AMMAN, Jordan — Mohammad Smarat sat gazing at the few plants sprouting outside the entrance of the white stone hospital here, recalling how he had collapsed in a sea of green fields after getting shot. He had been helping farmers pick tomatoes near his home in Dara’a, Syria, when a stray bullet shattered his left hip joint. Though he had obeyed his father’s orders not to join […]
INTERNATIONAL. Just four per cent of businesses are able to extract the full value from the information they hold, with over a third (36 per cent) lacking the tools and skills they need to do so, according to new research from storage and information management company, Iron Mountain (IRM) and PwC. As a result, 43 per cent of the European and North American companies surveyed obtain little […]
INTERNATIONAL. Gleaming glass skyscrapers, state-of-the-art technology, and wealthy merchant families have replaced the Gulf’s muddy towns and villages populated by traders and pearl fishers that once lacked electricity, running water or modern communications. The region’s modern day projection of a visionary cutting- edge, 21st century urban environment masks however the fact that some things have not changed. Gulf states continue to be ruled by the same families, […]
WASHINGTON — As the war in Iraq deteriorated, a senior American intelligence analyst went public in 2005 and criticized President George W. Bush’s administration for pushing “amateurish and unrealistic” plans for the invasion two years before. Now that same man, Gregory Hooker, is at the center of an insurrection of United States Central Command intelligence analysts over America’s latest war in Iraq, and whether Congress, policy makers […]
DUBAI // A woman who claimed she was tortured and threatened with rape after being mistaken for an Al Qaeda terrorist faces months of uncertainty awaiting the outcome of a legal case against the Kenyan government. Mother of three Kamilya Mohammedi Tuweni, 50, relived her 72-day ordeal this week as she gave testimony via video link from London to the high court in Nairobi. She was too […]
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has raised Dh504 million ($137 million) in its rights issue, which was nearly three times oversubscribed with Dh1.46 billion in subscriptions received. The rights issue, the first tradable rights issue for a bank in the UAE, forms part of the comprehensive capital plan to support ADIB’s strong growth plans. Following the close of the subscription period on September 10, all 168 million […]
|By TAP Staff| Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has successfully raised AED 504 million in the first tradable rights issue for a bank in the UAE. The rights issue, which forms part of the comprehensive capital plan to support ADIB’s strong growth trajectory, was nearly 3 times oversubscribed with AED 1.46 billion in subscriptions received. Following the close of the subscription period on 10 September 2015, all […]
QATAR. On Sept. 18, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its ‘AA’ long-term and ‘A-1+’ short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the State of Qatar. The outlook is stable. We also affirmed the ‘AA’ long-term issue ratings on the bonds issued by Qatari Diar Finance Q.S.C. and SoQ Sukuk A Q.S.C. RATIONALE Qatar is a wealthy economy; we estimate its GDP per capita […]
Qatar National Bank (QNB), the largest bank in the Gulf region, is in preliminary talks to buy Kuwait Finance House’s (KFH) Malaysia unit, the Qatari lender said on Thursday. No agreements had been reached over a potential deal and QNB would make any necessary disclosures to the Qatar stock market in the future, QNB said in the statement. KFH, the largest Islamic bank in Kuwait, said in […]
Private equity funds managed by Blackstone is set to acquire a majority of Serco Group’s private sector business process outsourcing (BPO) operations. The definitive agreement will include the former Intelenet business, for a consideration of £250 million ($385.7 million), approximately INR2,558 crores, said a statement. The enterprise value of this deal represents the largest acquisition by Blackstone in India, it said. The business has expected annual revenues […]
Gulfnet Communications Co, a leading provider of information and communications technology services, has received the ISO 9001:2008 for the fifth consecutive year after an extensive audit of the company’s internal operations. The ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certification demonstrates Gulfnet’s robust quality management system to guide and govern its operations across the company, said a statement. The certification is an important step in assuring that customers continue […]
Middle East Maricela Rangel Davalos, one of the Mexican tourists wounded on Sunday in an Egyptian Army airstrike in the Western Desert, left a Cairo hospital for the airport on Thursday. By JARED MALSIN September 17, 2015 CAIRO — Egypt’s chief prosecutor issued a ban on news media coverage in the case of an attack by security forces that killed 12 people, including eight Mexican tourists and their Egyptian […]
