ALGIERS German Chancellor Angela Merkel postponed a visit to Algeria because President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is suffering from acute bronchitis, state news agency APS said, quoting a statement from the presidency. Merkel was due to arrive in Algeria on Monday as part of a trip to North Africa. “The visit will be reprogrammed at a date that is suitable for the two parties,” the presidency said. In Berlin, […]
Some of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds are increasingly striking their own private equity deals rather than relying on external fund managers, in a drive to cut costs and gain more control. With some $6.5 trillion in assets, sovereign investors already account for 19 percent of capital committed to private equity, according to data from research firm Preqin. But mega-funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment […]
By Mubasher Bukhari | LAHORE, Pakistan LAHORE, Pakistan Pakistan will seek the help of a paramilitary border-security force to crack down on Islamist militants in Punjab province, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s power base, after attacks that killed more than 100 people last week, a government spokesman said on Monday. On Sunday, days after a suicide bomber killed 13 people in the Punjabi city of Lahore, the provincial […]
By Ben Blanchard and Philip Wen | BEIJING BEIJING With the suspension of all North Korean coal imports, China has wielded a big stick against its reclusive neighbour, but there is no sign it will cut off all critical links and Beijing is still promoting talks to solve the dispute over Pyongyang’s programme to develop nuclear weapons. China has been getting increasingly fed up with what it […]
Lenín Boltaire Moreno is in the lead after Sunday’s nail-biting presidential election in Ecuador. The anointed candidate of leftwing President Rafael Correa was close to the margin needed to avoid a second round against Guillermo Lasso, a conservative former banker, in a test for Latin America’s battered left. After a campaign that underlined the divisive legacy of Mr Correa, the US-trained economist who has been in power […]
Photo Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, left, with Col. Terry L. Anderson, the military attaché, in Munich on Thursday. Credit Sven Hoppe/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Baghdad on Monday, promising that, despite what President Trump said last month, the administration would not try to seize Iraq’s oil. Nor, he said, would the administration repay Iraqis who have worked […]
Australia and the UAE will explore closer defence ties after a meeting on Sunday between a senior Australian government minister and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Australia’s Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne and Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, met on the sidelines of the biennial International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi. The […]
By Rozanna Latiff | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR Footage from airport cameras purportedly showing the assault on the half-brother of the North Korean leader emerged on Monday as a row between Malaysia and North Korea escalated over the handling of the investigation into the killing of Kim Jong Nam. Malaysia recalled its envoy from Pyongyang and summoned North Korea’s ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, who again cast doubt […]
Newly appointed New South Wales Minister for Finance, Services and Property Victor Dominello has said he plans to bring his data-driven expertise to his new portfolio, rewarding government agencies with an “innovation bonus” if they move away from a silo-ridden approach to IT and service delivery. Speaking at the Gartner 2017 APAC Data & Analytics Summit in Sydney on Monday, Dominello said he had his eye on […]
Key to enhancing and diversifying its service offering in the domestic maritime industry 20 February 2017 Riyadh – Saudi Arabia – Bahri, a global leader in logistics and transportation, has opened a new office in Mumbai to strengthen its presence in the fast-growing Indian maritime industry and lay the foundation to offer diverse shipping services to domestic customers. The new office, located in the central suburb of […]
By Alexandra Ulmer and Alexandra Valencia | QUITO QUITO Leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno was within striking distance of winning the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election on Monday, as the Andean country’s electoral body counted ballots late into the night. In a nail-biter vote with eight candidates, Moreno was close to the threshold needed to avoid an April runoff and continue a decade-long period of leftist […]
SYDNEY Asian share markets were mixed on Monday as political uncertainty globally kept the mood cautious, while the U.S. dollar dithered in a tight range ahead of a busy week for Federal Reserve events. Turnover was light with U.S. markets closed for the Presidents Day holiday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS edged up 0.1 percent and back toward a 19-month peak reached last […]
