Emirates Global Aluminium (Emal) a joint venture between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, is said to be paying almost 40 percent more for a loan compared with last year as liquidity in the Gulf tightens after the plunge in oil prices. The state-controlled company will pay 200 basis points, or 2 percentage points, above the London Interbank Offered Rate on a $4.9 billion, seven-year conventional loan and an […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| In recognition of Oman’s efforts to broker a deal with Iran on the vexed nuclear issue, the United States toned down its approach towards a human rights report which carried adverse remarks about the Sultanate, a Washington-datelined report indicated. In a highly unusual intervention, the State Department’s hierarchy overruled its own staff’s assessments of Oman’s human rights performance and ranked the sultanate at […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Buoyed by sharp fall in gold prices globally, India is likely to see a jump of 11 per cent in imports of the metal to 1,000 tonnes this year, according to the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation. The world’s second-biggest gold consumer imported around 900 tonnes in 2014. “Gold import is estimated at around 1,000 tonnes in 2015 calendar year, compared […]
While plenty of cyberattacks are still conducted by the stereotypical “hacker in a basement,” state-sponsored hacking is also on the rise — prompting Yahoo to become the latest tech company to offer warnings of such attacks. In a blog post earlier this week, chief information security officer Bob Lord said Yahoo will offer specific security suggestions to users who appear to be the targets of state-sponsored attacks. […]
|By Matein Khalid| In retrospect, the last six years were a unique period in global central banking, an epic monetary experiment that averted a Great Depression after Lehman’s failure and interbank/credit contagion plunged the world into recession in 2008-9. Yet the Fed (and later Bank of Japan, ECB and even PBOC) quantitative easing also led to asset bubbles, credit market excesses, currency wars and the mispricing of […]
The Cisco Systems logo is seen as part of a display at the Microsoft Ignite technology conference in Chicago, Illinois, May 4, 2015. Reuters/Jim Young BOSTON Networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc said on Monday it has launched a product review to look for tampering after rival Juniper Networks Inc’s disclosure found code in firewall software that made it vulnerable to cyber attacks. Juniper warned customers on […]
The use of broadband Internet in U.S. homes is starting to drop, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center. In fact, just 67 percent of U.S. homes have broadband connectivity, down from 70 percent in 2013 — the first significant decline in the number of homes with broadband connections, according to Pew’s new Home Broadband report. The reasons? Mobile technology, to name one. […]
Reuters/Abhishek N. Chinnappa/Files MUMBAI Flipkart on Monday denied a newspaper report that said venture capital firm Accel Partners had sold a small stake in India’s biggest online marketplace to sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) for $100 million. “This information is incorrect. There has been no such transaction,” a Flipkart spokesman told Reuters in an emailed statement. The Economic Times newspaper earlier on Monday reported the […]
TOKYO Japan’s Toshiba Corp (6502.T) said on Monday it will cut nearly 7,000 consumer electronics jobs after a $1.3 billion accounting scandal, in an overhaul that will streamline the sprawling conglomerate into a company focused on chips and nuclear energy. Toshiba also said it would sell its television manufacturing plant in Indonesia, and that eventual job cuts spanning the entire PC-to-nuclear company could be over 10,000 including […]
This time around, the movies are more than serious — they’re nightmare-inducing Why does Hollywood want to punish us? This year’s Oscar aren’t just heavy — it’s a given that the weightiest dramas pop up in theatres when Academy members are preparing their ballots. But this time around, the movies are more than serious. They’re nightmare-inducing. You’ve got a bear trying to eat a man and slow-motion […]
The former child star, who was once the highest-paid child actor ever, is back playing Home Alone’s Kevin McCallister, in a new web seriesEver wondered how Home Alone’s dexterous protagonist Kevin McCallister would end up as an adult? The first episode of the new web series, :DRYVRS, starring Macaulay Culkin, the former child star who played the beloved character in the hit film series, gives a solid […]
Our father died six years ago, and this year our mother died. As the eldest child, I became responsible overnight for my brother and sister. I’ve never not looked forward to this time of year. The fact that I get to eat my bodyweight in food without feeling an ounce of guilt plays a big part in my high spirits during the lead-up to Christmas. The lights, […]
Almost every Middle Eastern stock index declined after oil, the region’s main source of income, sank to the lowest in seven years, damping the outlook for government spending. Dubai’s DFM General Index ended its longest winning streak in almost three months, sliding 1.5 percent, the most in a week, to close at 3,026.05. Emirates NBD PJSC’s 4 percent retreat was the biggest contributor. The Tadawul All Share […]
NATIONAL HERALD – FROM GLORY TO PITS
By Harihar Swarup
The National Herald was a child of the freedom movement. It was started by Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru himself reported for the paper and Krishna Menon was its London correspondent. Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Harijan in 1942: “The National Herald is an institution.” From 1938 to 1942, it lived dangerously from day to day, ready to publish anything about the freedom movement, paying the penalty of successive securities, forfeited at the pleasure of authorities. It was ordered to submit its editorials to censorship, which it refused, and not given headlines to war news which it defied with ingenuity.