ABU DHABI // Government organisations have continued their fightback against claims that the UAE has the most polluted air in the world. Earlier this year, the World Bank released The Little Green Data Book, which said the country had particle pollution levels (PPM) much higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended guidelines. It said the UAE was the “country with the most polluted air”, which was immediately […]
Dubai’s diamond trade will grow as the emirate attracts dealers from the industry’s traditional hub in the Belgian port of Antwerp after one of the city’s main lenders closed, depriving buyers of needed financing, according to National Bank of Fujairah. “Do we anticipate a big shift of rough diamond traders to Dubai?” Davy Blommaert, unit head for precious metals and diamonds at National Bank of Fujairah, said in […]
Two years on from its launch in the city, ride-hailing service Uber is using its Middle East & Africa headquarters in Dubai to lay the groundwork for expanding in the region–through more than just operating in new cities. Since August 2013, the US-based company, which connects drivers and passengers through smartphone apps, has commenced operations within the GCC in Doha, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah and Saudi Arabia’s […]
UAE. Latest business survey data pointed to a robust and accelerated expansion in Dubai’s private sector output during August. Furthermore, the rate of business activity growth was the fastest seen since May, with all three monitored sub-sectors reporting stronger output growth in the latest survey period. The rebound in activity growth was underpinned by a stronger expansion in new business, which increased at the strongest rate in […]
ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, led condolences for 45 soldiers killed on Friday in Yemen, with a visit to some of the servicemen injured in the attack. Sheikh Mohammed visited the men at Zayed Military Hospital. He praised the soldiers’ steadfastness, heroism and dedication while defending their rights and supporting their brothers […]
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart on Saturday that the United States was deeply concerned by reports that the Kremlin may be planning to vastly expand its military support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, warning that such a move might even lead to a “confrontation” with the American-led coalition, the State Department said. Mr. Kerry called Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, “to […]
UAE. With a 54% decline in the price of oil prices during the past 12 months the United Arab Emirates (UAE) real estate market is now beginning to feel the effect with property transaction levels falling across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, according to the latest research from international real estate consultancy, Cluttons. Cluttons’ annual 2015 UAE Property Report reveals that the direct correlation between hydrocarbon revenues […]
CAIRO — The Egyptian foreign ministry said Sunday that it had summoned the British ambassador to object to his comments on a recent court ruling to jail two journalists, escalating the government’s defense of its crackdown on dissent. The two journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, have attracted special attention because, unlike most journalists in Egypt’s jails, both have had long careers at respected international news organizations. […]
TEHRAN — Iran’s judiciary sentenced two people to 10 years in prison on Sunday for spying for the United States and Israel, but their names were not released, local media reported. It was not clear if the Iranian-American reporter Jason Rezaian, who faces similar charges, was one of them. It is not uncommon in Iran to hand down sentences without revealing names of the convicted, especially in […]
ISTANBUL — Turkey has launched its first wave of airstrikes as part of the United States-led coalition to fight the Islamic State, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday. Turkish fighter jets carried out joint operations against Islamic State targets in Syria late Friday, which posed a threat to Turkey’s national security, the statement said. Islamic State militants gained control of five villages in northern Syria […]
Middle East By TIM ARANGO August 27, 2015 BAGHDAD — In a further setback to the faltering American and Iraqi campaign to retake Anbar Province from the Islamic State, two Iraqi generals were killed in a suicide attack by the group Thursday morning outside Ramadi, the provincial capital. Two explosives-rigged American-made Humvees, presumably seized on the battlefield from the Iraqi Army some time in the past year, exploded near […]
ABU DHABI // A safety system that makes sure all pupils are accounted for has been installed on hundreds of school buses. Emirates Transport and Abu Dhabi Education Council said 1,300 vehicles had been fitted with the system, which counts the number of children getting on and off. It requires the driver to check each seat and triggers an alarm if anyone remains onboard. The new technology […]
