The logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone over a reserved lane for taxis in a street is seen in this photo illustration taken in Madrid on December 10, 2014. Reuters/Sergio Perez SAN FRANCISCO Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] has hired two top vehicle security researchers, the company said on Friday, high-profile additions that come as the ride-hailing service ramps up its work on technology for […]
|By Matein Khalid| A month ago, I published a column predicting history’s first Made in China global recession. Wall Street finally agreed with me last week after we witnessed the most brutal crash in global equities since October 2008. I have predicated a 20% fall in US equities several times in the last three months and the 1000 point drop in the Dow last week only reinforces […]
CAIRO — Saudi Arabia has arrested the accused mastermind of a 1996 bombing that killed 19 American airmen, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed officials. The suspect, Ahmed al-Mughassil, was identified in an American federal indictment as a senior leader of an Iranian-backed Saudi militant group that sought to kill American military personnel in the Persian Gulf. The bombing destroyed an eight-story building in […]
The Amazon.com, Inc. logo is seen on the side of a delivery truck in Brooklyn, New York October 23, 2014. Reuters/Brendan McDermid SAN FRANCISCO Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday it will begin delivering wine, beer and spirits to U.S. customers for the first time as part of its speedy delivery service, Prime Now. The online retailer is expanding Prime Now, its one- and two-hour service, to […]
UAE. The continuation of low energy prices is impacting both optimism and risk appetite in the Middle East, according to Deloitte’s latest report “Global CFO Signals: CFO Sentiment Q2 2015 – Staying focused; remaining vigilant”. With oil at US$53 a barrel at the time of the survey, CFO optimism fell to one of its lowest levels in recent years, with only a net 26% across the Middle East […]
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 […]
ABU DHABI // School campuses are “buzzing with excitement” as thousands of teachers begin preparations for the new term on Sunday. The Abu Dhabi Education Council said about 15,000 staff in 255 government schools return to work on Sunday, a week before pupils arrive for the new academic year. Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, Adec’s director-general, urged staff to make the best of the coming week by taking […]
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 […]
Customers stand beneath an Apple logo at the Apple store in Grand Central station in New York City, July 21, 2015. Reuters/Mike Segar DETROIT/SAN FRANCISCO Consumer electronics company Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has hired a senior engineer from electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O), according to a LinkedIn posting, as part of Apple’s effort to build a team of experts in automated driving. A LinkedIn profile for […]
FRANKFURT Smartphone apps that help people learn languages for free or nearly free, a few sentences at a time, are piling pressure on established education firms and setting the pace for how to make lessons more engaging. Phone and tablet-based mobile products from newcomers like Germany’s Babbel, Britain’s Memrise and U.S.-based Duolingo have overtaken names like Berlitz and computer self-learning pioneer Rosetta Stone (RST.N) in terms of […]
Xpress Money, a leading global money transfer brand, has launched its Xpress Money Rewards Program, which provides customers a guaranteed cash back, each time they transact with Xpress Money. Customers who enrol for the program get an instant advantage of Dh5 cashback on their very first transaction and will continue to get Dh2 cashback for all subsequent transactions. Customers can also earn Dh1 on each transaction done […]
Egypt will lower the top tax rate and threshold for companies and individuals in high income brackets and freeze a 10 per cent tax on capital gains within two weeks in order to attract investors and boost the economy, the finance minister has said. “We await the issuing of amendments lowering the income tax ceiling to 22.5 percent as well as amendments to the capital gains tax […]
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 […]
The UAE’s gross domestic electricity consumption has more than doubled over the past 10 years, and is expected to grow even more rapidly over the next five years as the country undergoes substantial population and economic growth, according to a recent study. The study by management consultancy Strategy&, formerly Booz & Company, revealed that energy usage in the UAE has grown at an annual average of four […]
On opening day of the 2015 Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco yesterday, company CEO Brian Krzanich (pictured) gave attendees a look at a prototype smartphone integrated with an Intel RealSense 3D camera. The camera would be contained in a Google Project Tango smartphone. Holding up the prototype phone, about the size of an average Android smartphone, Krzanich said the device would “breaks the limits of what […]
UAE. The UAE’s gross domestic electricity consumption has more than doubled over the past 10 years, and is expected to grow even more rapidly over the next five years as the country undergoes substantial population and economic growth, according to a study by management consultancy Strategy&, formerly Booz & Company. The study reveals that energy usage in the UAE has grown at an annual average of 4% […]
WASHINGTON — Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, said on Tuesday that he would vote against the nuclear accord with Iran. “At the end of the day, what we appear to have is a rollback of sanctions and Iran only limiting its capability, but not dismantling it or rolling it back,” Mr. Menendez said, according to prepared remarks of a speech he delivered at Seton Hall […]
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 […]
ANTAKYA, Turkey — Government airstrikes on a rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killed more than 80 people and wounded about 200 on Sunday, according to local activists and monitoring organizations. The attacks came one day after the area’s largest rebel group, the Islam Army, announced a new offensive against government forces in a neighboring suburb. While it was unclear if the two attacks were linked, the […]
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 […]
A Dubai Cares funded programme in Palestine is helping preschool teachers to get children reading and using their imagination. While Dubai Cares supplies teacher training in Gaza, it also reaches children with books and supplies brochures for parents and teachers on how to best use the resources at hand. However, Reem El Bohisi, a teacher at Hekayat Preschool in Deir Al Balah who took the training, said […]
ABU DHABI // For Ahlam Al Qasim and Fatema Al Khouri the sky isn’t the limit – they have big plans to go farther. The Emiratis have returned from a two-week internship with the Italian Space Agency (ISA) and now hope to forge a career in the industry and play a part in the UAE’s Mars mission. “I’ve been interested in space science ever since I was […]
The numbers of women, African-Americans and Hispanic employees working at Apple over the past year have all increased by double digits, although the company’s U.S. workforce remains predominantly white and male — a trend that holds true across large swaths of the tech sector. “We are proud of the progress we’ve made . . . But we know there is a lot more work to be done,” […]
