SAN FRANCISCO Facebook Inc on Wednesday offered a rare glimpse into how it ranks and shows content in its News Feed, part of an effort to provide more transparency about its operations as the social network’s cultural and political influence continue to grow. The disclosures, though lacking in detail, are notable in part because they come in the wake of a May news report alleging liberal political […]
BERLIN/LAGOS When German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet launched Jumia in 2012 as a would-be African Amazon, it was optimistic that a rapidly expanding middle class would quickly shift from street markets to shopping online. Four years on, falling sales for sites like Jumia and slower growth from Nigeria to Russia and Brazil is casting doubt on Rocket Internet’s ambition to become the world’s biggest Internet company outside […]
ABU DHABI // Shoppers have complained of high parking fees at Al Wahda Mall as customers shop during Ramadan and ahead of Eid. One shopper, Sanober Shah, said she was “shocked” to have to pay Dh100 after spending seven hours at the mall, where she has shopped for years. “As far as I knew, the first three hours of your cark parked there are free, then you […]
Two days after reporting that 655,000 healthcare records were found for sale on the dark web, the site DeepDotWeb said today that another insurance database with at least 9.3 million patient records is being shopped around by an anonymous hacker. Over the weekend, a hacker using the name “thedarkoverlord” was offering for sale records taken from databases managed by three healthcare organizations in Missouri, Georgia and the […]
TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader, in an unexpected move, replaced the general in charge of the Iranian armed forces on Tuesday with the general’s deputy, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The replaced general, Hassan Firouzabadi, had held the position of chief of staff since 1989 and is known to have been a confidant of both the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Hassan […]
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has canceled a contentious directive known as the Hannibal procedure, which calls for the use of maximum force to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers, even at the risk of harming them. A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accordance with army rules, said on Tuesday that the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, had given instructions several […]
UAE. Deloitte’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) practices highlight the increasing trends for connectivity and mobile phone usage across the board in Deloitte’s latest report entitled: Global Mobile Consumer Trends. Both intensity in usage and ownership rates are increasing―in some categories more than doubling―pointing to dramatically changing consumer behaviors, and a shift towards non-voice communications such as text and instant messaging (IM). Deloitte conducted a survey designed […]
SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia approved the National Transformation Plan (NTP) on Tuesday June 7, 2016, as part of Saudi Vision 2030 and goal to reduce reliance on oil. The NTP aims to boost non-oil revenue to 530 billion riyals (US$141 billion) by 2020 through more than 500 initiatives including the implementation of new taxes and increasing government fees and taxes on “harmful products”. Minister of State Mr. […]
ABU DHABI // Vitamin D deficiency, consanguinity and obesity are major reasons that the Gulf’s rate of infertility is higher than that of the West, doctors say. “Today, infertility is globally acknowledged to be a major health problem,” said Dr Human Fatemi, medical director of IVI Middle East Fertility Clinic in Abu Dhabi. “It is estimated that infertility affects 15 per cent of the global population of […]
ABU DHABI // Ahmad Murshed did not speak a word of Arabic when he challenged himself to read and learn the Quran cover to cover. Six years later, the 18-year-old Indian high school student was named winner in the annual Quran Memorisation Award run by the Islamic Affairs Authority & Endowments (Awqaf) “My father is an imam and he started teaching me the Quran when I was […]
FUJAIRAH-sharjah // Parents are concerned about the lack of summer camps and sports activities for children in Fujairah over the school holidays. With few centres offering indoor activities such as swimming, football and basketball, residents are at a loss over what to do with their children for the two months. Finding an affordable camp is also a problem. Jordanian mother Seham Al Shoulh, has been looking for […]
The logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone over a reserved lane for taxis in a street is seen in this photo illustration taken in Madrid on December 10, 2014. Reuters/Sergio Perez/Illustration/Files Ride-hailing giant Uber is integrating online radio station Pandora into its app for drivers for easy listening on trips, the companies announced on Monday. The deal gives Uber a new perk to dangle […]
People are silhouetted as they pose with laptops in front of a screen projected with a Google logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014. Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Files BERLIN German publishers have appealed a Berlin court’s rejection of a case in which they accused Google of abusing its market power by refusing to pay them for displaying newspaper articles online, a lawyer for the publishers […]
The decision of British voters in last Thursday’s referendum to leave the European Union will have vast consequences for Britain, for Europe and for the world. For a day, the British people were the government, and by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, they took the decision to go. I was a British prime minister who believed completely that Britain’s future lay in Europe. I was […]
A journalist’s account of the conflict in Afghanistan details the cascading failures of the West Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World By Christina Lamb, William Collins, 640 pages, $25 There is a certain subspecies of journalist who comes to feel more at home in a foreign war zone than in her native land, who gets so plugged in with power brokers and average people […]
Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka March 8, 2016. Reuters/Ashikur Rahman/File Photo DHAKA Bangladesh’s central bank has ended a contract with U.S. cyber security firm FireEye to investigate February’s online theft of $81 million, turning down a proposal to extend the agreement, a senior official said on Monday. More than four months after hackers broke into the computer systems of […]
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A lot of people love Uber, the San Francisco-based vehicles-for-hire company. What they don’t love is being uncertain about how much they will have to pay to hire those vehicles. Uber has come under fire for its so-called surge pricing, which jacks up the amount of users’ fares when demand for rides exceeds the number of drivers available. Now, the company is modifying its app to make […]
More memory is always in demand. SanDisk has a new solution for adding memory to your phone. The iXpand Memory case fits your iPhone 6 & 6 Plus & connects via the Lightning port. Everything you store in the case is encrypted. Available in 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB models. Let’s block ads! (Why?) -Werd
With just weeks to go before it launches its one-year Anniversary Update of Windows 10, Microsoft has been rolling out a series of preview builds aimed at fixing various bugs. The most recent build, announced yesterday, resolves a number of issues found in the PC and mobile versions of Microsoft’s operating system. The updates come on the heels of last week’s “Bug Bash,” during which Microsoft gave […]
Backed by the wide-scale social influence of Facebook, WhatsApp appears poised to have an even greater impact on the global communications market, including voice calling as well as text messaging services. Yesterday, the Facebook-owned mobile messaging service announced it is now supporting more than 100 million voice calls every day, a service it began offering just 18 months ago. WhatsApp also rolled out a desktop version of […]
UAE. A new generation of young, highly motivated and mostly well-educated men and women is ready to take over leadership of their family businesses, according to Deloitte’s latest report conducted across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region entitled “Next-generation family businesses Evolution, keeping family values alive.” They are resolute and ready to face the challenges ahead in order to maintain the family character of the business […]
UAE. Boardrooms’ awareness of cyber risks has been recently growing in Europe, Middle East and Africa, with cyber security ranking far up on the agendas of non-executive directors in the region, according to Deloitte’s recent report entitled “EMEA 360 Boardroom Survey: Agenda priorities across the region.” The report reveals that innovation is also gaining ground with 60% of respondents ranking it as a very important issue. These […]
INTERNATIONAL. The use of wearables in the workplace is being stalled by a lack of trust as people worry that their employer may use the data against them and not for their benefit, according to new PwC research. Despite an estimated 3 million people in the UK buying a wearable device in 2015 – a 118% increase from the previous year – PwC’s research shows that employees […]
