By Amulya Ganguli West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s decline in the eyes of the middle class began within days of her assumption of office when she rushed to a police station to secure the release of several anti-socials who had been rounded up by the police on the charges of hooliganism. That the head of the government would personally go to a thana in aid […]
Some patients recalled seeing a bright light; a golden flash or the Sun shining Photo: Rex “To die, to sleep – To sleep, perchance to dream – aye, there’s the rub, For in this sleep of death what dreams may come …” So says Hamlet, pondering his own mortality in perhaps the most famous soliloquy Shakespeare ever wrote. The question “Is there life after death?” has fascinated human […]
By Amulya Ganguli Since Maharashtra is the first state to go to the polls after the general election and the subsequent by-elections, it is not surprising that it is experiencing the fallout from these contests in full measure. If the Congress is paying the price for its weakened condition after the May debacle, the BJP is facing the consequences of its poor showing in the recent […]
A project displayed at Cityscape Global 2014. Rory Jones for The Wall Street Journal Dubai’s showcase annual real-estate event appears to offer more substance than style this year: Cityscape Global had fewer glitzy property launches on day one than last year, and there were no backroom scuffles as investors scrambled to snap up units of premier developers. There was still plenty of real estate for sale as […]
By Christina Farr and Edwin Chan SAN FRANCISCO Wed Sep 3, 2014 7:44am IST The Apple logo is pictured at a retail store in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 23, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has often displayed uncanny timing, with its well-orchestrated end-of-year iPhone releases. But the leak of racy celebrity photos in the past few days […]
By Robert Castleman: As a holder of BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY), I get a great deal of pushback from some pretty smart people that think BlackBerry is a failed company in its death throes. Here, I outline why I think BlackBerry stands a chance, even if it still is a very high-risk holding. To understand my investment thesis, we will have to take a dive into software development and […]
By S. Sethuraman As fiscal 2015 nears the mid-year, hope revives stronger for at least 5.5 per cent growth, despite a wayward monsoon, and should it materialize, the Modi Government could well trumpet that it had overcome the UPA baggage of “economic mess” and below 5 per cent growth over the last two years. But even growth in the 5-6 per cent range, based on […]
American real estate mogul Donald Trump is planning “substantial investments” in the Indian property and hotel sectors, betting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led new government’s efforts to revive the economic growth and boost infrastructure. “I do see India as a great place to invest, and I think the election made that even better,” said Trump, who was in India to launch Trump Tower in Mumbai, his first […]
U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel An image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, taken from a video of a sermon he gave in July in Mosul. By TIM ARANGO and ERIC SCHMITT August 10, 2014 BAGHDAD — When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up […]
To get from the owner of a sex-chat service to one of France’s richest men, Xavier Niel has made a few bold gambles. His latest move, a $15 billion cash bid for control of T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS), is his most audacious yet. Niel’s Iliad SA said yesterday it offered $33 a share for almost 57 percent of T-Mobile, a wireless provider five times larger than the […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The fevered struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran for regional dominance has for years aggravated nearly every conflict across the Middle East as the two nations armed, funded and encouraged each other’s adversaries. So it has come as a surprise to many here that even with the region still in tumult, there have been signs that both powers are looking to temper their destructive […]
ON THE EAST BANK OF THE JORDAN RIVER — After visiting a site on Saturday where Jesus is believed to have been baptized, Pope Francis spoke about Jesus’s humility, “the fact that he bends down to wounded humanity in order to heal us.” So when some burly men prepared to carry a doctor in a wheelchair up four steps to the stage for a blessing, perhaps it […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Rebels in southern Syria killed more than 20 people in a mortar attack on a tent put up as part of presidential elections next month, antigovernment activists said on Friday. The overnight attack appeared to be the first by opponents of President Bashar al-Assad directly targeting the election and raised the specter of further rebel assaults on rallies and other events. The vote, scheduled […]
Donald Trump, the New York real-estate mogul, is back in Dubai with plans for a golf course and 104 mansions three years after a plan to build a hotel tower bearing his name was scrapped. Trump was involved in conceiving the 18-hole course, designed by Gil Hanse, while his daughter Ivanka oversaw the design of the houses, the star of TV’s “The Apprentice” said today at a […]
Damac Real Estate Development Ltd. (DMC) is bolstering Dubai’s drive to lead the global Islamic economy with serviced apartments that are Shariah-compliant from their financing to their restaurants and saunas. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC (ADIB) is managing the project’s funding as Damac, which issued its debut sukuk last month, sells the certified Islamic residences, Niall Mc Loughlin, the Dubai-based developer’s senior vice president of communication, said […]
New York’s highest state court has ruled that a lawsuit by the Algosaibi family conglomerate, claiming that a Saudi billionaire who married into the family committed a $150 million fraud, should be heard in Saudi Arabia. In the lawsuit, Ahmed Hamad al Gosaibi & Brothers Co claimed that Maan al-Sanea, the billionaire head of the Saad Group, used its accounts with Dubai-based Mashreqbank PSC to commit fraudulent […]
By Andy Mukherjee The sudden rise of India’s self-professed “anti-establishment” party is making seasoned politicians nervous. Investors, meanwhile, view the dramatic ascent of the Aam Aadmi – Common Man Party – with a mixture of awe and suspicion. The one-year old upstart staged a recent electoral upset in the state of Delhi, home to the nation’s capital, by forming a government with support from Sonia Gandhi’s Congress […]
Dubai luxury housing developer DAMAC Properties said it plans to raise as much as $500 million from an initial public share offer in London, betting on a recovery in a property market that crashed four years ago. If successful, DAMAC would be the first Dubai real estate firm to go public since then. DAMAC, which is building golf courses in the emirate with American real-estate mogul Donald […]
Mehmood Patel still wakes up early, just as he did when he was a popular heart specialist seeing patients who waited hours for minutes of his time. Instead of surgical scrubs, he climbs into the khaki drabs of the Federal Correctional Complex in Oakdale, Louisiana. He leads health-conscious inmates on a morning walk, then cracks open one of the medical journals on his prison-approved reading list. Counseling […]
DAMAC Properties, a privately held Dubai property developer, has hired two international investment banks to help arrange an initial public offering of shares in London and join a growing list of Gulf companies seeking overseas listings. Deutsche Bank and Citigroup Inc will advise on the planned flotation, two banking sources aware of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is not public. The […]
The notion of Syria giving up its chemical weapons, or at least putting them under foreign control, has long been on the table in the consultations between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and his allies in Moscow. In the course of the civil war that has been raging in Syria for more than two years, “we discussed this possibility many times from many different angles,” says Russian […]
Social media platforms allow customer networks to be bigger, faster and better organized. They increase the downside of getting service wrong and the upside of getting it right. The effects are both direct and indirect. Zappos generates so much buzz with its fantastic service experience that the company can spend significantly less on marketing than its rivals. This virtuous service cycle spins faster because we get to […]
