UAE. Project activity in the UAE is forecast to recover in 2017 after a difficult 2016 on the back of a strong recovery in economic growth, according to a new report from Middle East business intelligence service MEED. MEED’s annual UAE Outlook Report for 2016 says that a recovery in oil prices combined with growing public and private sector activity boosted by Dubai’s preparations for the Expo […]
HUSAN, West Bank — The Sabateen clan recognized the dewy-eyed boy in the World Vision sponsorship card from his birth date and the striped collar of his cardigan. His mother used to make him wear that sweater on special occasions. It was their Othman, who turned 18 on Monday but at the time was 5. None of his relatives recalled signing him up for the World Vision […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai’s private developer engaged in developing shopping malls, hotels and mixed use communities says Dubai is well on the way to a strong market recovery. Robert Welanetz, Chief Executive Officer of Majid Al Futtaim – Properties, believes Dubai’s position as a world-class business and investment hub will drive the real estate revival. “We expect the ‘soft’ retail market will continue through the end […]
LIBYA. A multi-million redevelopment of Tripoli International Airport is getting ready for take-off following the Libyan Local Investment & Development Fund’s (LLIDF) appointment of PwC as its strategic advisor. The LLIDF is supporting the redevelopment of Libya through its new Investment Programme which includes the redevelopment of Tripoli International Airport into a world-class international airport. Based within a secure hub on the former airport site, the ambition […]
Faster, higher, stronger: those are the three qualities captured in the official Olympic Games motto “Citius, altius, fortius”– to which some will want to add “dubious”. With doping seemingly rife in sport generally and the Russian Olympic team in trouble, it’s hard to see the Rio Games as the embodiment of the famous dictum of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, that it’s not the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers claimed a historic milestone in the efforts to resolve the largest and most complex financial dispute in the history of the Middle East. AHAB today said it has signed a settlement support agreement with the five Steering Committee members who have been negotiating the terms of settlement since May 2014. This agreement formally commits AHAB and the Steering […]
ABU DHABI // They may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but driverless cars could be key to reducing the number of accidents in the UAE, experts say. More than 90 per cent of accidents involve driver error and machines have been proven to drive more reliably than humans, said Lee Woodcock, global product director for intelligent mobility at the engineering consultancy Atkins. “The potential is […]
A worker climbs outside an Apple store in Hong Kong April 10, 2013. Reuters/Bobby Yip/File Photo HONG KONG Apple Inc found itself on the receiving end of a small, short-lived anti-U.S. protest this week in China, the tech firm’s biggest overseas market and a country where foreign firms have suffered damaging boycotts following international spats. A handful of unofficial Apple stores were picketed and social media users […]
INTERNATIONAL. Even before the failed military coup, Turkey’s President Erdogan governed like a dictator who had the last word on all state matters. The botched coup was nothing but, as he put it, “a gift from God” to purge what is left of Turkey’s democracy and cleanse the army and judiciary in order to ensure the total subordination of all institutions to his whims. For Erdogan, being […]
DHAKA/NEW YORK Jupiter. That single word, by a stroke of luck, helped stop the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from paying nearly $1 billion (£757 million) to the cyber-criminals behind a notorious bank heist earlier this year, according to sources familiar with the incident. When hackers broke into the computers of Bangladesh’s central bank in February and sent fake payment orders, the Fed was tricked into […]
|By Matein Khalid|Brexit will have a profound impact on international banking. It was no coincidence that the shares of UK, German, Swiss, Italian, Spanish and other banks fell 20-25% in a single trading session on news of Brexit. Even American money center banks and investment banks with a large footprint in the City of London fell 8 – 10% on Friday, June 24, 2016. As Deutsche Bank […]
UAE. Implementing change strategies to reinvent the value proposition of the Islamic financial services industry is high on the agenda of industry leaders, according to Deloitte’s new whitepaper entitled “The catalysts for change: Strategic priorities in governance and regulation in Islamic Finance practice.” This necessity is fueled by recent global economic downturn coupled with geopolitical risks that have put more pressure on industry strategists and policymakers. The […]
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Parliament passed a law late Monday to increase the regulation of many Israeli human rights organizations. The measure, the subject of fierce debate between left-wing and right-wing politicians and activists, was approved by a vote of 57 to 48. It applies to groups that receive more than half their financing from foreign governments or political organizations. The new law requires the organizations to state […]
BAGHDAD — President Obama will deploy 560 more troops to Iraq to help retake Mosul, the largest city controlled by the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced on Monday. It is the latest escalation of the United States’ role in the Iraq war by Mr. Obama, who ran for office on a pledge to end America’s involvement in the conflict. Many of the newly deployed […]
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — For most of his adult life, Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi worked among the bearded enforcers of Saudi Arabia. He was a dedicated employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — known abroad as the religious police — serving with the front-line troops protecting the Islamic kingdom from Westernization, secularism and anything but the most conservative Islamic practices. […]
TEHRAN — Gunmen ambushed a car carrying a lawmaker and a local governor on Sunday in Iran’s restive Kurdish region, state news media reported. Both men were wounded, and the driver and a veterinarian traveling with them were killed. The lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a member of a key foreign council in Iran’s Parliament, escaped with minor injuries, according to the Mizan news agency. Mr. Falahatpisheh and the […]
The author of ‘Apple Tree Yard’ on the Indonesian roots of her new novel ‘Black Water’ — and why she’s glad to see the back of ‘chicklit’ Louise Doughty was born in the East Midlands in 1963. She took an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia and has written eight novels, including her latest, “Black Water”, which was published by Faber last month. […]
|By Matein Khalid| The merger of Abu Dhabi banks First Gulf Bank and NBAD creates the largest bank in the Middle East, a regional colossus with $170 billion in assets, competitive funding cost in the global interbank/capital markets and a market value greater than Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Deutsche Bank. This is the biggest game changer event in UAE banking and finance since the […]
BAGHDAD — As Britain on Wednesday looked back on its decision to go to war in Iraq 13 years ago, Thamir al-Shemmary went to the funeral of his brother and two nephews, killed over the weekend in Baghdad’s deadliest terrorist attack since that war began. Mr. Shemmary had a question for Tony Blair, the former British prime minister whose decision to join the invasion came under critique […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approached, jihadist propagandists told their followers that it was a good time to kill people. The spokesman for the Islamic State said in late May that jihadists should “make it, with God’s permission, a month of pain for infidels everywhere.” Another extremist distributed a manual for using poisons, adding, in poor English: “Dont forget […]
BAGHDAD — As celebrations for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan stretched past midnight into Sunday in central Baghdad, where Iraqis had gathered to eat, shop and just be together, a minivan packed with explosives blew up and killed at least 143 people — the third mass slaughter across three countries in less than a week. The attack was the deadliest in Baghdad in years — at […]
The Interpreter By MAX FISHER When three suicide bombers attacked Istanbul’s main airport on Tuesday, killing at least 41 people, Turkey began a ritual that it has refined with so many recent bombings: looking for hints as to which of the country’s two major terror threats was responsible. Over the past year, Turkey has endured at least 14 major terrorist attacks, killing more than 200 people. The […]
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 […]
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 […]
