EDIRNE, Turkey — Doaa, a 25-year old Syrian, was lying in the shade one day last week, trying to shelter herself from the scorching sun in a makeshift camp near this northwestern border city. A pile of blankets next to her quivered, and a tiny hand emerged. Her son, Nassim, was just a week old. Doaa had walked out of a hospital in Istanbul a few days […]
SANA, Yemen — A Saudi-led military coalition bombarded government buildings and residential neighborhoods in Sana, the Yemeni capital, overnight on Saturday, killing more than two dozen people, officials and witnesses said, and destroying homes in Sana’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage site. The Saudi coalition, which includes nine other Arab nations and is supported by the United States, began fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels in March, two […]
INTERNATIONAL. The era of the autonomous vehicle (AV) is fast approaching. Mass-market adoption of AVs will be the greatest inflection point for the automotive industry since the introduction of the assembly line and will confer tremendous benefits on society, according to a new report from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled Revolution Versus Regulation: The Make-or-Break Questions About Autonomous Vehicles, is being released today. It […]
ADEN // Relatives of Yemeni loyalist fighters killed by Houthi rebels thanked the UAE for its support on Friday, as the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) helped families in Aden buy new clothes for Eid Al Adha. “I cannot describe my happiness today. I got the clothes that will enable me to celebrate this Eid”, said Waleed Abdullah, 14, whose father Saleh was killed in fighting in July. […]
DUBAI // Forty-seven teams have been cleared for take-off for the forthcoming Red Bull Flugtag event in Dubai. The home-made flying machine competition takes place at Dubai Creek Park on November 27 after a nine-year hiatus. Participants will aim to break the world Flugtag record, which was set by the Chicken Whisperers in 2013, who managed to propel their flying machine 78.64 metres at an event 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 […]
Plummeting oil prices will cause cash flow for the global integrated oil & gas industry to contract by 20 per cent or more for 2015, with only a modest recovery expected in 2016, according to Moody’s Investors Service. This reflects the rating agency’s expectation of continued revenue declines and a negative free cash flow profile for the industry in 2015. Moody’s outlook for the global integrated oil […]
In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. today ruled that Apple has the right to seek an injunction to prevent Samsung from using several smartphone features found to have infringed on Apple patents. In a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court asserted that U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh erred in an earlier ruling against Apple’s request for an […]
Middle East Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday of foreign enemy subversions. By THOMAS ERDBRINK September 17, 2015 TEHRAN — Negotiating the nuclear agreement was a torturous, two-year process for Iran’s leaders, but a new kind of struggle is unfolding now in Iran, where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Hassan Rouhani have begun to tackle a question Iranians have not thought about much since the revolution […]
The Federal Reserve began a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday with economists evenly split on whether Thursday will see the first official U.S. interest rate rise since 2006. The decision by the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected on Thursday at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT). U.S. economic data are flashing conflicting signals, with unemployment falling but inflation subdued, while slowing growth in China […]
|By Matein Khalid| The world’s emerging markets have been savaged by multiple economic, banking, currency and political shocks since 2011. Global emerging markets are far too diverse and nuanced to be analyzed as a single asset class but now trade at a 24% valuation discount to developed markets. The financial markets now price draconian scenarios for earnings, exports, sovereign credit, industrial production and economic growth. The shortage […]
WASHINGTON — President Obama will host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House on Nov. 9 in their first face-to-face meeting since their rupture over the international nuclear agreement with Iran, the White House said Wednesday. Mr. Obama invited Mr. Netanyahu to talk about the way forward now that the Iran agreement has cleared obstacles in Congress. The president has offered to find ways […]
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 […]
Oil extended its decline below $45 a barrel in New York as a further pullback in US drilling failed to temper expectations that the global oversupply will persist for most of next year. West Texas Intermediate futures slipped 0.5 per cent after declining 2.8 per cent on 11 September when Goldman Sachs said the surprising endurance of the surplus could push prices down to $20 a barrel. The discount […]
HAJJA, Yemen — The airstrike slammed into Al-Sham water-bottling plant at the end of the night shift, killing 13 workers who were minutes away from heading home. Standing among the strewn bottles, smoldering boxes and pulverized machines a few days after the airstrike here, the owner, Ibrahim al-Razoom, searched in vain for any possible reason that warplanes from a Saudi-led military coalition would have attacked the place. […]
LEBANON. On Sept. 11, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on the Republic of Lebanon to negative from stable. At the same time, we affirmed our ‘B-/B’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings. RATIONALE The outlook revision stems from our view that political uncertainty in Lebanon and regional tensions will continue to weigh on economic growth in the mediumterm. In […]
ABU DHABI // Gathering clouds threaten rain over the eastern and western regions at the start of this week, according to the National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology. Scattered rain has been on the radar and started falling sporadically in the mountains and near Al Ain late last week. More of the same is expected this week, said NCMS meteorologist Sufian Farrah. “For three days, the country […]
Middle East By C. J. CHIVERS and ERIC SCHMITT September 11, 2015 The United States has confirmed the presence of traces of sulfur mustard, a chemical warfare agent, on fragments of ordnance recently used by the Islamic State in attacks in Syria and Iraq, according to two American officials familiar with the results of laboratory analysis of the samples. The laboratory tests, which were also performed on scraps of clothing from victims, […]
INTERNATIONAL. Apple® and Hermès today introduced Apple Watch® Hermès, a new collection of Apple Watch in stainless steel with finely crafted leather bands in distinctive styles from Hermès, including the Single Tour, Double Tour and Cuff, while respecting the design and functionality of the Apple Watch. The collaboration merges Apple’s unparalleled product innovation with the heritage, iconography and craftsmanship of Hermès, creating a unique expression of Apple […]
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 […]
President Obama at a meeting to discuss the Iran nuclear accord at the White House on Thursday. By JENNIFER STEINHAUER September 10, 2015 WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats delivered a major victory to President Obama on Thursday when they blocked a Republican resolution to reject a six-nation nuclear accord with Iran, ensuring that the landmark deal will take effect without a veto showdown between Congress and the White House. A […]
Middle East Video Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that President Obama wants the United States “to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year.” By DAVID E. SANGER and GARDINER HARRIS September 10, 2015 WASHINGTON — President Obama, under increasing pressure to demonstrate that the United States is joining European nations in the effort to resettle Syrian refugees, has told his administration to take in at […]
Developers and IT pros have been test-driving a preview of Office 2016 since March, but the final version is now set to launch starting September 22. Microsoft said the “seminal” release will be chock full of new IT management features. The new suite of Office applications will give Office 365 ProPlus business subscribers a choice of two types of ongoing updates. As they have in the past, […]
|By Matein Khalid| The Federal Reserve could well raise its overnight borrowing rate at the next FOMC monetary policy conclave on September 17. Though contagion from China’s 40% stock market meltdown has triggered bear markets from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and plunged Asian/emerging markets equities into ta ghastly replay of 1998’s epic meltdown (General Suharto’s overthrow, the Russian rouble default, Malaysia’s capital controls, the run on the […]
