The European Court of Justice had declared the Safe Harbor provision that allowed transfer of personally identifiable data (PII) between Europe and the USA as invalid. This left a huge public policy question hanging: Is it legal for companies doing business on the web to store the PII data of European citizens on servers based in the USA? Does this ECJ decision open the door to companies getting […]
Airbus Group SE escaped order oblivion at the Dubai Air Show after negotiating a last-minute agreement to sell 30 narrow-body planes to VietJet Aviation — prompting the European planemaker to take a swipe at Boeing Co. over the announcement of a deal that had already been booked. VietJet agreed to buy nine current-generation A321s and 21 upgraded A321neos worth $3.6 billion at list prices after negotiations that […]
|By TAP Staff|An Emirati researcher has revealed the possibility of linking the rivers of Pakistan (rivers Dasht and Indus) to the UAE through undersea pipelines. The proposal is intended to support the world’s efforts in the face of climate change by helping to reduce the rise of sea levels and to fight desertification. Abdullah Al-Shehhi says, “The Pakistani river of Dasht is the closest river to the […]
|By TAP Staff| Business confidence in the Middle East is at its lowest ebb for more than five years, according to the latest global survey of accountants. The Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) carried out jointly by ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants) for the third quarter of 2015 suggests that the renewed fall in oil prices is likely […]
|By TAP Staff| Middle East carriers recorded a 9.9% increase in passenger traffic demand in September, well down on the 13.7% year-over year growth experienced in August, International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced. Capacity rose 12.9% and load factor slipped 2.1 percentage points to 75.7%. Major economies in the region, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have experienced slowdowns in non-oil sectors, it pointed out. […]
AUCKLAND, New Zealand The next revolution in space, making humdrum what was long the special preserve of tax-funded giants like NASA, will be launching next year from a paddock in New Zealand’s remote South Island. The rocket launch range is not just New Zealand’s first of any kind, but also the world’s first private launch range, and the rocket, designed by Rocket Lab, one of a growing […]
A logo is pictured at Google’s European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann/Files WASHINGTON Google, which hopes to revolutionize consumer deliveries via drone, expects to begin delivering packages to customers by unmanned aircraft sometime in 2017, an executive said on Monday. “Our goal is to have commercial business up and running in 2017,” David Vos, the project lead for Google’s Project Wing, told an audience […]
People use their cell phones in Mexico City, October 8, 2015. Reuters/Edgard Garrido/Files LONDON Thumbing through guide books for restaurant and shopping tips while on holiday could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to mobile travel technology that knows where you are and what you like and can ping you personalised recommendations. People are increasingly turning to their mobile phones to book flights, hotels and […]
|By TAP Staff| Iran’s Bank Mellat, one of the most high-profile private entities sanctioned in 2009 for alleged links to Iran’s nuclear programme, won a morale-boosting victory against the British Treasury this week when a Court of Appeal upheld its demand for greater disclosures about the charges being leveled against it. The verdict was based on the principle that the accused has a right to know what […]
|By TAP Staff|The United States approved conditional sanctions waivers for Iran on Sunday, international media reported from New York. But it was clarified that the lifting of sanctions would not take effect until Tehran curbed its nuclear program as required under the nuclear deal. “Today marks an important milestone toward preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensuring its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful going forward,” […]
Singapore Air’s decision to restart direct flights to New York is an ominous sign for the future of aviation hubs like Dubai. Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Dubai became hubs from the 1970s to the 2000s for a simple reason: Commercial aircraft of the era struggled to travel more than about 10,000 kilometers without stopping to refuel. That put swathes of the Americas off-limits to direct […]
A logo is pictured at Google’s European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann/Files MOSCOW Russia’s anti-monopoly agency said on Monday that Google Inc (GOOGL.O) had until Nov. 18 to address charges that it was abusing its market position in the country. The FAS anti-monopoly body said Google must correct its contracts with manufacturers after ruling in September that the software giant had broken the law […]
