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JERUSALEM — In a politically fractious country troubled by monumental security challenges, Israel’s military has long served as an equalizer and unifier, a “people’s army” that, at least in the eyes of the Jewish majority, reflected the general interest. But the Israeli people, and with them the government, have shifted to the right amid an upsurge of Palestinian stabbings and other attacks. Now the military finds itself […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| DP World’s new $1.2 billion 7-year sukuk received strong investor interest and was two times oversubscribed receiving more than $2 billion in bids, the company announced. The new sukuk was priced at a fixed coupon rate of 3.91% maturing in 2023, replacing over $1.1bn of the 2017 6.25% coupon sukuk. The new sukuk issue followed DP World’s successful refinancing of over $1.1 billion […]

|Arabian Post Staff| Banks in Saudi Arabia are coming under fresh pressure over products that allow speculators to bet against the kingdom’s currency peg, Bloomberg reports quoting people with knowledge of the matter. Bloomberg said the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency has asked lenders to explain why they are offering dollar-riyal forward structured products to customers less than four months after the regulator banned options contracts that let […]

ABU DHABI // It’s never too early to start learning about road safety. Over the past two weeks, thousands of youngsters have been getting instructions in the correct way to drive by taking mini pedal cars around a mock-up of a town centre, complete with road signs, pedestrian crossing, roundabout and traffic lights. My First Licence — I Know My Road Rules helped 3,000 children from nine […]

  SAN FRANCISCO Billionaire media owner Pierre Omidyar is backing news and entertainment web site Gawker Media in its lawsuit against wrestler Hulk Hogan, adding a new twist to a case pitting technology money against press freedom.   Omidyar, owner of The Intercept publisher First Look Media, is asking other media outlets to file legal briefs in support of Gawker, First Look said in a statement on […]

The latest acquisition by Intel could give it a big leg up in the race to develop Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous driving technology. The chipmaker signed an agreement yesterday to acquire computer vision software company Itseez Inc. The 11-year-old San Francisco-based firm will become part of Intel’s IoT Group (IOTG). “Intel is focused on delivering end-to-end IoT solutions addressing devices, wired and wireless networks and […]

Flowers without scent produce fewer seeds, although they are visited as often by pollinators as are flowers that do emit a scent. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, made this surprising observation, when they studied tobacco plants that have been silenced in their ability to produce floral volatiles. The researchers showed that floral scent is crucial for successful pollination: Manduca sexta […]

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In the world of Harry Potter the young wizard undergoes two magical biological transformations: eating Gillyweed to grow gills in order to breathe underwater and drinking Skele-Gro to repair broken bones. Natural Sciences students from the University of Leicester have put these arcane medical practices to the test — and have concluded that a little magic might indeed be required in both situations to make them scientifically […]

Prescribing certain medications on the basis of a patient’s race has long come under fire from those uneasy with using race as a surrogate for biology when treating disease. But there are multiple challenges to overcome before we can move beyond race-based treatment decisions, writes Duke University geneticist and bioethicist Charmaine Royal in a perspective piece published May 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In […]

UAE. Brent crude pushed above key psychological level to trade above $50 for the first time since November 2015. The 85% rally since Brent hit a 12-years low in Jan was supported by multiple factors, mainly oil disruption from major exporters and production cut back by U.S. shale. Meanwhile the double than expected drop in U.S. inventories supported bulls to keep holding their long positions. According to […]

SAUDI ARABIA. The recent Ministerial Resolution on the Saudisation of the sale and repair of mobile phones, together with the earlier resolutions on the retail of female clothing, indicate a growing approach by the Ministry of Labour to require the complete Saudisation of certain activities within the retail sector. In this article we examine the existing requirements and also the proposal for a weighted Nitiqat. Sale and […]

