SANA, Yemen — Warplanes with the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition bombed a wedding party on Yemen’s Red Sea coast on Monday, killing at least 70 civilians, according to two local officials and a relative of one of the victims. The aerial attack, in Wahija, south of the port city of Mokha, appeared to be among the deadliest involving civilians since the start of Yemen’s war this past […]
CAIRO — Saudi Arabia faced mounting international pressure on Tuesday to halt its bombing campaign in Yemen the day after airstrikes killed dozens of people at a village wedding on the Red Sea coast. The attack occurred Monday morning in the village of Wahija, south of the city of Mokha, and appeared to be one of the deadliest involving civilians since the military campaign began in March. […]
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV- C30) carrying ASTROSTAT, India’s first observatory satellite, lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, September 28, 2015. Reuters/Stringer NEW DELHI India launched its first space research observatory and several U.S. satellites on Monday, part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to expand his country’s influence in the competitive, $300 billion global space industry. The observatory, named ASTROSAT, […]
INTERNATIONAL. The low level of insurance penetration seen in many Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, combined with the robust, albeit deteriorating, profitability achieved by the leading primary insurers, has made the region a target for international and domestic reinsurers. A new special report by A.M. Best examines how insurance markets in the MENA region have grown significantly over the past decade. MENA insurance premiums surpassed […]
While Dubai continues to pump out sumptuous new apartment blocks, for a rising number of expatriates the city no longer offers the luxury lifestyle that lured many foreigners to the Gulf. A shortage of affordable homes and a reduction in overseas allowances since the financial crisis are pushing foreign staff on middle incomes out to less glamorous areas of the city far from the office, or to […]
SHARJAH // A lack of jobs is leading some Khor Fakkan residents to call for more Emiratisation, while others are concerned about health insurance and retirement allowances. Many who have graduated from universities cannot find a job and are calling for prospective Federal National Council (FNC) members to intervene. Jamila Rashed, 26, graduated in 2010 and was still looking for employment. “I applied to the public and […]
AMMAN, Jordan — Mohammad Smarat sat gazing at the few plants sprouting outside the entrance of the white stone hospital here, recalling how he had collapsed in a sea of green fields after getting shot. He had been helping farmers pick tomatoes near his home in Dara’a, Syria, when a stray bullet shattered his left hip joint. Though he had obeyed his father’s orders not to join […]
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, addresses a plenary meeting of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 at United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York, September 25, 2015. Reuters/Mike Segar SAN FRANCISCO Prime Minister Narendra Modi has documented his push to bring U.S. investments and jobs back to India on his Facebook and Twitter pages since landing in the United States this week, posting photos with […]
SAN FRANCISCO/SYDNEY The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus hit stores around the world on Friday, kicking off what is expected to be a record weekend of sales as customers scrambled to buy Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) marquee product in pink for the first time. Eager buyers – joined by at least one robot – flocked to Apple stores from Sydney to New York and San Francisco, itching to […]
Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY Dozens of Finnish nationalists, including a man dressed like a member of the Ku Klux Klan, hurled rocks and fireworks late on Thursday at a bus carrying migrants seeking asylum to temporary housing in Finland, the state broadcaster YLE reported. Reporters in Lahti, about 60 miles north of the capital, Helsinki, recorded video of the bus — which carried men, women and […]
INTERNATIONAL. Gleaming glass skyscrapers, state-of-the-art technology, and wealthy merchant families have replaced the Gulf’s muddy towns and villages populated by traders and pearl fishers that once lacked electricity, running water or modern communications. The region’s modern day projection of a visionary cutting- edge, 21st century urban environment masks however the fact that some things have not changed. Gulf states continue to be ruled by the same families, […]
