News related to
Middle East

Hedge funds run by women have outperformed a broader benchmark of alternative investment managers over the past five years, raising fresh questions about why there are so few female portfolio managers. The HFRI Women index has returned 4.4 per cent over the past five years, compared with a 4.2 per cent return for the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index, a broader gauge of hedge funds across all […]

Video Deadly Explosion in Damascus A double suicide bombing in Damascus killed dozens of people and injured others on Saturday. By REUTERS. Photo by Louai Beshara/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Watch in Times Video » BEIRUT, Lebanon — A double bombing near Shiite shrines often visited by foreign pilgrims in Damascus, Syria, killed at least 40 people on Saturday, shattering the capital’s efforts to isolate itself from […]

By Kawa Omar | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq After two and a half years under Islamic State control, all that is left in Mosul’s museum are the traces of looting and destruction. Inside the rubble-strewn building, where militants filmed themselves destroying ancient artifacts, the large stone wing of a statue of lamassu — an Assyrian winged bull deity — lies on the dusty floor among other broken […]

ABU DHABI // From exploring the ocean’s depths and deep space to supporting emergency personnel in natural disasters, researchers believe robots are the key to solving many of the world’s most difficult challenges. Unmanned systems have the potential to transform military operations, the way first responders fight fires and how researchers explore the ocean depths, experts have said. The world will also witness greater human-machine collaboration, artificial […]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a landslide victory in state elections in the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh, an affirmation of his enduring popularity midway through his term. The Hindu nationalist BJP won 324 of 403 state assembly seats in India’s most populous state, a magnitude of victory not seen in state polls there since 1980. The decisive mandate in a […]

Photo President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey at a rally in Istanbul on Saturday. He threatened to retaliate against the Netherlands for denying the foreign minister permission to fly in. Credit Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images PARIS — The Dutch government on Saturday intensified a diplomatic dispute between Turkey and its NATO allies in Europe by refusing to let the Turkish foreign minister fly into the […]

By Gilbert Reilhac | STRASBOURG, France STRASBOURG, France Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is expected to address a public meeting in France on Sunday, a local official said, a day after the Netherlands barred his plane from landing in a row over Ankara’s political campaigning among Turkish emigres. Cavusoglu is scheduled to speak in Metz, eastern France, at 1200 GMT, an official at the Moselle regional prefecture […]

Advertisements

UAE theme park visitor spending is set to grow six-fold from $105 million in 2016 to $637 million by 2020 as the country opens several new parks as it chases ambitious tourism targets, according to a new report. The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions said the UAE is the dominant market in the Middle East and North Africa, the world’s fastest growing region for theme […]

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday likened a Dutch ban on his foreign minister’s visit to Nazism, in a dramatic escalation of a row over campaign events abroad for Turkey’s high stakes referendum.The leader’s strongly-worded comments came after The Hague said it would refuse Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s plane permission to land ahead of a rally to gather support for boosting Erdogan’s powers.The Dutch decision […]

March 11, 2017 by: Mehul Srivastava in Istanbul and Duncan Robinson in Brussels Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the Dutch authorities of being “fascists” after they blocked a flight carrying his foreign minister from travelling to Rotterdam. He also threatened to stop flights to Turkey from the Netherlands. Mevlut Cavusoglu had been due to address a Turkish rally as part of a campaign to win […]

SANA, Yemen — An airstrike by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia on an open market in western Yemen killed at least 16 people, United Nations and local officials said Saturday. The attack late Friday hit a market selling khat, a mild stimulant common in Yemen, setting off a fire and leaving the dead and wounded scattered in the wreckage. هذة المجزرة ارتكبها اليوم #ال_سعود في […]

Middle East carriers led the world after posting the biggest growth in passenger demand in January, according to new figures. The region’s airlines reported year-over-year demand growth of 14.4 percent, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA). It added that capacity climbed 11.4 percent and load factor rose against the year-ago period for a third consecutive month, up 2.1 percent to 79.8 percent. Globally, demand (measured in […]