Nehru’s instructions were to try to live and serve the freedom movement but not to lower the flag. Gandhiji valued it as newspaper without fear. The newspaper was voluntarily closed under Gandhi’s call that new
MAMATA WOOING CONGRESS AGAIN
By Ashis Biswas
For the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal, the theme song could well be akla chalo re: Ironically, as the weakest opposition party in West Bengal, the BJP alone is not contemplating any alliance, with only a few months left before the 2016 Assembly polls.
Among other parties, the usually derided, much weakened Congress has emerged as the prime choice as an alliance partner both for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the CPI(M). Interestingly, the Left camp remains divided over the question of political alignments. For instance, the CPI a firm ally of the Congress during the seventies, has put its foot down to any linkage with it, as have smaller parties like the SUCI or the CPI(M-L). The CPI’s logic: it points to its own remarkable decline over the years, which it sees as a consequence of its earlier reliance on
The sign outside the Target store is seen in Arvada, Colorado in this January 10, 2014 file photo. Reuters/Rick Wilking/Files Target Corp (TGT.N) is in the early stages of developing its own mobile wallet, three people familiar with the matter said, joining Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) in posing a threat to recent entrants like Apple Pay. The fourth-largest U.S. retailer has not committed to launch the product, […]
After inking an enhanced deal with Salesforce earlier this week, Box has also expanded its strategic alliance with IBM. Box, which lets enterprise users access and manage information in the cloud, announced the move today. Apparently, the initial tie-up between Big Blue and Box was so successful that the companies decided to press the go-to-market and sales pedals a little harder. Under the revamped deal, the companies […]
In 1977, Rick Hoyt told his father Dick he would like to participate in a 5 mile run. It was a benefit for a Lacrosse player who had become paralyzed. Rick was diagnosed at birth as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, and was unable to walk or speak naturally. Running a race seemed impossible but there are always ways to surpass those boundaries. Dick ran the race […]
CHINESE SLOWDOWN HAS TO BE MONITORED
By Anjan Roy
At long last the US Federal Reserve – America’s central bank—has raised the interest rates, albeit hardly. This is the first hike in interest rates by the US central bank in over a decade.
The US Fed rate hike has been by a very small margin – from zero to just about 0.25% to 0.5%. It was so gradual and soft that the rate hike did not cause the disruptions in the global financial markets that everyone expected from such a decision.
The first question here is how will it affect India? It should not, and this has been borne out by what happened in the day after the Fed rate hike. The stock market remained more or less flat. The exchange rate also remained stable. The fund managers did not immediately think of taking money out of India and that left the financial markets unruffled.
But then w
RURAL DEVELOPMENT MAY CLINCH 2016 POLL FOR MAMATA
By Ashis Biswas
As the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and opposition parties gear up for the next round of West Bengal Assembly elections, their campaign themes have been established.
The TMC is contesting on a ‘development’ slogan, while the twin pillars of the opposition’s campaign will be ‘lawlessness and economic stagnation’, broadly speaking.
At first sight, the TMC’s claim of having improved the state’s economy may look suspect, if not downright dubious, to most observers. However, initial impressions may be deceptive. After 54 months of its tenure, the ruling TMC has consolidated its position in rural Bengal. Especially in the highly populated South Bengal districts, which account for most of the 294 seats in the Assembly, the TMC is confident of doing better than its op
|By Lawrence Williams| The initial reaction to the Fed’s first interest rate rise in nine years has been marginally positive for gold. Only time will tell if, on reflection by the market, its initial post-hike performance can be maintained, or improved upon. It has already come down a little this morning trading in the mid to high $1060s after mid $1070s immediately post the announcement. This fall from the […]
By Nora Chopra
The Congress party is divided on the Congress strategy on the National Herald issue. While Rahul is adamant to go to jail, there are senior leaders who feel that it is not the correct strategy to be adopted at this time. According to a Congress general secretary, this is not the same time and neither is Rahul Gandhi an Indira Gandhi, while she had no charges of corruption against her. There are umpteen charges against the erstwhile UPA government. The Morarji government had been harassing Indira Gandhi. Thus when she went to jail there was a wave of sympathy in her favour. Congress senior leaders claim that Indira Gandhi was a mass leader which Rahul is not. Besides the Congress leaders are extremely concerned about the health of the 90 plus Motilal Vora and also ailing Sonia Gandhi
MAHARASHTRA PCC CHIEF GETTING CLOSE WITH STATE CHIEF MINISTER
Resentment is brewing within the Maharashtra Congress agains
As South Africans endure their deepest economic crisis since 2009, it’s not just President Jacob Zuma they blame. There’s a family whose name is increasingly the target of protest: the Guptas. As tens of thousands marched in October in South Africa’s biggest wave of nationwide anti-government protests since the African National Congress came to power, one poster, broadcast on the nation’s television channels, captured the public anger: […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Gold prices were trading higher in afternoon dealings and holding on to early gains in the aftermath of the first interest rate increase from the U.S. Federal Reserve since 2006. The gains were explained as a move by traders to get a jump on the possibility of Fed rate hike, on the firm belief that the gold market would exhibit a “sell the rumor, […]
