A decline in sales is leading Apple to make an attempt at revitalizing its iPad tablet — possibly by introducing new models. The company plans an event Thursday, just a month after the company debuted the iPhone 6. Apple is preparing for an event near its Cupertino, California, headquarters. It will reportedly then show off new models of the iPad, as well as its Mac computers, as […]
A fantasy nerd named Stentor Danielson, who is also a geographer based in Pittsburgh, applies J.R.R. Tolkien’s whimsical mapping style to turn American cities into fantasy lands of castles and dragons. Maps are 18” X 24” printed on heavy gloss paper. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ […]
Whiskey Elements let you add flavor and aroma to your whiskey in 24-hours. Made with no flavor additives or chemicals, these sticks of wood create flavors like oaky, vanilla, maple, smokey, & peaty turning your run-of-the-mill whiskey into something worth drinking. Just drop one in the bottle. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone […]
An employee counts money at an exchange office in downtown Cairo. Reuters First the good news: Egypt’s foreign reserves ticked up to $16.87 billion at the end of September – enough to comfortably cover imports for more than three months as the country’s economy strengthens and foreign investors continue to buy Cairo-listed stocks. But the Arab country–slowly recovering from a tumultuous past few years that left its […]
A worsening of the domestic political environment in Kuwait is a potential risk for the country, says Moody’s. European Pressphoto Agency A contentious relationship between Kuwait’s government and parliament has hindered development and diversification, while high dependence on volatile oil exports is causing the Arab Gulf state’s economic performance to fluctuate, according to a new Moody’s Investors Service report. It still has a ‘Aa2′ sovereign rating and […]
Video | Fighting Rages in Syrian Border Town President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey warned that the Syrian border town of Kobani might fall to Islamist militants as fighting intensified between Kurdish rebels and Islamic State fighters. By KARAM SHOUMALI and ANNE BARNARD October 7, 2014 MURSITPINAR, Turkey — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said Tuesday that the Syrian border town of Kobani, under siege from Islamic State fighters, was […]
IMF FORECAST: SELECTED MENA ECONOMIES Note: Data for some countries are based on fiscal years. 1Movements in consumer prices are shown as annual averages. 2Percent of GDP. 3Percent. 4Includes Bahrain, Libya, Oman, and Yemen. 5Includes Djibouti and Mauritania. Excludes Syria because of the uncertain political situation. IMF The International Monetary Fund has revised its 2015 economic growth projection downward for the Middle East and North Africa by […]
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid last year referred to Israeli expats in Berlin as willing to throw Israel “in the garbage” for a cheaper cost of living. Bloomberg News Back in 2011, rising dairy prices sparked a cottage cheese protest in Israel. Now there’s a pudding protest. The first campaign, which called for a consumer boycott of dairy goods, eventually helped bring hundreds of thousands of middle […]
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 […]
IMF’s Christine Lagarde says the fund is already talking with Egyptian officials about its economic outlook and value-added tax policy. Reuters The International Monetary Fund may soon take a thorough look at Egypt’s economy for the first time since its revolution in 2011, potentially paving the way for greater cooperation on President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s reform agenda and renewing talks about long-delayed IMF financing. The IMF […]
Starting a fire like a caveman is cool if you’re Bear Grylls but the fireSLEEVE makes an ordinary Bic lighter waterproof. Much more convenient. The little plastic case also floats, allows you to lock the gas lever on, and features attachment points so you can strap it on and keep it handy. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re […]
For the second time since June, AT&T has acknowledged that it has been hit by an insider data breach. The telecom giant is warning consumers that an employee, who has since been fired, illegally accessed the personal information of some of its users, making off with Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. In a letter sent to the Vermont attorney general earlier this month, AT&T officials […]
Remember BadUSB? If you use a USB device to move digital files from one machine to another, you need to know the latest news on this flaw in design specs that could put your computers at risk. Attack code for this flaw, which is impossible to patch, is now public. Security researchers Brandon Wilson and Adam Caudill released two patches to existing firmware for the Phison 2251-03, […]
