Total Islamic banking assets in the UAE have increased to about AED520 billion ($141.5 billion), about 7 percent of the global total, it has been revealed. Saif Hadef Al Shamsi, assistant governor for Monetary Policy and Financial Stability at the UAE Central Bank, said that Islamic banking’ assets account for around 20 percent of AED2.6 trillion of the total assets of the state’s banks. He added in […]
SoleNet and Sure Telecom are prohibited from carrying on as a business or providing any telecommunications services for a period of two years, the Australian Federal Court ordered on Friday. In addition, the companies and their director James Harrison have been ordered to pay AU$250,000 in penalties. As of April 1, 2017, Harrison is also disqualified from managing corporations for three years. The Australian Competition and Consumer […]
SYDNEY The dollar clung to broad gains on Friday as the risk of an imminent U.S. interest rate hike slugged sovereign bonds and commodities, even managing to sour Wall Street’s party as the reality of rising borrowing costs began to sink in. Spread betters pointed to opening losses for European stocks and E-mini futures for the S&P 500 were off 0.3 percent. Asian markets were mostly lower, […]
Last month, The Intercept published a massive investigation into alleged war crimes committed by members of Seal Team Six, the elite naval special operations unit responsible for killing Osama bin Laden. The investigation, which spans five parts and thousands of words, was written by Matthew Cole, a longtime national security reporter whose resumé includes stints at ESPN the Magazine, ABC News and NBC News. In his capacity […]
There was no mistaking the arrival of King Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and his entourage in Malaysia on Sunday morning. Traffic stood still for 30 minutes as we waited for the 600-strong royal party to make their way from the airport to the centre of Kuala Lumpur — a near-endless stream of limos, lorries, outliers and ambulances, sirens screaming. This is King Salman’s first trip […]
Doha, Qatar; March 2, 2017 The third edition of Qumra, the industry initiative by the Doha Film Institute that aims to mentor and nurture next generation filmmakers, has received tremendous support from Qatar’s government entities, industry leaders, educational & cultural organisations and a wide spectrum of global film bodies. To be held from March 3 to 8 at Souq Al Waqif and the Museum of Islamic Art, […]
Via Michael Snyder of The End of The American Dream blog, If current trends continue, Islam is on track to become the largest religion in the entire world by the end of this century according a stunning new report that was just released by the Pew Research Center. While it is true that Christianity is still growing on a global basis, it is not growing nearly as […]
Why Georgetown? Georgetown was there long before Washington, DC was, and it still has some pretty stern objections to being regarded as just another district of the American capital. Formerly a port town, it has now become Washington’s most obviously moneyed-up area – where people come to dine and mooch around shops and galleries. Part of the appeal comes from the architecture. Many 18th- and 19th-century buildings […]
China’s 200 richest lawmakers are worth more than $500bn, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the fortunes of the country’s wealthiest people. The Communist party officially welcomed private-sector business people into its fold in 2002, when the Chinese economy was the world’s sixth-largest. Their wealth has since soared in tandem with the Chinese economy, which is now second only to that of the US. According to […]
BEIJING China’s leaders are expected to telegraph their willingness at this year’s annual parliament meeting to let reforms overtake policy stimulus as their priority amid concerns over financial instability in the world’s second-largest economy. Pro-growth policies, evident by a lending binge and increased government spending last year, have fueled worries among policymakers about high debt levels and an overheating housing market. Top leaders at the National People’s […]
GENEVA Syria’s warring sides both claimed U.N. peace talks in Geneva were going their way on Thursday, but the chief government negotiator and Syria’s ally Russia accused the main opposition delegation of trying to wreck the talks. Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja’afari told reporters that he had discussed “substantive issues, particularly counter-terrorism” with U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura, and would continue on Friday. The government delegation has […]
Interested in precious metals investing or storage? Contact us HERE Written by Peter Diekmeyer (CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL) Gold prices have surged (+8.57% EOD Wednesday) since January. However, one expert says that trend could continue. “Shrinking exploration budgets, a dearth of new high-quality deposits and the “fear trade” will provide continuing upside pressure as the year unfolds,” says Brent Cook, editor […]
