UAE. The MENA Region is all set to become a global logistics hub in the next few years, an Al Masah Capital Limited Report on “Transportation & Logistics in MENA” has revealed, which experts believe will be driven by the emergence of the MENA-Asia trade corridor that will redefine global supply chains. Notably in 2013, India and China ranked as top merchandise export and import destinations for MENA […]
UAE. Business confidence in the Middle East continued to fall in the second quarter of 2015, but not as quickly as it had in the first three months of the year, according to the to the Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) organised by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants). The slight optimism was due to a temporary reprieve in […]
KIBBUTZ SUFA, Israel — Looking out across the perimeter fence of this small rural community in southern Israel, along the border with Gaza, Eyal Shalev, 23, sees a battlefield. Last summer, during Israel’s 50-day war with Hamas in Gaza, Mr. Shalev was on the other side, in a tank. His younger brother, Sgt. Shachar Shalev, who was fighting with the Paratroopers Brigade inside Gaza, was critically injured […]
GAZA CITY — At this time last year, as the missiles and bombs rained down in Israel’s lopsided seven-week war against Gaza, I wrote about our struggle to survive during the holy month of Ramadan. This year, another Ramadan has passed, Eid al-Fitr is over and the reality on the ground has changed very little. The same dreadful conditions are creating desperation among Gaza’s inhabitants, whose lives […]
|By Matein Khalid| Geopolitics is now another source of risk for the Turkish lira, government debt and Istanbul equities. The Turkish air force is bombing Daish in Syria and the secessionist Kurdish PKK party in northern Iraq. Suicide bombings have killed Turkish citizens in eastern Anatolian cities on the Syrian border. Ankara has given the US a green light to launch military airstrikes from the Incerlik air […]
By THE NEW YORK TIMES August 21, 2015 For decades Cairo was considered safe for residents and visitors. Not anymore. Nearly two years of escalating bombings in and around Cairo are gradually changing the feel of the city. Neighbors are becoming more suspicious of strangers asking questions, and commuters are getting used to changing their routes to avoid police cordons after each bombing. The New York Times asked readers on Facebook, […]
News Analysis By DAVID E. SANGER August 21, 2015 To the most strident opponents of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, the suspicious behavior at a military base about 12 miles southeast of Tehran has become a rallying call to defeat the accord, especially as it now appears that Iranian officials may be allowed to take their own environmental samples at the site and turn them over to inspectors. It […]
By HELENE COOPER August 21, 2015 WASHINGTON — A deputy to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a United States airstrike in Iraq this week, the White House announced Friday. Ned Price, the National Security Council spokesman, said in a news release that Fadel al-Hayali, whom the Obama administration described as the Sunni militant group’s “Baghdad military emir” as well as the emir […]
By RICK GLADSTONE August 21, 2015 Doctors Without Borders said that Saudi-led airstrikes killed more than 65 civilians early Friday in Yemen’s southwest province of Taiz, including 17 people from one family. If confirmed, it would be one of the largest tolls from airstrikes by Saudi Arabia and its military coalition partners since they began bombing Yemen five months ago in a campaign to crush the Houthi insurgency in […]
People gathered near the site of a bomb blast on the outskirts of Cairo on Friday. A study found that public turmoil, war and other crises can be associated with declining air pollution in the Middle East. By JOHN SCHWARTZ August 21, 2015 Civil unrest and humanitarian crises can now be detected from space — because of, somewhat surprisingly, cleaner air. A paper published on Friday in the journal […]
INTERNATIONAL. In the wake of China’s recent devaluation of the yuan, companies need to be more strategic than ever in their manufacturing-sourcing decision-making, focusing on clear-headed, case-by-case analysis and tight project management. That is according to a new study, including a survey of almost 250 senior-level executives in Western Europe and North America from manufacturing and distribution companies in 20 industries, released today by AlixPartners, the global […]
A Palestinian hunger striker whose deteriorating health has posed a challenge to Israel’s policy of indefinite incarceration had agreed to give up his fast, one of his lawyers said Thursday as doctors said his condition had improved significantly. The end of the fast by the hunger striker, Mohammad Allan, came a day after Israel’s Supreme Court temporarily suspended the administrative detention order he was protesting. The lawyer, […]
