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Beirut, Lebanon, December 4, 2016 : (ME NewsWire)  During a special honoring ceremony held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dubai, the publishers of Global Reinsurance and StrategicRISK announced the winners of the 2016 MEA Risk & Insurance Excellence Awards, honoring Mr. Farid Chedid, Chairman and CEO of Chedid Re, a Chedid Capital Holding company, as the ‘MEA Industry Achiever of the Year’. The prestigious title awarded […]

BEIRUT As Syrian government forces advanced into Aleppo’s rebel-held al-Sakhour district, Hasan al-Ali said he faced the choice of staying put and being caught by the army, or fleeing into a shrinking rebel enclave under relentless bombardment. A father of three children, he opted for the latter, though food, fuel, water and medicine are running critically low in rebel-held areas, such is his fear of the Syrian […]

Patriots Cruise Past Rams Photo Patriots receiver Chris Hogan celebrated a first-half touchdown against the Rams. Credit Maddie Meyer/Getty Images The New England Patriots may have lost some explosiveness on offense with the season-ending injury to Rob Gronkowski, but with the way the team’s defense swallowed Jared Goff whole, a missing piece on New England’s offense hardly seemed to matter as the Patriots beat the Los Angeles […]

By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi | BEIRUT/AMMAN BEIRUT/AMMAN As the Syrian government and its allies prepared to ramp up their attack on Aleppo in November, one of the rebel groups defending the opposition-held part of the city took up arms against another, seizing its stores of ammunition, fuel and food. The incident near an Aleppo frontline underlined the rebel rivalries that only worsened in the face […]

By Ali Sawafta | RAMALLAH, West Bank RAMALLAH, West Bank Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas kept a strong grip on his Fatah movement in an election in which his loyalists remained dominant in its top decision-making body, final results showed on Sunday. The outcome of the voting, held on Saturday during the first congress of Abbas’s Fatah party for seven years, signalled no change in a policy of […]

Europe’s mainstream political parties have voiced their relief after Austria voted against a far-right nationalist becoming president in an election that had been seen as the first of two tests of populism on the continent on Sunday. Alexander Van der Bellen, a Green politician who ran as an independent, won 53.3 per cent of the vote while his far-right opponent, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party, won […]

By Roberta Rampton | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Sunday downplayed the significance of a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Taiwan’s president, describing it as a “courtesy call” that was not intended to show a shift in U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with a Taiwanese leader since […]

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Apple CarPlay, Image: Ford Apple in a November letter to US regulators publicly acknowledged work on autonomous vehicles for the first time, after years of reports surrounding Project Titan. Steve Kenner, Apple’s director of product integrity, sent a five page letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, urging regulators not to impose too many restrictions on self-driving as the iPhone maker begins testing the technology. “The […]

By Saif Hameed and Ulf Laessing | BAGHDAD/BARTELLA, Iraq BAGHDAD/BARTELLA, Iraq Islamic State fighters retreating in the face of a seven-week Iraqi military assault on their Mosul stronghold have hit back in the last two days, exploiting cloudy skies which hampered U.S.-led air support and highlighting the fragile army gains. In a series of counter-attacks since Friday night, the jihadist fighters struck elite Iraqi troops spearheading the […]

ATHENS Political uncertainty in Europe has created fresh momentum for a “comprehensive and permanent” solution to the Greek debt crisis before the year ends, a government spokesman said on Sunday. Euro zone finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss short-term debt relief for Greece, and Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble said it must implement reforms instead of hoping for further debt forgiveness. Greece remained optimistic for […]

Italians and Austrians headed to the polls in closely watched votes on Sunday that will gauge the strength of Europe’s populist and extreme right political parties. Italy’s constitutional referendum on Sunday will determine the political future of prime minister Matteo Renzi and test anti-establishment parties in the eurozone’s third-largest economy.  The plebiscite on Mr Renzi’s flagship overhaul — which would shrink the powers of the Italian senate […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon: At least 46 people were killed in suspected Russian air strikes on several areas of Idlib province in northwest Syria on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.The Britain-based monitor said those killed in the strikes, on three locations in the province, were mostly civilians.The Observatory says it determines whose planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions […]

WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s phone conversation with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday, which prompted a diplomatic protest from China, was simply a “courtesy call,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on NBC on Sunday. Asked whether any shift in policy should be read into the call, Pence said: “I don’t think so.” The call with Tsai was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with […]

Bizarrely enough, it’s difficult to determine what constitutes a “small business” in the United States. The US Small Business Administration has a table of standards [PDF] that ranges from about 250 to over a thousand employees. On the other hand, the Affordable Care Act kicks in certain requirements for businesses with over 50 employees. So, what exactly is small? When I researched my book, How To Save […]

Google and Facebook cut off advertising revenue to bogus news sites Google and Facebook moved Tuesday to cut off advertising revenue to fake news sites, after a wave of criticism over the role misinformation played in the US presidential election. The move by the two tech giants aims to choke off funds to an industry fueled by bogus, often sensational “news” circulating online and seen as a […]

The ice of Pluto is a two-lobed formation on its surface which has sparked the interest of researchers ever since NASA’s New Horizons discovered it back in 2015. One of the two lobes, the western one, has been subjected to more scientific attention due to its mysterious formation and the types of ice it hosts. The lobe was named Sputnik Planitia informally, and it is a deep […]

Meetings held with Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy and Korea Diamond Exchange 04 December 2016 Dubai, UAE: As part of the ongoing efforts of the UAE Kimberley Process Chair (KP Chair), Ahmed Bin Sulayem, to engage countries across the diamond supply chain, he has held meetings with senior government and industry representatives in South Korea. The aim of these discussions was to deliberate ways to bolster […]

LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May is cracking down on unauthorised leaks by ministers and civil servants on her Brexit plans, a leaked memo to the Mail on Sunday newspaper said. Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood has written to senior officials to tell them that May wants to “urgently tighten security processes” and that anyone found to have leaked sensitive information will be dismissed, according to the memo. […]

By Sanjeev Miglani | AMRITSAR, India AMRITSAR, India Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that the Taliban insurgency would not survive a month if it lost its sanctuary in neighbouring Pakistan, urging its neighbour to take on militant groups on its soil instead of giving Kabul financial aid. Ghani’s remarks, made at an international conference in the northern Indian city of Amritsar not far from the […]

Hotels operating in the UAE continued to see declines in occupancy and room rates during October, according to the latest data from industry consultants STR. It said the UAE’s hospitality sector reported an occupancy dip of 2.9 percent during the month to 75.6 percent, while average daily rates (ADR) dropped 9.6 percent to AED668.05, the lowest for an October since 2005. As a result, revenue per available […]

KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called for foreign intervention to stop the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar on Sunday, as he joined thousands of Rohingya protesters in Kuala Lumpur. Muslim-Majority Malaysia has been increasingly critical of Myanmar’s handling of violence and allegations of state abuses in northern Rakhine state, which has driven hundreds of ethnic Rohingya to flee across the borders to Bangladesh. It […]

04 December 2016 Dubai, UAE – FireEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE), the intelligence-led security company, recently discovered a wave of attacks targeting the GCC states. In 2012, a suspected Iranian hacker group called the “Cutting Sword of Justice” used malware known as Shamoon – or Disttrack – to target energy companies in the Middle East. During that incident, tens of thousands of computers were compromised. In mid-November, Mandiant […]

Beijing’s infamous smog spiked on Sunday despite draconian measures in surrounding cities to reduce persistent pollution during the winter in northern China. The thick layer of haze has become a political liability for the ruling Communist party and has driven China’s participation in the Paris climate accord to limit emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases.  An air monitor index released by the US embassy in Beijing breached 600 […]

Dubai-based Careem, the app based car booking service, has announced that it is expanding operations into 15 more cities within the next few weeks, with Istanbul, Turkey the latest city to be added.  Initially, Careem will operate as an airport service in Turkey, available to customers going to and from the airport, in Mercedes VITO and Volkswagen car models.  Within the GCC, Careem said it is answering […]

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