ABU DHABI // Mass extinction of species, how to boost economic growth without harming the planet and the effects of mass agriculture are all issues to be addressed at the Cop 22 summit. The meeting in Morocco, which began this week, follows last year’s Paris Agreement, where 196 countries committed to reducing global warming to less than 2°C. One of the major discussion points is that the […]
LONDON A “hard” Brexit in which Britain loses its free access to the European Union market now looks like the most likely outcome of the country’s plan to leave the bloc, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said on Friday. Britain will suffer the brunt of the economic impact of Brexit and the effects on the world economy will be more limited, S&P said in its latest update […]
Business-focused social network LinkedIn faces being blocked in Russia after a court ruled it broke a law on data storage. The Moscow city court rejected LinkedIn’s appeal against a ruling that it had broken a law that requires personal data on Russian citizens to be stored on servers within Russia, court spokeswoman Ulyana Solopova told The Associated Press. Solopova says LinkedIn can appeal Thursday’s ruling. The case […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has confirmed that the ACWA Power and Harbin Electric consortium has begun construction of the 2,400 megawatt (MW) Hassyan clean coal power station, based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) procurement model.The plant will be the first-of-its-kind in the region and is fully-compliant with set international standards, adopting the use of ultra-supercritical technology. In June, DEWA and the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|The gold price breached US$1,300/oz in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, up from US$1,275/oz before the vote counting began. Gold price has increased, outperforming other assets, including other safe havens. The market is expeting short term volatility in the wake of the election result as it signals a major political and economic change. Gold trading volumes have risen sharply in Asia. Western markets, which […]
TEHRAN — For all of Iran’s attractions — breathtaking scenery and numerous World Heritage sites, among other things — there are plenty of downsides to vacationing in the Islamic republic. Alcohol is forbidden. There is very little night life, at least in public. All women, including visiting foreigners, are obliged to wear a head scarf. Then there are Iran’s politics: its strident anti-Western stance; seemingly random arrests […]
DUBLIN Ireland’s government will this week formally submit its appeal against the European Commission’s multi-billion-euro demand for back taxes from Apple (AAPL.O), Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday. Ireland’s cabinet agreed in September to join the iPhone maker in appealing the Commission’s order that the U.S. tech giant pay up to 13 billion euros to Dublin after ruling the firm had received illegal state aid. [nL8N1BE1ZT] […]
INTERNATIONAL. Nine out of 10 banking professionals surveyed at large U.S., European and Canadian commercial banks said their company is currently exploring the use of blockchain technology for payments, according to a new report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN). The initiatives are designed to reduce costs, speed payments, reduce errors and drive new revenues. The report – Blockchain Technology: How banks are building a real-time global payment network – […]
While Chinese truck manufacturers have invested in product quality and service in the Middle East, Western brands will need to expand their presence with high-tech trucks in the region, a report said. Now is an outstanding time to rebuild market presence in the Middle East, as structural shifts directly play to the advantage of high-quality truck manufacturers, said the new study entitled “The Truck Industry in the […]
By Julia Fioretti | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS Britain’s privacy watchdog said on Monday that Facebook (FB.O) has agreed to suspend using data from UK users of its WhatsApp messaging app for advertisements or product-improvement purposes after the watchdog said consumers weren’t properly protected. The watchdog said the social media giant faces action if it uses such data without valid consent. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) had said in […]
By Marcin Goettig | WARSAW WARSAW Poland’s digital economy minister accused Facebook FN.O of censorship on Monday after the company suspended some users’ profiles for using a little-known far-right symbol. The Falanga symbol, depicting a stylised hand holding a sword, was used by a banned radical nationalist group in the 1930s but is legal in Poland and other countries. It now serves as the logo of a […]
This is the last in a daily series that explores how expats from around the world feel ahead of the US presidential election on November 8. We have spoken to people from Latin America, South Asia, Africa, Russia and East Asia and the MENA region. ABU DHABI // American expatriates voiced their preference for Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump as one of the most acrimonious US […]
