In a memo to employees on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spelled out his mission for the company: “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Microsoft will also aim to “reinvent” productivity and business processes, build an intelligent cloud platform and create a more personal computing experience for its users, he said. Nadella’s vision statement comes just a week after the […]
UAE. The latest Towers Watson survey on Health Benefits reveals that employers are investing more in the health of their employees as many Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries have implemented new legislation and amendments to laws that deal with mandates for employee healthcare coverage. These changes are already in effect or will come into effect in phases over the next few years and will implicitly impact employers. […]
Five former members of President Obama’s inner circle of Iran advisers have written an open letter expressing concern that a pending accord to stem Iran’s nuclear program “may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement” and laying out a series of minimum requirements that Iran must agree to in coming days for them to support a final deal. Several of the senior […]
SANA, Yemen — For nearly three months, Saudi Arabia, along with its allies, has been bombing Yemen, its southern neighbor, hoping to force the retreat of Shiite rebels who have seized major cities and to return the country’s president from the Saudi guest mansion where he lives to the presidential palace. So far, it has not worked. The rebels, known as the Houthis, have gained ground, more […]
Redmond rolled out Office for Android-powered tablets in January. Now, Microsoft is finally releasing Office apps for the Android phone. That means if you’re using a Samsung, LG, HTC or some other Android smartphone you can tap into the power of Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps on the run. All you have to do is download them from the Google Play store. Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president […]
BAGHDAD — When Umm Ahmed returned to her Iraqi hometown, Tikrit, in recent days she found a city devastated by fighting with militants from the Islamic State: buildings burned, shops looted, schools shuttered and hospitals inoperable. Still, it was home, and it was good to be back. “Today, I am in the middle of Tikrit,” Umm Ahmed, 39, said last week, preferring to be identified by her […]
|By TAP Staff| Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) secured a $1.5 billion term debt syndicated facility from local, regional and international banks. The nine year USD and AED financing was fully underwritten by Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Islamic Bank, Mashreqbank, Noor Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. In the syndicated market, the deal was well supported and oversubscribed where additional 14 […]
|By K Raveendran| There is much hype about the opening up of the Saudi stock market, but any detached view is least supportive of optimism. The more realistic assessment is based on the fact that the market has already factored in the positivity and moved too far ahead in the expectation of large foreign inflows, making the market expensive for any new entrants. According to the assessment […]
WASHINGTONSurging investment by Chinese companies in U.S. research labs is yielding a fast-growing trove of patents, part of a push to mine America for ideas to help China shift from being the world’s factory floor to a driver of innovation. Largely absent from American research hubs a decade ago, Chinese firms including Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp are now using U.S. researchers to create patents ranging from […]
WASHINGTON — Iran continued its “terrorist-related” activity last year and also continued to provide broad military support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the State Department said Friday in its annual report on terrorism. The assessment suggests that neither the election of President Hassan Rouhani nor the prospect of a nuclear accord with the United States and its negotiating partners has had a moderating effect on Iran’s […]
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT June 19, 2015 WASHINGTON — Iran continued its “terrorist-related” activity last year and also continued to provide broad military support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the State Department said Friday in its annual report on terrorism. The State Department’s assessment suggests that neither the election of President Hassan Rouhani nor the prospect of a nuclear accord with the United States and its negotiating partners […]
UAE. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been ranked as the 23rd and 33rd most expensive cities to live in (respectively) according to Mercer’s 2015 Cost of Living Survey. The two cities have experienced a significant jump compared to 2014, with Dubai soaring 44 places from last year’s position at 67 and Abu Dhabi going up 35 places 68th in 2014. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the most […]
