News related to
across

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Islamic State fighters are preventing fuel shipments from reaching rebel-held parts of northern Syria, causing severe shortages that are paralyzing ambulances, stopping medical centers from providing care and shutting down bakeries, according to antigovernment activists and aid workers. Adding to the misery, international aid groups said, the forces of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, are targeting medical centers in opposition areas, killing some workers and […]

MRC Global  announced that its subsidiary, MRC Transmark Middle East FZE, has signed a framework agreement with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), naming MRC Transmark Middle East as one of SABIC’s primary valve suppliers to SABIC’s operations in Saudi Arabia. SABIC, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ranks among the world’s top petrochemical companies. It operates from more than 50 countries and has more than 60 manufacturing and […]

Trevor Tasin with three of his sons: John, 11; Ben, 13; and Dominic, 2. Mr. Tasin, a pilot who retired as a major in 2014 after flying Predator drones and training new pilots. By CHRISTOPHER DREW and DAVE PHILIPPS June 16, 2015 CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — After a decade of waging long-distance war through their video screens, America’s drone operators are burning out, and the Air Force is being […]

Visitors at the exhibit “A Brief History of Humankind” at the Israel Museum. The museum is Israel’s largest cultural institution, presiding over Jerusalem from a hilltop site alongside the Knesset and the Supreme Court. By ISABEL KERSHNER June 17, 2015 JERUSALEM — A softly lit case displays a small, gnarled implement that is said to be the world’s oldest known complete sickle, dating back 9,000 years. On a wall […]

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, […]

ME firms facing challenges in human capital trends BEIRUT, 1 days ago The readiness to address challenges in learning & development, reinventing human resources (HR), leadership, and culture & engagement is decreasing in Middle East organisations, a report said. This raises the question of whether leaders are doing enough to prepare their organisations to respond to today’s most pressing business and human capital needs, added the Global […]

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 […]

Advertisements

UAE.  EY’s Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) Fraud Survey, Fraud and corruption – the easy option for growth?, has found that many businesses still do not have the basic building blocks in place for effective compliance. Only 52% of MENA respondents stated they had an anti-bribery or anti-corruption (ABAC) policy and code of conduct in place. The survey, which polled 3,800 employees of large businesses  […]

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 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 […]

EFG-Hermes launches leasing subsidiary CAIRO, 11 hours, 6 minutes ago Egypt’s EFG-Hermes, one of the Middle East’s largest investment banks, said on Sunday it had launched a wholly-owned subsidiary, EFG Hermes Leasing, that would start operations immediately. The firm said in a statement that the subsidiary would provide leasing services to large corporates and small and medium enterprises across Egypt. The size of the portfolio of EFG-Hermes […]

Reliance eyes Dec start for 4G phone service MUMBAI, 13 hours, 47 minutes ago After five years and more than $15 billion of investments, Mukesh Ambani said his Reliance Industries could be ready to begin 4G phone services in December. Reliance, India’s second-largest company by market value and led by India’s richest man, derives most of its revenue from its sprawling energy empire, but has over the […]

INTERNATIONAL. This year Ipsos celebrates 20 years of the European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS) or as it is called now, The Ipsos Affluent Survey Europe. The Affluent European whom the survey tracks comes in all shapes and sizes, with a myriad of different wants and needs, yet, these individuals (the Top 13% of income earners) have one thing in common: they have significant disposable income and […]

TUNISIA. There has been robust growth in Internet access and usage over the past few years and Africa is now primed to take advantage of the social and economic opportunities that the Internet can bring to people across the continent. This was the focus of an address delivered to delegates at the Africa Internet Summit (AIS) recently held in Tunisia by Kathy Brown, President & CEO of […]

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK June 11, 2015 CAIRO — An Egyptian police officer was convicted Thursday of a form of manslaughter for killing a poet and activist by shooting her at close range with birdshot. The court sentenced the officer to 15 years in prison. If the verdict is upheld on appeal, it will be a rare example of judicial punishment in Egypt for excessive police violence. The killing of […]

UAE. Invesco today released its third annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study[1], an in-depth report on the complex investment behaviour of sovereign wealth funds, conducted amongst more than 50 individual sovereign investors across the globe representing $7.09 trillion2 of assets, including Middle East based sovereign wealth funds. This year’s study took place against a backdrop of an extreme fall in the price of oil and provides […]

|By TAP Staff| Bahrain-based investment management firm Arcapita announced  the sale of a real estate portfolio of senior care communities with over 16 facilities and approximately 4,000 residential units located across the United States. The portfolio was sold to NorthStar Healthcare Income, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), for a transaction value of approximately $640 million, the company announced. The properties are one of the largest […]

ISTANBUL — Late into the night on Sunday on the shattered streets of Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish city devastated last year by battles with militants affiliated with the Islamic State, residents celebrated the outcome of the recent Turkish parliamentary election results, honking horns, cheering and firing their guns. The election, in which the Kurdish party surpassed a threshold for the first time to enter Parliament, was the […]

A 3D plastic representation of the Facebook logo is seen in this illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 13, 2015. Reuters/Dado Ruvic NEW YORK Overseas markets bring in more advertising revenue than the United States for Facebook Inc, amounting to 51 percent of global ad sales in the first quarter, with growth in Asia the fastest in the world at 57 percent, company executives told Reuters. […]

|TAP Special| The atmosphere at the IATA conference in Miami was surcharged with tension, with the animosity between Western and Middle Eastern carriers quickly dominating the proceedings. An interview by Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, in which he threatened retaliation against Western “protectionism”only aggravated tensions. The issue isn’t on the agenda at the annual meeting IATA, but it was virtually inevitable that it would come up […]

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM June 9, 2015 CAIRO — Islamic State militants staged attacks near Baghdad and the Libyan city of Surt on Tuesday, underscoring the group’s persistent strength on both fronts despite a monthslong American-led air campaign against it in Syria and Iraq. In Libya, the Islamic State captured a critical power plant along the coastal road westward from its stronghold in Surt toward Misurata, a commercial center […]

VISHNU RAJA
RYO YAMADA
HITORI GOTOH
IKUYO KITA