By Catherine Cadell | BEIJING BEIJING A top Baidu Inc executive, widely seen as a potential successor to chief executive Robin Li, has resigned after an internal company probe found conflicts of interest involving another firm acquired by the Chinese search engine giant. Li Mingyuan, 32, known as the “prince” of Baidu within China’s tech community, stepped down following the investigation, according to an internal email seen […]
By Sankalp Phartiyal and Anya George Tharakan | MUMBAI/BENGALURU MUMBAI/BENGALURU Infosys Ltd cut its annual revenue growth target for the second time in three months as India’s software service exporters feel the pinch of major Western clients holding back on spending as they wait to see how November’s U.S. presidential election and Europe’s Brexit drama play out. While it reported second-quarter net profit grew 6.1 percent, the […]
|By Matein Khalid| The Algiers pact was a game changer in the international oil markets. Crude oil prices have risen to three month highs above $50 Brent after OPEC agreed to cut output to the 32.5 – 33 MBD range, with the symbolic Saudi-Iranian deal reinforced by a sharp drop in US inventories and Hurricane Matthew’s havoc in the Caribbean. Unfortunately for OPEC, the US land rig […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Saudi Arabia said it was holding investor meetings in London, Los Angeles, Boston and New York from Wednesday to sell benchmark bonds maturing in five, 10 and 30 years. The issue is expected to be at least $10 billion. “It’s very good timing,” Bloomberg quoted Angelo Rossetto, a trader at GMSA Investments Ltd. in London, as saying. “I wouldn’t say now or never as […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Etihad Aviation Group and TUI AG confirmed they are in discussions to create a strong European leisure airline group, focused on point-to-point flying to connect key tourist markets. It is proposed to contribute the touristic operations of the airberlin group and the German TUIfly company, including the aircraft currently operated by TUIfly for airberlin under a wet-lease agreement, into a new airline group established […]
The Interpreter By AMANDA TAUB It is a truth universally acknowledged by every war correspondent, humanitarian aid worker and Western diplomat: Some wars, like Syria’s, receive tremendous public attention, which can translate into pressure for resolution. But many others, like Yemen’s still raging but much ignored conflict, do not. Some of the reasons are obvious; the scale of Syria’s war is catastrophic and much worse than Yemen’s. […]
By Edward Taylor and Eric Auchard | PARIS/FRANKFURT PARIS/FRANKFURT Alarmed by the threat posed by Silicon Valley firms to their businesses in developing autonomous driving systems, it was evident at the Paris Motor Show this week that carmakers are seeking to fight back by cooperating in areas of technology development where previously they might have tried to compete. Three big carmakers – BMW (BMWG.DE), Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and […]
UAE. A new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reveals that, when it comes to its current-level Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) scores, the UAE outperforms the GCC and the rest of the world in most dimensions—including income, employment, education, infrastructure, civil society, governance, and environment. Across these dimensions, the UAE topped the average scores of both the GCC and the rest of the world. The […]
UAE. Mobile phones are the most commonly used device among consumers in the UAE and more than half of all consumers (59%) prefer using their smartphones over any other device to make payments, the new Mastercard Impact of Innovation Study reveals. The study surveyed 23,000 consumers in 23 different countries across the Middle East, Africa and Europe about their attitudes to digital technology. It found that while […]
Nokia Bell Labs, Deutsche Telekom T-Labs and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have achieved unprecedented transmission capacity and spectral efficiency in an optical communications field trial with a new modulation technique. The breakthrough research could extend the capability of optical networks to meet surging data traffic demands. In an optical communications field trial, Nokia Bell Labs, Deutsche Telekom T-Labs and the TU Munich showed that the […]
The European Union’s law enforcement agency, Europol, issued a warning today regarding the cybercrime threat landscape, particularly threats emanating from the so-called “Darknet.” Produced by Europol, the “2016 Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment” report, outlines the biggest threats online. The annual report concluded that techniques that have normally been associated with cybercrime are now extending into other crime and threat areas, said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol. […]
|By Matein Khalid| The Federal Reserve did not disappoint the financial markets after Janet Yellen’s FOMC conference on Wednesday. The US central bank did not raise the overnight borrowing (or Fed Funds rate) to 0.5% on the eve of the November election. This triggered a wild rally in the US stock market with the Dow Jones up 163 points, gold up to $1342 and oil to $46 […]
