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 […]
ABU DHABI // The British royal navy is strengthening its presence in the Arabian Gulf after it took command of US Task Force 50 – the first time it has led a US force in the Middle East. The force, which has assisted in battling ISIL in Iraq and Syria, plays an important role in the region because it allows free passage of trade throughout the Gulf […]
President Donald Trump sought to refocus on governing on Sunday by interviewing a shortlist of candidates to be his national security adviser having continued to blame media bias for portrayals of chaos in his administration. Following last week’s firing of Michael Flynn amid controversy over his Russia ties, Mr Trump was due to speak to four candidates to replace him in the post — the most crucial […]
Feb. 19, 2017 | 1:33 Iraqi forces resumed efforts to retake Mosul from the Islamic State on Sunday, launching airstrikes on the western part of the city where hundreds of thousands of civilians are still trapped. NYtimes
Taj El Khayat to bolster development in key markets, with security and cloud to the fore 19 February 2017 Dubai, United Arab Emirates – F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) has appointed Taj El Khayat as its new director for the Gulf, Levant & North Africa region. Reporting directly to Diego Arrabal, Middle East and Africa VP, F5 Networks, El Khayat will lead a team comprising of salespeople, channel […]
Stock markets in the Middle East were mixed in modest trading volumes on Sunday with Saudi Arabia and Qatar outperforming because of support from the banking sector, while Egypt fell as the currency hit a three-month high. Two-thirds of the 12 listed banks on Saudi Arabia’s bourse gained, lifting the index 0.1 percent. Alawwal Bank added 2.7 percent, with most activity occurring in the last hour of […]
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 […]
CAIRO Islamic State published a video on Sunday threatening Egyptian Christians and showing the last statement of a man it said was responsible for the deadly bombing in December of a Coptic cathedral in Cairo. The masked man in battle-dress, whom the group identified as Abu Abdallah al-Masri, is seen encouraging militants all over the world not to give up and promising Islamists jailed in Egypt they […]
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 […]
Like others interviewed, Abu Marwan, citing concerns about safety, agreed to speak on the condition that his full name not be published. He and others are identified by honorifics or nicknames. Residents said anyone caught using a cellphone risked being beaten or killed by militants. Continue reading the main story Abu Salah, who lives in the Bab al-Tob neighborhood in western Mosul, said the Islamic State, also […]
ABU DHABI U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Sunday distanced himself from President Donald Trump’s assessment of the media as “the enemy of the American people,” saying during his first trip to the Middle East that he had no problems with the press. Asked whether he agreed with Trump’s remarks, Mattis said: “I’ve had some rather contentious times with the press. But no, the press, as far […]
MUNICH: Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday stepped up efforts to improve ties with Gulf Arab Sunni states urging them to work with their Shiite rival to address “anxieties” and violence across the region.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last week traveled to Oman and Kuwait to try improve ties, his first visit to the Gulf states since taking power in 2013.The six Arab members of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), […]
Theresa May has ordered her top officials to examine Kraft Heinz’s proposed takeover of Unilever to see if it raises concerns for the wider British economy and merits government intervention. The $143bn takeover approach is a big test for Mrs May’s industrial policy: last year she criticised Kraft’s 2010 takeover of the British chocolate maker Cadbury — the US company reneged on a promise to retain factories […]
The two projects, the first to open since Mr. Trump became president, are among the dozen international business deals from his former life still moving forward — from India to Indonesia, Uruguay to the Dominican Republic. None of them are “new deals,” as defined by the family, as they were already well underway before the election. Continue reading the main story A Web of Complications Mr. Sajwani […]
UAE-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Julphar has reported a positive outlook for 2017 despite “difficult and uncertain” times in the regional economic cycle. The company, which announced the launch of two medications prescribed for the management of Type 2 diabetes, as disease rates hit record levels in the Middle East in October, said it expected the MENA pharmaceutical markets to improve in 2017. Julphar said its pipeline of new […]
MUNICH U.S. Republican senators plan to introduce legislation to impose further sanction on Iran, accusing it of violating U.N. Security Council resolutions by testing ballistic missiles and acting to “destablise” the Middle East, a U.S. senator said Sunday. “I think it it is now time for the Congress to take Iran on directly in terms of what they’ve done outside the nuclear programme,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a […]
Hackers are carrying out surveillance on members of the Israeli military by hacking into their Android phones in order to monitor activity and steal data – potentially including photos and audio recordings – according to security companies. Developed and deployed by currently by a so-far unidentified group, ViperRAT is designed to collect sensitive information from infected devices, with those behind the malware seemingly most interested in images […]
19 February 2017 Manama – (The 13th Annual Middle East Insurance Forum (MEIF 2017), being held in partnership with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), is set to commence on 20 February 2017 in the Kingdom of Bahrain with the expected participation of more than 400 high level attendees to explore “Current Challenges and their Implications on the Regional Insurance Industry – The Road Ahead”, the theme of this year’s event. A […]
Donald Trump has closed out the first month of his presidency by returning to his raucous campaign style and lashing out at the media as an agenda-bearing component of a corrupt system determined to undermine his time in office. A day after dubbing journalists the “enemy of the American people” at the end of the rockiest week so far of this White House’s short existence the new […]
Photo Iraqi forces advance toward western Mosul on Sunday. Credit Khalid Al-Mousily/Reuters ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq’s government announced the beginning of an offensive on Sunday to take back the western half of Mosul from the Islamic State, nearly three years after the city was overrun by the terror group. Overnight, planes crisscrossed the sky over the city’s occupied half, carpeting the ground with leaflets, which made a […]
In the world’s most remarkable cave system, Naica in Mexico, cathedral-sized chambers are adorned with perfect crystals the size of trees. And scientists have now discovered that Naica hosts an astonishing array of microbial life unlike anything else on Earth. Penelope Boston, director of the Nasa Astrobiology Institute at Ames, California, has led the exploration of this previously unknown microbial ecosystem. She outlined her findings at the […]
