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Microsoft released the latest build of Windows 10 to members of its Insider Preview program today. The release, labeled Build 14328, includes upgrades to Windows Ink, the Start button, Cortana, and the Search function. The company released a previous version of the build for mobile devices earlier this week, so this latest version focuses primarily on PC functionality. There are so many changes in the latest build […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai Mall recorded 80 million visitor arrivals in 2015. Various Emaar malls together received more than 124 million visitors, registering an increase of 9 per cent compared to 2014. “The shopping malls business will gain further traction with the launch of a dedicated Retail District in Dubai Creek Harbour and the expansion of The Dubai Mall by another 1 million sq ft built-up […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| The cut in housing allowances implemented by companies in Abu Dhabi is creating further strain on the higher end of the emirate’s residential market, according to Cluttons Abu Dhabi Spring 2016 Property Market Outlook. This underscores the need to address the capital’s lack of affordable housing options, Cluttons said. Cluttons’ Abu Dhabi Spring 2016 Property Market Outlook report shows that the shrinking pool of […]

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will chair a meeting of ministers on Thursday morning as he weighs how to avoid the closure of an iconic steel plant in South Wales without making costly financial promises. Cameron called the meeting and Business Secretary Sajid Javid cut short a trip to Australia to address the crisis sparked by Tata Steel Ltd.’s decision late Tuesday to sell its plant in […]

|By Matein Khalid| “Stop the murder, stop the lies, out, out, you nest of spies!” So chanted the crowd outside South Africa House on Trafalgar Square in the autumnal mists of London circa 1988. The anti-apartheid struggle was the moral compass of my generation, from the Soweto riots to Steve Biko’s murder to the horrific “necklacings in the townships and killing fields of the Limpopo to Madiba’s release […]

|By Arabian Post Staff|The impact of the massive decline in oil prices has finally reached the door steps of the banking industry and some banks have been affected more than the others. According to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the banking industry in the GCC grew at a lower rate in 2015 than it did in 2014 with just a 7.2 percent increase, […]

|By Arabian Post Staff|DP World’s gross debt rose to $7.6 billion, with the net debt climbing to $6.2 billion, the company announced in its financial results for the calendar year 2015. The balance sheet shows a leverage of 3.2 times. The increase in debt is mainly due to the addition of the $650 million JAFZA Sukuk following the EZW acquisition and the additional $500 million borrowings from […]

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|By Matein Khalid| It is no coincidence that the most profitable hotels on the planet are located in Makkah, the holiest city of Islam as the site of the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba. For fifteen centuries, Muslims have traveled to Makkah from all over the world for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, making the city the highest source of inbound foreign visitors in Saudi Arabia. Makkah is […]

Tech giant Amazon is expanding its foothold in the automated smart home space with the launch of two new Internet of Things products: the Echo Dot, and the Amazon Tap. The Echo Dot provides voice-control for home stereo systems, or it can be used to control smart home devices. The Tap is a wireless speaker that can also be used to connect to Amazon’s Alexa voice service. […]

|By Arabian Post Staff|The announcement by Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about a possible floatation of state-owned oil firm Aramco is part of a larger game plan, a report by a US private intelligence corporation has concluded. “Whether or not the IPO happens is not important. What is vitally important is that it was publicly discussed by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He was […]

/By Arabian Post Staff/ Despite the recent price bounce in oil, turmoil in the sector may be far from over, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report. Defaults are rising across smaller oil and gas producers and risks are rising for larger ones too, it said. Total energy debt in default has now reached $18 billion, suggesting the credit cycle will mark a floor on […]

/By Arabian Post Staff/ Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) plans to increase its retail business by 40 per cent between 2016 and 2020 across its network of service stations in the UAE. The growth plans include the construction of 54 more stations in Dubai. The expansion will meet ENOC’s long-term strategic objectives which are aligned with the Dubai Plan 2021 of creating a ‘Smart & Sustainable City’ […]

