Guest | Jun 15, 2015 | 0 comments In lieu of the recent release of the latest driving game to hit the shelves, Project CARS, we thought we’d take a look at the best racers throughout the history of gaming. Project CARS is a pure racing simulator, with authentic handling and crisp graphics, but no-one can deny that other driving games have influenced this great racer. Let’s […]
BAHRAIN. On June 12, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the Kingdom of Bahrain at ‘BBB-/A-3’. We also affirmed our long- and short-term foreign and local currency credit ratings on the Central Bank of Bahrain at ‘BBB-/A-3’. The outlooks on both Bahrain and its central bank remain negative. RATIONALE We expect that Bahrain’s fiscal […]
UAE. Invesco today released its third annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study[1], an in-depth report on the complex investment behaviour of sovereign wealth funds, conducted amongst more than 50 individual sovereign investors across the globe representing $7.09 trillion2 of assets, including Middle East based sovereign wealth funds. This year’s study took place against a backdrop of an extreme fall in the price of oil and provides […]
UAE. Economic Insight: Middle East Q2 2015 is produced by Cebr, ICAEW’s partner and economic forecaster. Commissioned by ICAEW, the report provides a snapshot of the region’s economic performance. The report undertakes a quarterly review of the Middle East, focusing on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait), as well as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon […]
ISTANBUL — Late into the night on Sunday on the shattered streets of Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish city devastated last year by battles with militants affiliated with the Islamic State, residents celebrated the outcome of the recent Turkish parliamentary election results, honking horns, cheering and firing their guns. The election, in which the Kurdish party surpassed a threshold for the first time to enter Parliament, was the […]
Tech giant Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off Monday at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco with the headlining keynote address. Among the topics discussed during the address were new capabilities for OS X, updates coming to iOS, native apps for the Apple Watch, a streaming music service, and a new version of the watchOS operating system. At the event, Apple also introduced […]
UAE. According to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the UAE outperforms the GCC and the rest of the world in most dimensions – including income, employment, health, education, infrastructure, income equality, civil society, governance, and environment – when it comes to its current-level Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) scores. Across these dimensions, the UAE topped the average scores of both the GCC and […]
An employee answers phone calls at the switchboard of the Google office in Zurich August 18, 2009. Reuters/Christian Hartmann Google Inc (GOOGL.O) said 21 percent of tech hires last year were women, boosting overall number of women in technical roles by 1 percent, as part of efforts to increase diversity. The company recently began disclosing the makeup of its workforce after admitting that it was “wrong, and […]
UAE. The depressed oil prices predominant since late last year could herald a lasting trend if, as evidence suggests, we are now facing the low-price segment of an oil ‘super cycle’, according to the latest paper from global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. This new situation would pose both challenges and opportunities to Middle East companies and countries. There is still much volatility in the […]
DP World to start USD bond meetings Thursday DUBAI, 23 days ago DP World, one of the world’s biggest port operators, will hold meetings with investors in the United States, Britain and the UAE from Thursday before a possible benchmark US dollar bond issue, a document from lead managers showed on Tuesday. Benchmark size is usually taken to mean at least $500 million. Sources aware of the […]
HR technology trends in focus at Dubai summit DUBAI, 22 days ago The latest trends in implementing technology for human resources (HR) function in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region will be shared exclusively at a conference in Dubai, UAE next week. The HR Tech Mena, under the theme ‘Smart HR Evolution,’ will take place on May 13 and 14 at the Taj Towers Dubai, […]
UAE. The findings of a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy, shows that mobile technologies are creating immense value for consumers – value that greatly exceeds the costs of owning a mobile device. In fact, consumers worldwide value mobile technologies at 11 to 45 percent of their income – well above what […]
DP World, one of the world’s biggest port operators, has launched a $500 million, five-year bond that will price later on Tuesday, a document from lead arrangers showed. The transaction was set to price at a spread of 155 bps over midswaps, which is at the tighter end of a final guidance of 160 bps plus/minus 5 bps over midswaps. This is lower than initial pricing guidance […]
The two main stock exchanges in the United Arab Emirates are trying to attract market makers but some industry professionals say Abu Dhabi is offering more generous financial terms and more liberal rules than Dubai, suggesting it may have more success. Market makers stand ready to buy and sell stocks at all times, improving liquidity on an exchange – something which may be increasingly important as Abu […]
DP World, one of the world’s biggest port operators, wants to issue a dollar-denominated bond and could announce plans to market the deal to fixed-income investors as soon as next week, three sources aware of the matter said on Thursday. The Dubai-based firm could raise between $750 million and $1 billion from the bond, depending on investor appetite and the interest rate the company would have to […]
Brent crude oil held below $56 a barrel on Tuesday on signs of slowing growth in China and as Saudi Arabia said its production was close to an all-time high. Factory activity in China, the world’s second-largest economy and top oil importer, slipped in March with the flash HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reading at 49.2, below the 50-point level that separates growth from contraction. Economists polled […]
Salim Al Aufi, Oman’s undersecretary for oil and gas, likens attempts to cut the reliance on oil during a price slump to acting “with a gun pointed at your head.” If you have to make decisions under pressure, “you will probably make the wrong ones,” he said March 3 in Muscat during a panel discussion on the impact of the oil shock. Oman relied too much on […]
Dubai’s Drydocks World, owner of the Middle East’s largest shipyard, will ask creditors to amend the terms of its $2.3 billion restructuring deal originally signed in 2012, two sources aware of the matter said on Sunday. The move comes as Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate which is also Drydocks’ parent company, is close to finalizing a revision of its own $14.6 billion debt pile which stems from […]
Gen Odierno said that British defence cuts are already jeopardising US-UK joint operations Photo: AP Ever since the Cold War ended more than two decades ago, America has never entertained any serious doubts about Britain’s ability to fulfil its commitment as a vital military ally when tackling threats to the Western alliance. Until now. For the dramatic cuts to Britain’s defence budget implemented since the Coalition took power […]
In Saudi Arabia, where the currency has been fixed at about the same rate for 28 years, even the tiniest swings in the futures market reflect concern the peg will be broken. So the 0.2 percent drop that traders see by next year shows this is the most worried they’ve been about it since 2009. For Standard Chartered Plc and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, that speculation […]
Mandy Rice Davies photographed in the 1960’s Photo: Rex Features I was 13 when it all happened. Parents in those days wished their children wouldn’t read scandals, with the predictable result that, for the first time in our lives, we read the papers avidly. Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, the girls involved in the Profumo scandal of 1963, were of elder-sister age: the beehive hair, short shift-dresses and […]
Cyber threat… rise in malicious attacks on computers and mobiles Cyber threats increase by one billion in 2014 JEDDAH, 1 days ago A total of 6.2 billon malicious attacks on user computers and mobile devices were blocked by Kaspersky Lab antivirus products in 2014, one billion more than in 2013, the vendor of endpoint protection solutions reported. In 2014 Kaspersky Lab experts saw considerable growth in the […]
India wants to buy more rough diamonds directly from mining companies as the world’s biggest polisher of the gems seeks to bypass traditional dealers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on more major suppliers such as Russia’s OAO Alrosa to sell directly to India, which polishes 80 percent of the world’s diamonds, avoiding trading centers such as Antwerp and Dubai. Speaking alongside President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi […]
I recently reached out to my Twitter followers, asking “What can I, as a VOA reporter in Washington, write about that you need/want to know?” The responses were varied and interesting, but one topic dominated: U.S. policy in Syria. Why hasn’t the U.S. done more to help the Syrian people? “There is lot of frustration with the Obama’s administration’s ambiguous, vague and often incoherent strategy regarding dealing […]