LONDON — In a significant indication of warming Western relations with Iran after a deal limiting its nuclear program, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond will reopen Britain’s embassy in Tehran, probably on Sunday, British officials said Thursday. Four years ago, in November 2011, the ambassador’s residence there was ransacked and the British flag burned by protesters angry about the economic sanctions imposed on Iran in response to its […]
EY, a leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, has acquired Seren, an international digital consultancy based in the UK with a significant footprint in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. Seren has been working closely with governments, banks and media organisations in the Mena region to drive digital business transformation through a customer-centred approach to design, said a statement. Gerard Gallagher, Mena advisory […]
The UAE, which leads the Arab world for network readiness, must take full advantage of the potential offered by ICT solutions to drive social and economic transformation, according to experts. Considerable challenge is facing the UAE as it seeks to develop the infrastructure, institutions, and skills needed to reap the full benefits of ICTs, added senior executives from Cisco, a global leader in IT. Out of 143 […]
The recent action taken by the UAE to eliminate fuel subsidies has rekindled the debate on tax reform in the GCC, with the focus on domestic implementation of a broad-based Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services. While countries are facing an increasing amount of pressure on their national budgets, every GCC government understands the urgent need for fiscal-sustainability, added the report “VAT in the GCC […]
Record trading of Dubai crude by two Chinese state companies this month on a decades-old oil pricing system has pushed the benchmark higher, even as other grades are being pressed lower by a global glut. The strong Dubai trade has forced Middle East producers to raise official selling prices (OSPs), driving Asian buyers to seek cheaper oil elsewhere or cut refinery runs due to low margins. Chinaoil […]
UAE. The recent action taken by the UAE to eliminate fuel subsidies with effect from 1 August 2015 ignited the debate on tax reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Whilst these countries are facing an increasing amount of pressure on their national budgets, every GCC government understands the urgent need for fiscal-sustainability in the long-term. This urgency, according to Deloitte’s latest report “VAT in the […]
Amnesty International issued a scathing report Tuesday on the Yemen conflict, accusing all armed antagonists there of complicity in war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians. The report, “Nowhere Safe for Civilians,” called on the United Nations to establish a panel of inquiry to “independently and impartially investigate alleged war crimes committed during the conflict.” Donatella Rovera, a senior researcher for Amnesty who has worked in many […]
MoneyGram, a global provider of money transfer and payment services, said its customers will now be able to send and receive funds at Al Noor locations in Baghdad, Basrah and Najaf in Iraq. Maher Haddad, senior regional director at MoneyGram, said: “The remittance industry in Iraq is growing and our presence in the country is growing with it to provide more choices for customers who need to […]
INTERNATIONAL. In the last quarter of 2014, in the face of possible oversupply, Saudi Arabia abandoned its traditional role as the global oil market’s swing producer and therefore it role as unofficial guarantor of existing ($100+ per barrel) prices. In October, Saudi sources first prepared the market with statements that the country would be comfortable with oil prices as low as $80 per barrel for “a year […]
GAZA CITY — A new training regimen for fighters in Hamas’s armed wing employs slide presentations and a whiteboard rather than Kalashnikov rifles and grenades. The young men wear polo shirts instead of fatigues and black masks. They do not chant anti-Israel slogans, but discuss how the Geneva Conventions governing armed conflict dovetail with Islamic principles. The three-day workshop, conducted last month by the International Committee of […]
INTERNATIONAL. The word tragic has often been used to describe the civil war in Syria, but it is a pale description of the raging madness on the ground. The bloodletting and massive destruction that has swept the nation is not a mere tragic event; the magnitude of the destruction and loss of lives is catastrophic by any measure unseen since the horror of World War II. The […]
UAE. The upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and Expo 2020 in Dubai, UAE, will see an unparalleled number of visitors to the GCC region. A number of sizeable infrastructure projects and associated developments have been earmarked to showcase the region and provide for this influx. Large-scale projects, coupled with short timeframes for completion, understandably carry with them the risk of construction disputes. Against this backdrop, […]
