A guide of things to do today in the UAE. newslide Abu Dhabi Tennis Get tickets now for the Mubadala World Tennis Championship and see top players, including Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomáš Berdych, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Milos Raonic and David Goffin, who will be in the capital for the championship. • December 29 to 31, from 4pm on December 29 and 30; from 1am on December 31, […]
Giant blades of grass made from galvanised iron, a room full of rotting bananas and a spring-mounted fibreglass donkey bearing a model of a Sufi dervish are just a few of the more peculiar artworks that will go on show when the eighth edition of Abu Dhabi Art opens tomorrow. The art fair will feature booths from 35 galleries, which means the event is significantly smaller than […]
After months of sending government troops to battle militants blowing up oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, Muhammadu Buhari tried a different tack. The Nigerian president invited the region’s community leaders and traditional rulers to his villa this month for talks — a step energy sector executives hoped could halt a wave of sabotage since January that has cost the country billions of dollars in damages and […]
It was naïve to believe that enough white people would hear everything Donald Trump has said in the last 18 months — let alone five years — and stand in opposition to it. Instead, they stood with it, at a rate of 58 percent. Not necessarily because they’re racists, misogynists, xenophobes or anti-Islam, exactly, but because Trump made it in their interests to do so. They did […]
Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 14 November 2016 The Board of Executive Directors of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has approved US $592.2 million in financing for new development projects in several member countries and some Muslim communities in non-member countries. The major approvals include: US $105 million, for the Fadhili Combined Heat and Power Project (FCHPP), Saudi Arabia Advertisement US $338.5 million, for the High-Speed Train […]
While the pesh merga attacked ISIS from the north and the east, the Iraqi military was approaching from the south. The job of the battalion moving toward Bashiqa was to shore up the eastern front and extend a cordon around Mosul. The Iraqis’ next moves would depend in part on the Kurds’ success. For the moment, in other words, the progress of the central conflict in the […]
ABU DHABI // Applications for a US$50 million fund to develop new renewable energy projects has opened. The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) are now accepting applications, which could see a range of projects in the developing world. Now in its fifth round of funding, the project has helped provide loans for 15 renewable projects in 14 developing countries […]
JERUSALEM — An Israeli ministerial committee on Sunday approved a contentious bill that would allow for the retroactive legalization of Jewish settlement outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. The measure breaks a longstanding taboo, and in the view of many experts, it defies international law. The bill requires approval by Parliament before becoming law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed its advancement […]
Following successful launch and implementation of Invest Easy portal developed by multinational full-service strategic change and technology company Nortal, Oman made an unprecedented leap in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking of World Bank’s annual Doing Business 2017 report, jumping 127 places in category ‘Starting a Business’ compared to previous year. 14 November 2016 According to Peeter Smitt, Middle East region Managing Director at Nortal, the record […]