NOUAKCHOTT Mali’s main jihadist groups said on Thursday they will merge under Islamist leader Iyad Ag-Ghali whose fighters have claimed multiple attacks on Malian, French and U.N. peacekeeping forces, Mauritania’s Nouakchott News Agency (ANI) reported. ANI said Ag-Ghali’s Ansar Dine would join with al-Mourabitoun, led by Algerian jihadist and smuggler Mokhtar Belmokhtar, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a military camp in northern Mali […]
By Lauren Hirsch | NEW YORK NEW YORK Snap Inc’s (SNAP.N) shares continued to defy doubts about the company’s early-stage business model and slowing user growth, jumping nearly 50 percent in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The owner of the Snapchat messaging app raised $3.4 billion in its initial public offering on Wednesday night, more than the $3 billion Facebook (FB.O) […]
She was arrested and charged with supporting terrorism, not because of her novels but as a result of her affiliation, as an adviser, with a newspaper linked to the Kurdish movement that has since been shut down. She still faces a trial that could land her back in prison, and with that hanging over her, she has been living with her mother, sleeping late, not writing much […]
Government of Dubai Media Office – 2 March 2017 The jury of the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Award will be looking for exceptional creativity, technique and style in its evaluation of the 25 artworks shortlisted for the Award. The shortlisted works are being displayed at the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival 2017, which began in City Walk on Sunday. The Award and Festival are organised by Brand […]
Via Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog, This is precisely what you’d expect of a self-serving elite that was desperate to cloak the unhappy reality that the relative few are benefiting immensely at the expense of the many. The core narrative of politics everywhere is progress, i.e. “moving forward.” If progress isn’t being made, politicos and the system are failing. In the past, “progressive” movements sought to advance […]
A pioneering new technique to produce cutting-edge, versatile microchips could revolutionize the speed, efficiency and capability of the next generation of computers. (via WSJ)
WASHINGTON — The United States conducted airstrikes overnight Thursday against several suspected Qaeda targets across south-central Yemen, according to American and Yemeni military officials, the first American attacks in the country since an ill-fated Special Operations raid in January. The coordinated series of attacks against Qaeda militants occurred in three Yemeni provinces that have been areas of suspected terrorist activity — Abyan, Shabwa and Baydha — according […]
March 2, 2017 by: Nic Fildes, Telecoms Correspondent Deutsche Telekom has taken a €2.2bn charge on its investment in BT, pushing the German group to a fourth-quarter loss in 2016. Europe’s largest telecoms company blamed the Brexit vote, a decline in the value of sterling and the collapse in BT’s share price for the write-off. It holds a 12 per cent stake in BT which has been […]
CK Chow struck a cautious note at the start of the week when revealing the Hong Kong Exchange’s annual results. With average daily turnover down 37 per cent, the exchange chairman’s wariness was understandable as he talked of a “challenging” outlook and volatile markets. Yet such caution is out of step with the mood in the market. Hong Kong’s blue-chip Hang Seng index and the Hang Seng […]
On Wednesday, Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Commission released a “White Paper On the Future Of Europe” which comes at a time of extensive tensions with the departing UK, and which lays out what Juncker believe are the “main challenges and opportunities for Europe inthe coming decade.” It presents five scenarios for how the Union couldevolve by 2025 depending on how it chooses to respond. The paper comes as […]
After a long wait of 4.5 years, the 29th edition of SANOG came back to Pakistan, this time in the countrys capital, Islamabad. The Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) and the Higher Education commission of Pakistan (HEC) came forward to jointly host the event at the HEC headquarters. SANOG 29 consisted of two days of conference, one day of tutorial alongside the Internet Society’s ION Conference, and the […]
The raid is a delicate issue in the Trump administration because the president authorized it five days into office, over dinner at the White House with Mr. Mattis and several other senior officials. But in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday, Mr. Trump seemed to distance himself from the operation, saying that responsibility for the decision to go forward rested with his generals. “This was […]