New Zealand’s High Court has ruled that Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur accused of masterminding one of the largest copyright infringements in history, and three accomplices can be extradited to face trial in the US. The judgment is a victory for the US department of Justice, which has fought a near five-year legal battle to have the 43-year-old German stand trial on copyright infringement and money laundering charges […]
President Donald Trump is again breaking the internet not because of another dramatic press conference, outrageous Twitter statement or a “photo” showing him with Vladimir Putin. It began with a Reddit page that surfaced recently, titled Tiny Trumps, which is devoted to photoshopped images of the president, depicting him in various states of, well, smallness. Shrinking Trump Barely a day since the Reddit community was started, it has already […]
By Carl O’Donnell | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. food company Kraft Heinz Co (KHC.O) withdrew its proposal for a $143-billion merger with larger rival Unilever Plc (ULVR.L), the companies said on Sunday, raising questions about whether Kraft could turn its focus to another target. Kraft had made a surprise offer for Unilever to build a global consumer goods behemoth that was flatly rejected on Friday by […]
Despite financial woes, Faraday Future is pushing through with its factory in Las Vegas, six months after its construction was stopped from lack of funding. In a statement published on the company’s website, Faraday Future says it will have a competitive bidding process for the construction of its car plant, and has already solicited five bids from “top U.S. and international contractors.” This news comes on the […]
Last week, as delegations from the new US administration, Russia, China and the EU gathered at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the strategic challenges facing the international community, a very different international assembly was taking place at the Abu Dhabi headquarters of the UAE’s Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development. As ministers in Germany prepared to debate matters diplomats define as “hard power” – military and […]
Kraft Heinz, the Warren Buffett-backed US food group, dropped its $143bn pursuit of consumer products rival Unilever on Sunday, only two days after publicly confirming its interest in acquiring the Anglo-Dutch rival. Kraft Heinz said in a joint statement with Unilever that it had “amicably agreed to withdraw its proposal for a combination of the two companies”. A takeover would have created the world’s second-largest consumer goods […]
Photo The Iranian city of Ahvaz during a sandstorm on Saturday. Rain has turned the dust there into mud, which caused power stations to stop working. Credit Morteza Jaberian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images TEHRAN — Days of protests against dust storms, power outages and government mismanagement in one of Iran’s most oil-rich cities subsided on Sunday after security forces declared all demonstrations illegal. Residents of Ahvaz, a […]
Partnership will maximise onshore field value in support of ADNOC’s long-term growth objectives 19 February 2017 Abu Dhabi, UAE – Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), today, signed an agreement with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), awarding it an 8% interest in Abu Dhabi’s onshore oil concession. CNPC contributed a sign up bonus of AED 6.5 billion ($1.77 billion) to enter the concession. The onshore […]
The EU’s Brexit negotiators expect to spend until Christmas solely discussing Britain’s divorce from the bloc, denying London any trade talks until progress is made on a €60bn exit bill and the rights of expatriate citizens. A narrow divorce-first approach favoured by Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, would represent a big setback for Britain’s aim for a fast-track EU trade deal, completed by the end of […]
Yesterday´s Future is Today´s Reality. In the area of Business applications, cloud seems to be all over the place. But it has many facets which all have its right to exist, though it´s a fatal misunderstanding to see cloud simply as an alternative technical deployment option. From the new millennium SaaS models that have been adopted, initially with huge appetite in dedicated Line of Business areas. We […]
By Erik Kirschbaum | BERLIN BERLIN Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have moved ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) in an opinion poll by the Emnid institute for the first time since 2006, Bild am Sonntag newspaper said. The SPD’s unexpected surge of some 12 points in the last month has caught Merkel and her conservatives off guard, analysts said, just seven months before […]
While the year continues to be dominated by headlines touting the universal appeal of Alexa, there’s another gives a glimpse of what the big next step in human-computer interaction will be: eye tracking. The concept of measuring and responding to human eye motion isn’t new, but the past year saw a rising interest in the technology. There have been a slew of acquisitions of eye tracking startups by large […]