A hidden-away feature on Facebook Messenger appears to be ready enable users to take advantage of peer-to-peer (P2P) payments whenever Facebook decides to implement the service. Screenshots and videos of the feature were taken by Stanford computer science student Andrew Aude following a heads-up last month by digital forensic expert Jonathan Zdziarski. We reached out to Aude to learn more about how close to implementation the Messenger […]
Discord at OPEC is turning into a price war, loosening the cartel’s grip on the oil market and exacerbating a recent steep selloff. Fissures have widened as Mideast turmoil frays political alliances and producers vie for customers amid a flood of oil from the U.S. and slowing growth in Asia. “No one is telling anyone what they are up to,” one Gulf oil official said. Saudi Arabia […]
Big On Telecom signs distribution deal with Blackphone DUBAI, 3 days ago Blackphone has signed a master distributor partnership with Big On Telecom, a Big on Group company headquartered in Dubai, to expand the brand’s presence in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions. The agreement marks a significant step in Blackphone’s growth, with Big On Telecom having started testing and launch discussions with telecom operators in […]
Abu Dhabi e-govt showcase solutions at Gitex ABU DHABI, 3 days ago Twenty-two Abu Dhabi Government entities will showcase their latest innovative IT solutions, product apps and software offerings, all under the theme, “Towards a Digital Abu Dhabi’, at Gitex 2014, Dubai. UAE. The apps have been designed specifically to strengthen customer service and enhance the customer experience. Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (Adsic) will host […]
Officials at the announcing of the Gitex Technology Week 2014 Mideast ICT market to hit $20bn, outpacing global average DUBAI, 3 days ago The Middle East region’s information and communication technology (ICT) market is set to jump from a projected $15 billion this year to $20 billion in 2020, outpacing the global average, according to market intelligence firm IDC. The growth is being buoyed by region-wide investment […]
Slide Show | Preparing for New Risks in Golan Heights The fighting in Syria has prompted residents of the Golan Heights, Israel’s quietest frontier, to reassess the potential danger. By JODI RUDOREN October 4, 2014 EIN ZIVAN, Golan Heights — The updates poured in by two-way radio and cellphone as Tomer Lahav’s pickup sped around this kibbutz near Israel’s cease-fire line with Syria one recent evening. Mortars were falling […]
A United Nations team observed conditions in Syria from atop Mount Bental in the Golan Heights. The team left a post on the Syrian side after militants kidnapped other international observers. Credit: Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. […]
By ANNE BARNARD October 4, 2014 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fighting continued Saturday across Syria, with the militant group Islamic State assaulting a Kurdish enclave on the Turkish border, American-led airstrikes hitting Islamic State positions in northeastern Syria and Syrian government airstrikes pounding other insurgents near Damascus, Syria’s capital. Video surfaced of Peter Kassig, an American medical worker held by the Islamic State, in which the militants threatened that he […]
UAE. A working paper by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for the countries of the GCC to create a dynamic non-oil tradable sector to support sustainable growth. The paper ‘Soaring of the Gulf Falcons: Diversification in the GCC Oil Exporters in Seven Propositions’, authored by Reda Cherif and Fuad Hasanov, says this strategy should be implemented right away, even for the richest GCC countries. Charles […]
SAUDI ARABIA. Jadwa Investment, the Saudi asset manager focused on Sharia’ah compliant mutual and private equity funds, has just issued its Quarterly Global Oil Market Update (Q3 2014). Summary of the report · The combination of accelerating US supply, weaker than expected global demand, stabilization in geopolitics, and an appreciation of the dollar, led to oil prices dropping by 7.3 percent in Q3 2014, to an average of […]
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI and KIMIKO DE FREYTAS-TAMURA October 3, 2014 The Islamic State has released another video of a beheading — this one of a middle-aged British aid worker, Alan Henning, who was abducted last year from the ambulance he had driven into Syria to offer lifesaving help. As in the previous three execution videos circulated by the extremist group, the victim is shown kneeling in a rocky, desert landscape and is […]
