UAE. The representation of women on corporate boards continues to increase, but the number of women leading boards still remains low globally. Overall, women now hold 12 percent of seats worldwide with only 4 percent chairing boards, according to the fourth edition of the Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective, report by Deloitte. The report outlines the efforts of 49 countries to increase the number of […]
UAE. The global sukuk market is heading toward a correction in 2015 after the Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM)–one of the largest issuers of sukuk worldwide–stopped issuing earlier this year, says a report published today by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. But as the report, titled “Global Sukuk Issuance Stalls In 2015 As Major Issuer Exits The Market,” points out, BNM’s move leaves the door open to […]
Top-ranking pupils from across the country received a surprise on Wednesday, after being told of their academic performance by none other than Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai. The group met Sheikh Mohammed at Zabeel Palace. Before the meeting, the pupils were unaware of their results and – on hearing their scores from Sheikh Mohammed – received the news ahead of the official […]
Redmond is cleaning house. Microsoft just announced plans to restructure its phone hardware business to better focus and align resources. Part of that alignment translates to layoffs. Microsoft will cut up to 7,800 positions, primarily in the phone business. The result: an impairment charge of about $7.6 billion related to assets connected to its Nokia Devices and Services business acquisition. That’s on top of a restructuring charge […]
|By TAP Staff| Claims worth AED 2.27 billion have been filed with the DIFC’s Court of First Instance from January to June 2015. This represents a 447 percent increase compared with the same period in 2014. The big increase reflects the growing confidence placed in DIFC and Dubai as a global and regional centre of legal excellence, DIFC Courts said. The average value per claim in the […]
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is to invest up to $10 billion in Russia over the next five years, in a move signalling a thawing in relations between the two countries. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country’s sovereign wealth investment vehicle, agreed on Monday to invest $10 billion over the next five years approximately in the Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a government-run investment fund. […]
VIENNA — The talks to complete a landmark accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program have been extended for several days after negotiators acknowledged that they would be unable to meet a Tuesday deadline. To give negotiators more time to pursue a final accord, the diplomats agreed to extend through Friday an interim nuclear accord called the Joint Plan of Action. That interim agreement, which had been set to […]
LONDON — Last week, the State Department announced the resumption of “security assistance” to Bahrain. This ended a four-year ban on the transfer of arms that the United States put into effect in 2011, after the Bahraini government’s harsh crackdown on Arab Spring protests. In a statement, the State Department argued that Bahrain had made enough progress in human rights reform to be rewarded by ending the […]
|By TAP Staff| Over 30 local and regional airports have joined a growing coalition that is calling on the U.S. government to open consultations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to address $42 billion in subsidies and other unfair benefits that the Gulf nations have provided to their state-owned airlines, violating Open Skies policy and threatening hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Airports from across the […]
INTERNATIONAL. This is now officially a Greek tragedy. In many ways, it is relatively easy to understand why the result was a No from Greece. There is little to lose, as a Yes to more austerity hardly was a great choice for a society on the brink of a social break down. The vote clearly was not help by the fact that the actual vote: Yes or No […]
UAE. Non-oil private sector firms in the UAE reported the weakest improvement in business conditions since August 2013 during June. Marked slowdowns in growth of output and new business were at the forefront of the overall deceleration, while employment continued to rise at a solid pace. Meanwhile, inflationary pressures from both input costs and output charges were negligible. The survey, sponsored by Emirates NBD and produced by […]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has reaffirmed the UAE will spare no effort to create a supportive environment for women to fulfil their roles as key partners in building the future of the nation. “Emirati women have proved their competence in all fields and we are proud of every achievement they made,” Sheikh Mohammed said at the first meeting of the UAE […]