File photo of Stephen Elop introducing the Nokia Lumia 930 mobile phone during Microsoft’s ”build” conference in San Francisco, California April 2, 2014. Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files SEATTLE Stephen Elop, the former top boss at phone-maker Nokia, is one of four high-level executives leaving Microsoft Corp as the company sharpens its focus on software services and the cloud, Chief Executive Satya Nadella announced on Wednesday. The departure of Elop, […]
Logistics … only 18 per cent of all new productsachieve their profit targets. Logistics suffering price pressure, product flops BONN, Germany, 1 days ago The logistics sector seems to have a hard time when it comes to raising prices in their customer base, a report said, noting that only 18 per cent of all new logistics products and services are successful. Logistics firms succeed with only 40 […]
UAE. Private wealth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) showed solid growth in 2014 (8.4 percent), according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Global Wealth 2015: Winning the Growth Game, being released today. In the UAE, the growth of private wealth was driven mainly by equities. After all, between 2013 and 2014, the amount of wealth held in equities rose by 13.8 percent […]
By KAREEM FAHIM June 16, 2015 BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen released a video statement on Tuesday confirming the death of its leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in an American missile strike last week. His death was also confirmed by the Obama administration on Tuesday. Mr. Wuhayshi, 38, who had led Qaeda operations in Yemen since 2002 and was also the global extremist network’s second-ranking leader, was killed along […]
The theme so far this week at the three-day Electronic Entertainment Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center has been video-gaming, with Sony claiming the keynote address slot. Here are nine announcements from the conference so far: New “Doom” on the Way Bethesda got E3 under way by showing off the latest installments of first-person shooter “Doom” and post-apocalyptic role-playing saga “Fallout 4.” The latter game will […]
The black flag of the Islamic State, left, flew over Tal Abyad, Syria, on Tuesday. After Kurdish and rebel fighters took over the town later Tuesday, they hoisted a Kurdish militia flag. By BEN HUBBARD June 16, 2015 ISTANBUL — Kurdish militias and rebel fighters on Tuesday took full control of the strategic Syrian town of Tal Abyad on Turkey’s border, striking a blow against the Islamic State and expanding […]
Video | Morsi Death Sentence Confirmed by Judge A judge in Egypt announced the confirmation of last month’s sentence of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK June 16, 2015 CAIRO — An Egyptian judge slammed the rule of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi as “a black night that lasted a whole year” and confirmed a death sentence against […]
The Twitter logo is shown at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California April 28, 2015. Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files SAN FRANCISCO Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) next chief executive officer faces a crucial challenge as the company seeks to appease Wall Street after this week’s management shakeup – helping disaffected advertisers connect with users. And many advertisers, analysts and investors say Twitter already has the right person for the job: […]
ISTANBUL — A coalition of Kurdish militias and Arab rebels stormed into a strategic Syrian town on the Turkey border on Monday, seizing most of it from Islamic State fighters who had long used the area to smuggle supplies and fighters into their self-declared caliphate, according to Kurdish militia leaders and activists. The complete loss of the town, Tal Abyad, would deal a major blow to the […]
|By TAP Staff| LSE-listed leading UAE healthcare player NMC Health announced entering into an agreement to acquire ProVita International Medical Center, provider of long-term medical care in the UAE, for an equity consideration of $160.6 million. The payment will be made in cash, from TVM Capital Healthcare Partners, the Olayan Group, Al Zarooni Emirates Investment and other minority shareholders, the company said. ProVita is a pioneer in […]
A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this February 28, 2013 illustration file picture. Reuters/Kacper Pempel/Files WASHINGTON China-linked hackers appear to have gained access to sensitive background information submitted by U.S. intelligence and military personnel for security clearances that could potentially expose them to blackmail, the Associated Press reported on Friday. In a report citing several U.S. officials, the news agency said data on […]
Some things can’t be summed up in 140 characters. Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) announcement that Dick Costolo would exit as CEO on July 1 was long on plaudits but offered few clues on how the company will tackle its biggest problem: user growth. Twitter’ shares were down 0.6 percent in early afternoon trading on Friday, after rising much as 3.9 percent just after the opening, as investors assessed […]