Yale physicists have given Schrödinger’s famous cat a second box to play in, and the result may help further the quest for reliable quantum computing. Schrödinger’s cat is a well-known paradox that applies the concept of superposition in quantum physics to objects encountered in everyday life. The idea is that a cat is placed in a sealed box with a radioactive source and a poison that will […]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan officially confirmed the death of the former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour for the first time on Thursday, five days after the American drone strike that killed him on Pakistani soil, raising diplomatic tensions. The official announcement came from Sartaj Aziz, the chief foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at a news conference in Islamabad. “All indicators confirm that the […]

Online payment service PayPal is abandoning the apps that it created for Microsoft Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Amazon Fire OS. The company announced the move this week on its blog. The news paves the way for PayPal to steer users toward the latest versions of its app for Apple’s IOS and Google’s Android. Those two platforms have come to dominate the mobile payment space. The last day […]

SHIRAZ, Iran — For centuries, Iran’s famed carpets have been produced by hand along the nomad trail in this region of high plains around the ancient city of Shiraz. Sheep grazed in high mountain pastures and shorn only once a year produce a thick, long wool ideal for the tough thread used in carpet making. But high-quality production of hand-woven carpets is no longer sustainable on the […]

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, is briefed on the construction phases, design, building technologies and the methods used to transport the ‘artificial island’ from Finland to Dubai. Wam Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said the project reflected Dubai’s vision to achieve global leadership in innovation and excellence. Wam Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of […]

A rare institution in this country, the Future Centre for Special Needs in Abu Dhabi has succeeded in integrating 100 special needs pupils into mainstream schools since it opened its doors in 2000. Children begin trickling into Abu Dhabi’s Future Centre for Special Needs at 8am. Early arrivals play or receive some individual attention. Thirty minutes later, they begin the first group session. “Circle time is different […]

|By Matein Khalid| In retrospect, 2016 will go down in German political and economic history as a significant game changer, on the scale of 1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall), 1990 (reunification) and 1999 (the Euro), even 1945 (launch of Deutschemark), 1945 (Third Reich surrenders), 1943 (Stalingrad) and 1933 (Hitler elected). Chancellor Merkel, renamed Mutti Multi kulti, allowed a million migrants to settle in Germany. The far right […]

Sources tell Gulf News media reports have exaggerated the reasons behind the lay-offs Dubai: The Saudi-owned pan-Arab Al Arabiya has fired dozens of employees in a restructuring move. Saudi Akhbaar24 broke the story claiming fifty employees had been let go, among them some well-known and long-serving staffers. A trusted source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the news to Gulf News but […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| The overall tourism spend by visitors to the UAE declined by 6% in the first quarter of 2016, according to a report on consumer card spends by Network International, the leading payment solutions provider in the MENA region. Due to a continuous appreciation in the US Dollar along with a bullish global economic outlook and a fall in the prices of crude oil, […]

When the 1986 Taurus hit the market, it turned car styling on its head. Gone instantly were straight line creases and wedgie shapes. Curves were now in, and oh yeah, were they! This second generation Pulsar NX followed the trend, and looked so much better with a reskin. It also offered more FUN things like T-Tops and a removable hatch panel that left flying buttresses for strength. […]

Seismologists have created a new algorithm that could one day help give coastal cities early warning of incoming tsunamis. Right now, tsunami warning systems rely on region-specific scenarios based on previous patterns in that area. That’s because scientists use sensors in the ocean, which can detect abnormal movements but can’t make accurate projections of how much water will hit a coast and how hard. But “most likely” […]

Dark matter is a mysterious substance composing most of the material universe, now widely thought to be some form of massive exotic particle. An intriguing alternative view is that dark matter is made of black holes formed during the first second of our universe’s existence, known as primordial black holes. Now a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, suggests that this interpretation aligns […]

The study found that 29 per cent of Emiratis are keen to use their Emirates ID cards to make payments, making them the highest demographic group in the GCC to want to do so. Dubai: Seventy seven per cent of residents across the GCC would opt for alternatives to cash and card payments, should they be available in their country, according to a study commissioned […]

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