SANA, Yemen — Bombings at a mosque killed at least 25 people here on Thursday during prayers to commemorate the beginning of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday, Interior Ministry officials said. Tamim al-Shami, a spokesman for Yemen’s Health Ministry, said that the mosque, in the Al-Bilili neighborhood, was struck by two bombs, one hidden in a shoe and left at the entrance of the mosque, and […]
ABU DHABI // As the Sun slowly crept into the sky, thousands gathered at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque on Thursday morning to mark Eid Al Adha. Among those, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, who offered prayers. Afterward, Sheikh Mohammed and members of the royal family visited the tomb of his father, the founding President, Sheikh Zayed. People travelled […]
ABU DHABI // Thousands of UAE pilgrims escaped a stampede near Mecca on Thursday that claimed the lives of hundreds on the first day of Eid Al Adha. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, sent a cable to King Salman of Saudi Arabia expressing condolences and sympathy for the victims of the stampede. UAE pilgrims were […]
|By TAP Staff|Heavy rush for UAE visit visa in connection with the Eid holidays has resulted in stalling of the online visa processing system. The site that handles online processing –www.ednrd.ae—is inaccessible most of the time. Travel plans of thousands of people who planned to visit the UAE for the Eid holidays have been affected as they could not secure the visa on time. Some of those […]
UAE. Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States of America are the world’s five most innovative nations, according to the Global Innovation Index 2015, while China, Malaysia, Viet Nam, India, Jordan, Kenya, and Uganda are among a group of countries outperforming their economic peers. The GII 2015 looks at “Effective Innovation Policies for Development” and shows new ways that emerging-economy policymakers can boost […]
CHURNING IS ON IN SAFFRON CAMP By Amulya Ganguli The saffron brotherhood has a remarkable capacity to let loose new…
|By TAP Staff| Al Noor Hospitals Group of Abu Dhabi announces that it has reached an agreement to acquire Rochester Wellness. Founded in 2006, Rochester Wellness is a leading provider of long-term physical, speech, and occupational rehabilitation therapy caring for patients in their homes and through two inpatient facilities in Dubai and Muscat. The business operates 51 beds and generated revenue of $ 5.6 million during the […]
QATAR. On Sept. 18, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its ‘AA’ long-term and ‘A-1+’ short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the State of Qatar. The outlook is stable. We also affirmed the ‘AA’ long-term issue ratings on the bonds issued by Qatari Diar Finance Q.S.C. and SoQ Sukuk A Q.S.C. RATIONALE Qatar is a wealthy economy; we estimate its GDP per capita […]
ADEN // With the help of the UAE, 33 schools in Aden were reopened on Sunday, after the Emirates Red Crescent rebuilt more than 154 schools in the Yemeni southern port that were damaged or destroyed in fighting with the Houthi rebels. Dr Mohammed Atiq Al Falahi, secretary general of the ERC, said that all of Aden’s students would be able to return to school after the […]
DUBAI // The late Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed has been remembered as a “noble knight” who raised the flag of the UAE, as tributes continued to flow after his death on Saturday. Condolences were offered on Sunday at Zabeel Palace to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, for the death of his eldest son after a heart attack at the age of 33. […]
EDIRNE, Turkey — Doaa, a 25-year old Syrian, was lying in the shade one day last week, trying to shelter herself from the scorching sun in a makeshift camp near this northwestern border city. A pile of blankets next to her quivered, and a tiny hand emerged. Her son, Nassim, was just a week old. Doaa had walked out of a hospital in Istanbul a few days […]
SANA, Yemen — A Saudi-led military coalition bombarded government buildings and residential neighborhoods in Sana, the Yemeni capital, overnight on Saturday, killing more than two dozen people, officials and witnesses said, and destroying homes in Sana’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage site. The Saudi coalition, which includes nine other Arab nations and is supported by the United States, began fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels in March, two […]
LONDON — Russia’s military buildup in Syria now includes surface-to-air missiles as well as combat aircraft with air-to-air capability, deployments that raise “serious questions” about Moscow’s role in the region, Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday. Russian officials have said that the purpose of the buildup at a base near Latakia, Syria, is to combat the Islamic State. But the deployment of air defense systems and […]
