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In an image taken from a video on a militant website, the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, addressed followers last year in Mosul, Iraq. New insights yielded by a seized trove of materials in Syria include how he operates and tries to avoid being tracked by coalition forces. By ERIC SCHMITT June 8, 2015 WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have extracted valuable information about the Islamic State’s leadership structure, financial […]

As consumer demand for online data, streaming content and mobile services continue to grow, Apple is reportedly looking to boost its high-speed networkinfrastructure to provide more of those services in-house. Citing “people familiar with the plans,” Bloomberg on Monday reported that Apple’s new network ambitions are aimed at helping it better compete with rivals like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. While Apple already operates its own data […]

Video | Syria: Brides of Peace The sisters Kinda and Lubna Zaour walked through the main souk in Damascus dressed as brides, a symbol of love and peace. They were arrested almost immediately. By ANNE BARNARD June 7, 2015 BEIRUT — The blurry pictures circulating on social media showed several women in white, dressed as brides, standing shoulder to shoulder in a covered market in the old city of […]

Cisco appoints new MD for Mideast operations MANAMA, 3 days ago Cisco has appointed Ziad Salameh as managing director to lead its Gulf (Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain), Levant, Pakistan and Iraq region and Middle East services. Salameh’s focus will be on driving growth for Cisco as it supports Middle East countries in building a robust national broadband infrastructure, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), […]

|By Rashidul Bari|One may expect the title “Grameen and Muhammad Yunus” to reflect Yunus’ founding of the Grameen Bank (which won the Nobel Prize in 2006) in 1983 to provide miniature loans to the poor—especially women who were trapped in an endless cycle of poverty. Why then does the title involve John Nash, a math genius who won the Nobel Prize in 1994, instead of Yunus? Does […]

Customer Hajime Shimada uses his newly purchased Apple Watch in front of Dover Street Market Ginza in Tokyo April 24, 2015. Reuters/Issei Kato NEW YORK When Maximo Cavazzani, creator of the popular mobile game Trivia Crack, learned about Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) plan for a new smart watch, it seemed like a logical step to adapt his game for the new product. But the little watch had some […]

QATAR. Risk, governance, globalization and technology are among the many risks currently facing companies. Internal Audit plays a critical role in addressing these issues while contending with the challenge of complying with the updated Committee of Sponsoring Organizations’ (COSO)  Internal Control-Integrated Framework, which is a widely used framework around the world, in which internal control is broadly defined as a process, effected by an entity’s board of […]

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|By TAP Staff| Etihad has formally submitted a document to the United States government rebutting allegations by U.S. carriers that it receives unfair subsidies. The airline announced the filing Tuesday. It is the airline’s most comprehensive response yet to American carriers’ effort to pressure Washington to renegotiate agreements that allow airlines from Qatar and the UAE to fly to the U.S. U.S. airlines have criticized Etihad and […]

Diane Foley in August after ISIS beheaded her son, James. She has taken part in a review of government policy on hostages. By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS May 29, 2015 WASHINGTON — When President Obama met recently with the mother of James Foley, the American hostage beheaded last August by the Islamic State, she said, he told her that freeing her son and the other American hostages held with him had […]

INTERNATIONAL.  Happy passengers are the ultimate goal of airlines and airports and new research from global IT provider SITA proves that technology can help. In a ground-breaking survey, SITA investigated the connection between a passenger’s use of technology and their emotions to discover how passengers around the world feel at every point of the journey. The results reveal that airline passengers are happiest and most excited when […]

UAE.  The depressed oil prices predominant since late last year could herald a lasting trend if, as evidence suggests, we are now facing the low-price segment of an oil ‘super cycle’, according to the latest paper from global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. This new situation would pose both challenges and opportunities to Middle East companies and countries. There is still much volatility in the […]

UAE. Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, achieved its strongest financial results to date in 2014, posting a net profit of US$ 73 million on total revenues of US$ 7.6 billion, up 52.1 per cent and 26.7 per cent respectively over the previous year. 2014 PEFORMANCE SUMMARY OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS *The above results represent the standalone airline business within the newly formed Etihad […]

Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO.O) agreed on Thursday to buy Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O) for $37 billion in the largest merger of chipmakers ever, turning a lesser known company run by a ferocious dealmaker into one of the biggest industry players. Avago, which serves the wireless and industrial markets, is offering Broadcom shareholders $17 billion in cash and Avago shares valued at $20 billion. Broadcom is best known for […]

|By K Raveendran| The battle for supremacy between American and European legacy airlines on one side and the Gulf carriers of Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways is apparently entering another interesting phase. An indication of how the tussle might play out in the days to come was available a couple of days ago, when one of the Gulf players threatened the other side with dire economic consequences […]

|By K Raveendran| Bank customers often find themselves being led up the garden path by the sweet talk of sales agents and rosy promises held out by advertisements when they change their bank. The new choice invariably turns out to be worse than the one that had been given the ditch. There is consolation on the way for such disconcerted customers. The UAE Banks Federation, the collective […]

By SABA IMTIAZ May 23, 2015 KARACHI, Pakistan — Several senior journalists resigned from a developing Pakistani television network, Bol, on Saturday, in the latest fallout from a crisis engulfing the channel’s parent company, Axact, a software firm that profited immensely from international sales of fake diplomas. The defections were led by Bol’s editor in chief, Kamran Khan, and came just hours after Pakistan’s interior minister announced that the […]

TOKYO—Japan’s Inpex Corp. has secured a 5% stake in Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, or ADCO, one of the Gulf nation’s biggest oil concessions, becoming the second foreign stakeholder after France’s Total SA . The move suggests that as part of Tokyo’s efforts to shore up its energy supplies, the partly state-owned Japanese energy company was prepared to pay a hefty signing-on fee that other […]

The two main stock exchanges in the United Arab Emirates are trying to attract market makers but some industry professionals say Abu Dhabi is offering more generous financial terms and more liberal rules than Dubai, suggesting it may have more success. Market makers stand ready to buy and sell stocks at all times, improving liquidity on an exchange – something which may be increasingly important as Abu […]

Plunging iron ore prices are providing a lifeline for some of China’s biggest steel mills, but raising the prospect of a rising tide of exports and increased friction with the European Union and countries such as India. Even as China’s domestic steel demand shrinks and the industry battles chronic overcapacity, lower iron ore prices have helped many large mills post better earnings in 2014 than a year […]

Doha Bank posts $115m net profit, up 5.2pc DUBAI, 18 hours, 57 minutes ago Doha Bank has posted a net profit of QR420 million ($115.2 million) for the first quarter of the year, compared to QR399 million for the same period last year, an increase of 5.2 per cent. The bank’s net operating income increased 2.3 per cent to QR714 million, while its total assets increase QR4.1 […]

Dubai’s drive to develop its Islamic finance sector is fuelling growth of sharia-compliant banking but the benefits are unevenly distributed, with some lenders struggling to compete against burgeoning competition. In 2013, Dubai’s government announced plans to turn the emirate into a centre for an “Islamic economy” with sharia-compliant businesses ranging from banking to asset management, trade, food preparation and certification, fashion, education and tourism. This looked like […]

Deutsche Bank must pay the largest ever fine levied by the regulator of Dubai’s financial free zone for what the watchdog described as “serious contraventions” by the German lender’s wealth management business in the emirate. The $8.4 million levy from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) is the latest regulatory blow for the Frankfurt-based lender, which faces billions of euros in potential claims or settlements over alleged […]

As chairman of Emaar Properties, Mohamed Alabbar has shaped much of Dubai’s skyline, but rapid growth in his outside real estate interests is raising the possibility of a rarity in the Gulf – open shareholder dissent. Speculation persists that Alabbar and Emaar, the company he founded in 1997, could soon part ways despite a categorical denial from the firm last month. His involvement in other firms’ projects, […]

Iraqi security forces in Tikrit, Iraq, on Monday. By ROD NORDLAND March 30, 2015 TIKRIT, Iraq — Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations used a visit to Baghdad on Monday to warn the Iraqi government to treat civilians decently after it liberates territories like Tikrit, where a government offensive has been supported by heavy American-led airstrikes for the past five days. “Civilians freed from the brutality of […]

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