Oil prices tumbled their most in three months on Monday, with U.S. crude falling 6 percent, after Greece’s rejection of debt bailout terms and China’s rolling out of emergency measures to support its stock markets shook global markets. Adding to the pressure on oil, Iran and global powers were trying to meet a July 7 deadline on a nuclear deal, which could bring more supply to the […]
Dubai and the mid- market hotel sector …stable performance. Dubai hotels sector focus shifting to mid-market DUBAI, 11 hours, 43 minutes ago Dubai is seeing a shift towards the development of mid-market hotels, underpinned by government incentives, a growing middle class in key source markets and the rise of a younger, more cash constrained guest profile, a report said. Strong demand for branded mid-market hotels has helped […]
By ANNE BARNARD July 5, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian government troops and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon pushed into the Syrian border town of Zabadani on Sunday amid heavy airstrikes, continuing an offensive aimed at strengthening their control of routes between Lebanon and Syria. Pushing insurgents out of the mountain town would continue advances aimed at cutting insurgent supply lines to Lebanon, and would also be a symbolic victory. […]
|TAP Staff| Iran’s oil biggest shipping company has amassed the world’s largest fleet of super tankers and is in talks to sail back into western waters should the Islamic Republic strike a nuclear deal, according to senior officials, the Wall Street Journal reported. The report quotes privatised Iranian shipping company NITC as saying it has 42 very large crude carriers, known as VLCCs, after buying 20 such […]
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and THOMAS ERDBRINK July 5, 2015 VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry warned Iran on Sunday that hard choices were still needed to seal a landmark nuclear accord, and that the United States was prepared to walk away if a sound agreement could not be reached. “We are not yet where we need to be on several of the most difficult issues,” Mr. Kerry said in a […]
INTERNATIONAL. Greece’s seeming hour-by-hour descent into chaos at the end of the second quarter has fashioned an intensely uncertain framework casting markets at the mercy of headline risk. It is with that ever-changing caveat that Saxo Bank publishes its Q3 Outlook ahead of the Greek referendum on EU membership which, as things stand, will take place July 5. The outlook for Q3, therefore hangs in the balance, […]
ABU DHABI // After paying nearly Dh60,000 in annual tuition fees, parents at Raha International School have been told that they must also foot the bill for expensive textbooks. On June 22, the school issued a notice to parents of pupils entering the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme, saying they had until the end of last month to place an order with the school to purchase the […]
By ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD July 4, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian government forces and their allies in the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah started a new offensive Saturday against insurgents in Zabadani, a mountain town near the border with Lebanon that was one of the first to be wrested by rebels four years ago. Hezbollah’s news channel, Al Manar, showed smoke rising from Zabadani and said that the government forces […]
By RICK GLADSTONE and MAHER SAMAAN July 3, 2015 Islamic State militants indulged in new public displays of artifact destruction this week, sledgehammering a half-dozen statues said to have been stolen from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The militants also broke up a hidden 2,000-year-old lion statue they discovered in a Palmyra museum garden and demolished a 13th-century tomb near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The destruction, publicized in […]
A Swiss man attempting to circumnavigate the globe with an aircraft powered only by the sun’s energy landed in Hawaii on Friday, after a record-breaking five-day nonstop solo flight across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. The Solar Impulse 2 is the first aircraft to fly day and night without any fuel. Pilot Andre Borschberg’s 120-hour voyage shattered the 76-hour record for nonstop flight by late American adventurer […]
Palestinians carrying the body of Muhammad Hani al-Kasba in the Qalandia refugee camp in the West Bank, on Friday. By ISABEL KERSHNER July 3, 2015 JERUSALEM — Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank on Friday as he and others hurled stones and rocks at their army vehicle, the Israeli military said, while Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank arrested more […]
Innovation key to globalize for top Chinese firms BEIJING, 17 hours, 1 minutes ago Leading Chinese companies are making innovation a strategic priority in their business models to stay competitive in global markets, according to a new report. The Emerging Best Practices of Chinese Globalizers: Develop the Innovation Models report by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Strategy& (a part of the PwC network) was based […]