The Abu Dhabi Festival’s main programme kicks off with arguably the most-important singer from the region. Tickets to Mohamed Abdo’s long-awaited concert on Tuesday evening at Emirates Palace have been sold out for a while now. Popularly known as “Fanan Al Arab” or “Artist of the Arabs” (a title he was given in the 1980s during a concert in Tunis by then president Al Habib Bou Rakiba), […]

The world is facing its biggest humanitarian crisis since the end of the second world war, with 20m people facing starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria, the UN has warned. UN’s humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brien, told the Security Council on Friday evening that $4.4bn was needed in the next four months to address the escalating situation. “Without collective and co-ordinated global efforts, people […]

Dogs are the best friend one can have. Apart from being the loyal partner, the four-legged creature is also blessed with a unique ability to adapt according to human emotions. Man’s best friend also has the aptitude to recognize emotions and adopt them accordingly, by combining information’s from different senses. Apart from being the loyal, playful, and adorable companion, dogs can also be devious when it comes to getting their favorite […]

Hopes for a new way to trade bitcoin were dealt a blow on Friday when US regulators rejected an application that would have let the Winklevoss twins launch an exchange traded fund tracking the digital currency. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it would not allow Bats Global Markets to list shares of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust based on concerns that “significant markets for bitcoin are unregulated”. […]

Bird flu has reared its ugly head not only in China but also in the U.S. and as fears of an epidemic escalate, measures are being taken all over the world to control the outbreak. The latest victim of the Avian Flu scare is the Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria, which has administered euthanasia on a flock of 20 Dalmatian pelicans after the bird flu virus was found in […]

When Rex Tillerson visits Japan and South Korea next week, the new US secretary of state will not escape the whispers back home: the former ExxonMobil chief executive has been all but invisible since arriving in Washington. In his first weeks as the top US diplomat, the Texan has been conspicuously low-profile. His silence has fuelled concerns that President Donald Trump intends to downgrade diplomacy — and […]

Dubai, UAE, 9 March 2017: Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the largest Islamic bank in the UAE, has been awarded with “Best Sukuk House” at the EMEA Finance Middle East Banking Awards 2016. The ninth edition of the EMEA Finance Middle East Banking Awards took place at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai recently, and celebrated the regional banking industry’s top achievers. Dubai Islamic Bank is an international leader […]

DUBAI // Positivity and well-being was at the top of the agenda for more than 2,000 people who took part in a happiness festival on Friday. Visitors of all ages took part in the city’s first Happiness Festival organised by the Happiness Hub, a positive psychology consultancy, held at the Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club. “The Happiness Festival is all about making happiness simple and accessible,” said […]

A Chinese property developer constructing a huge housing project in southern Malaysia has become the latest corporate victim of Beijing’s crackdown on capital flight. Country Garden has closed showrooms in mainland China for its flagship $100bn Forest City development in response to measures by Chinese regulators that have made it harder for individuals to move money out of the country. A slowing Chinese economy, rising US interest rates […]

Houses and building sites border the excavation zone, and sometimes during the dig, workers have had to clear trash and animal carcasses, according to Salima Ikram, an Egyptian member of the team. Once new buildings go up, further excavation will become impossible. “It’s a race against time,” she said. Continue reading the main story Establishing the identity of the colossus is complicated, because it has been broken […]

ABU DHABI // The UAE topped the GCC in a Gender Progress Index released by business school Insead this week. The index takes a holistic view towards gender issues and includes education, health, labour, politics, power and society. It considers the relative performance of men versus women with no distinction between the two. The findings were discussed at a seminar marking International Women’s Day at the Insead […]

The middle ground isn’t exactly a term that many sports-car manufacturers would like associated with their tarmac-gobbling wares, but that’s exactly how Porsche positions the premium on-road niche in its long-celebrated 911 range. But its pitch explains everything: the GTS is a notch below the try-not-to-get-killed madness of the GT3, marrying sporty intent with everyday usability, making it the most-aggressive 911 this side of its race-ready road […]

VISHNU RAJA
RYO YAMADA
HITORI GOTOH
IKUYO KITA