/By Arabian Post Staff/ Zurich Insurance Group AG has started a process to exit from its general insurance business in the Middle East, pronouncements by the company executives indicated. Zurich’s general insurance chief Kristof Terryn last week said in an interview that the Middle East business has been put into a ‘run-off’ in view of the ‘limited potential’ of general insurance in the region. It will, however, […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Ajman-based Tech Group, comprising a number of construction verticals, announced an investment of $100 million for the next three years, in what the company declares as an endorsement of the positive outlook for the country’s construction industry. Piling Tech, one of the group companies specializing in foundation engineering, design engineering and boring and driven piling systems, has acquired a new set of Soilmec […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Stability in office rents in Dubai’s main markets persisted throughout Q1 2016 as a result of continued high demand from both international and domestic occupiers, according to leading real estate consultancy Cluttons. Showcasing the performance of 22 submarkets across the city in the first quarter of the year with the use of heat maps, Cluttons’ first office market bulletin highlights that, 13 submarkets […]

Gold and its miners’ stocks are rocketing higher as speculators and investors alike return to this left-for-dead sector.  This sudden deluge of capital inflows has crowned gold stocks the best-performing sector of this young new year by far, shocking traders.  And this stunning reversal of fortunes in both the metal and the companies producing it is only starting, so it’s exceedingly important to understand what’s going on. […]

Symantec is the king of tech security. Yet the Norton antivirus software maker just took a $500 million strategic investment from Silver Lake Partners, a firm known for making technology investments in companies like Dell. The question is why? Why exactly would the king of tech security need such a massive amount of cash from an outside investor? Has something gone wrong inside the company’s software machine? […]

Citing a desire to gain a foothold in the growing market for the Internet of Things, the leadership of Mozilla said it is ceasing development efforts on its Firefox smartphone operating system. Mozilla is ending development on Firefox OS for smartphones after version 2.6 is released in May. The development team that had been working on the OS will now work on initiatives related to connected devices […]

Markets are currently in a well-oiled “death spiral,” according to Citigroup Inc. analysts led by Jonathan Stubbs. “It appears that four inter-linked phenomena are driving a negative feedback loop in the global economy and across financial markets,” the analysts write, citing the resilient U.S. dollar, lower commodities prices, weaker trade and capital flows, and declining emerging market growth. “It seems reasonable to assume that another year of extreme moves in […]

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and most of us have an account. Let’s face it, no one actually reads 95% of the stuff that appears on the feed but there is so much of sharing done that LinkedIn is slowly inching closer and closer to the top of the list of largest content aggregators. There are 3 main types of users of the platform and […]

UAE.  Cyber breaches and insider threats are the fastest-growing risks and are driving investment in Forensic Data Analytics (FDA) according to MENA executives. This is  according to EY’s 2016 Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey, Shifting into high gear: mitigating risks and demonstrating returns. The threats and breaches include malicious insiders stealing, manipulating or destroying data. Sixty-nine percent say that they need to do more to improve their […]

UAE.  The start of 2016 signalled another loss of growth momentum at UAE non-oil private sector firms, with business conditions improving at the weakest rate since March 2012. Underpinning the slowdown was a relatively subdued rise in new work, which was linked in turn to a near-stagnation in new export business. Growth rates for output and employment also eased, though stocks of pre-production items increased more quickly. […]

Sales of robots worldwide hit a record high in 2014 with numbers topping 229,000, a report said, highlighting that smart machines could be performing 45 per cent of manufacturing tasks in a decade. Last year also marked the third consecutive year of increase with 29 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth, added the new research report titled “Thematic Investing: Robot Revolution: Global Robot & Al Primer” from Bank […]

Video Bashar al-Jaafari, the Syrian government’s chief negotiator, blamed the opposition for the postponement of the talks, calling them a failure. By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and SOMINI SENGUPTA February 3, 2016 GENEVA — The United Nations on Wednesday temporarily suspended the fledgling talks aimed at ending the war in Syria and called on the countries fueling the conflict to do more to yield results, as Syrian government forces sharply escalated an offensive […]

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