A Volkswagen logo adorns a sign outside a dealership for the German automaker located in the Sydney suburb of Artarmon, Australia, October 3, 2015. Reuters/David Gray BERLIN The head of the European Parliament told a group of German regional newspapers that the emissions scandal at Volkswagen (VW) would hit the German economy hard but Europe’s biggest carmaker was likely to survive the crisis. Germany’s finance and economy […]
UNITED NATIONS — Over the last four years, as four million Syrian refugees poured into neighboring countries and slipped inexorably into poverty, António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said he had pleaded in vain with world leaders to take their plight more seriously. But suddenly, at the United Nations General Assembly this week, leaders of the world’s most powerful countries want to meet with […]
UAE The next six months may prove a pivotal turning point in the recovery of global commodities markets according to Ole Sloth Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, the online trading and multi-asset investment specialist. Following nine months of geo-political incidents in Europe and the Middle East, and widespread uncertainty catalysed by major economic crises in Greece, Russia and China, Hansen is optimistic the next […]
|By Matein Khalid| Even as China’s President meets the capo di tutti capi in Seattle, its manufacturing PMI falls to 47, a post Lehman low, with new export orders in a slump. I found it significant that the offshore yuan fell 200 pips to 6.4346 after the PMI. This proves my core argument, outlined a month ago. The Middle Kingdom will respond to its economic decline and […]
Saudi Arabia has withdrawn as much as $70 billion from global asset managers as OPEC’s largest oil producer seeks to plug its budget deficit, according to financial services market intelligence company Insight Discovery. “Fund managers we’ve spoken to estimate SAMA has pulled out between $50 billion to $70 billion from global asset managers over the past six months,” Nigel Sillitoe, chief executive officer of the Dubai-based firm, […]
INTERNATIONAL. What started as a civil war in Syria nearly five years ago has now evolved into an international crisis unmatched by any other since World War II. The global community now has a solemn obligation to end this humanitarian disaster, but it cannot do so unless all the powers affected by the conflict set aside their differences in order to end the suffering of millions of […]
Middle East By THOMAS ERDBRINK September 27, 2015 President Hassan Rouhani of Iran is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. Thomas Erdbrink, the Tehran bureau chief for The New York Times, looks at what message Mr. Rouhani has for international leaders and how it might be received. What’s different from the last time President Rouhani spoke to the General Assembly? Mr. Rouhani, Iran’s leader since […]
Middle East Secretary of State John Kerry, left, with Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the United Nations on Saturday. By MICHAEL R. GORDON September 26, 2015 UNITED NATIONS — Secretary of State John Kerry sought on Saturday to draw Iran into the search for a political solution to the Syrian conflict as he began a week of diplomacy over the brutal fighting there. “I view this week as […]
A logo is pictured at Google’s European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann/Files WASHINGTON The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary investigation into whether Google Inc (GOOGL.O) uses its Android operating system to dominate competitors as more consumers go mobile, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. The Android mobile platform is a key element in Google’s strategy to maintain revenue […]
Bloomberg|David McLaughlin| Google Inc. is back under U.S. antitrust scrutiny as officials ask whether the tech giant stifled competitors’ access to its Android mobile-operating system, said two people familiar with the matter. The Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement with the Justice Department to spearhead an investigation of Google’s Android business, the people said. FTC officials have met with technology company representatives who say Google gives priority to its own […]
INTERNATIONAL. Just four per cent of businesses are able to extract the full value from the information they hold, with over a third (36 per cent) lacking the tools and skills they need to do so, according to new research from storage and information management company, Iron Mountain (IRM) and PwC. As a result, 43 per cent of the European and North American companies surveyed obtain little […]
UAE. The Middle East & North Africa ranks well above North America, Europe and Latin America in terms of market growth opportunities according to the Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index (GDI) 2015. However, the region is lagging behind on a number of other indicators including labour market and financing environment. The GDI – which combines 22 indicators across five growth areas to identify the best business growth […]
