Op-Ed Contributor By MORIEL ROTHMAN-ZECHER January 11, 2015 TEL AVIV — “WHAT are you,” he asked, “a leftist?” We were both wearing the surplus United States Marines uniforms given to prisoners at Israeli Military Jail No. 6. “It depends how you define ‘left,’ ” I said. “Don’t get clever with me. Why are you here?” “I didn’t want to be part of a system whose main task is the violent […]
|By TAP Staff| A shortage of prime office space in Dubai, which is being underpinned by robust demand, has translated into strong upward pressure on rents across the city, and a rapidly diminishing supply of Grade A space in more centrally located submarkets and freezones, according to the latest research from international real estate consultancy Cluttons. Cluttons’ Dubai Winter 2014 Commercial Market Outlook report shows that during […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai is the world’s eighth costliest city to stay in a hotel, with New York occupying the number one slot, according to a new compilation of accommodation index. The index, compiled by GoEuro.com, covers 150 cities and over 60,000 properties to understand the effect of new trends in accommodation on the hotel industry. The increasing popularity of vacation sharing and continued growth of the […]
Shuaa Capital’s executive chairman and board director, Sheikh Maktoum Hasher al-Maktoum, will step down from both roles in February, the Dubai-based investment bank said on Sunday. Maktoum will depart after the disclosure of its full-year results for 2014, Shuaa said in a statement. A member of Dubai’s ruling family, Maktoum served in his present capacity since May 2011. During his tenure, the firm underwent a significant turn-around […]
|By TAP Staff| The second edition of Royal India Luxury Show got under way in Dubai. The show provides glimpses of India’s royalty to visitors with the scions of some of the erstwhile princely states gracing the inaugural ceremony in royal attire. The event has participation from 22 Indian exhibitors representing travel, hospitality, leisure, luxury homes, fashion, weddings, jewellery and entertainment. The UAE offers immense growth opportunities […]
|By TAP Staff| Construction data miners at Emporis have published a chart of the world’s most expensive buildings. According to the graphic, New York’s One World Trade Center is by far the world’s most expensive building, coming in at $3.9 billion, nearly double the second-most expensive buildings, Vegas’ Palazzo casino and London’s The Shard, which both cost $1.9B to build. Perhaps even more surprising, Dubai’s dizzying Burj […]
|By TAP Staff| Saudi Arabia’s bourse regulator on Tuesday suspended share trading in the shares of Mobily and Zain Saudi after a bitter money dispute between the two telecom operators snowballed into a major controversy. The decision by the Capital Market Authority follows a Mobily statement that it had asked for arbitration about money it claims it is owed by smaller rival Zain Saudi. Trading in the […]
|By TAP Staff| Within the tech industry this year, several companies from Amazon to Facebook to Twitter have publicly released their workforce diversity demographics. A Glassdoor report based on its salary and company ratings database on comparison of compensation and employee satisfaction between men and women at a sample of 25 of the largest tech companies shows that at most of these companies, men report earning a higher base salary than […]
|By TAP Staff|Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud secured a London court ruling in his favour in a defamatory suit against Forbes for an article carried by the magazine on him in April 2013. Alwaleed maintained that Forbes defamed him by falsely accusing him of defaulting on important contractual obligations, dishonestly manipulating the share price of Kingdom Holding Company, and firing KHC’s auditor […]
I recently reached out to my Twitter followers, asking “What can I, as a VOA reporter in Washington, write about that you need/want to know?” The responses were varied and interesting, but one topic dominated: U.S. policy in Syria. Why hasn’t the U.S. done more to help the Syrian people? “There is lot of frustration with the Obama’s administration’s ambiguous, vague and often incoherent strategy regarding dealing […]
|By TAP Staff| JAFZ, EZW’s primary business unit representing 97 per cent of revenue and operating profit for the year ended 31 December 2013, is a 57 square kilometre modern commercial and industrial logistics park adjacent to DP World’s flagship Jebel Ali port in Dubai. The free zone is an integral component of the supply chain for DP World’s customers at the Jebel Ali port. DP World […]
By SOMINI SENGUPTA November 10, 2014 UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations secretary general announced on Monday that a five-member panel would investigate the attacks on more than 100 United Nations facilities and the death of 11 of its staff members during the Gaza conflict during the summer, defying Israeli demands to wait until the conclusion of its own government inquiry. The United Nations usually conducts such in-house inquiries […]
|By TAP Staff| Amanat Holdings announced that its AED 1.375 billion Initial Public Offering (IPO) was nearly 10 times oversubscribed. The integrated healthcare and education company collected more than AED 13.6 billion in total during its 16-day IPO. The company said shares have been allocated proportionately to subscribers and excess funds are due to be returned to investors on November 11, 2014. Amanat is scheduled to list […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court of First Instance hast confirmed its jurisdiction over a lawsuit by an expatriate investor, resident in Dubai, against India’s ICICI Bank, registered in the DIFC. In May, Indian citizen Kishanchand Gangaram Bhatia filed suit in the DIFC Court of First Instance alleging that ICICI Bank induced him to invest in an unsuitable fund and had not disclosed material […]
|By TAP Staff| Tecom Investments, a unit of Dubai Holding has mandated banks to raise a syndicated loan, with two banking sources saying the facility would be worth 4 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion). The banks are Citi, Dubai Islamic Bank , Mashreq, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Noor Bank. Tecom Investments is expected to use the proceeds for its growth plans, while some of the cash will […]
New Delhi: The attorney-general (A-G) has recommended cancellation of a proposed defence deal for the acquisition of eight minesweeper vessels, estimated to be worth about Rs 6,000 crore, from the South Korean Kangnam Corporation after allegations of involvement of middlemen, official sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) have confirmed. The MoD had sought the view of A-G Mukul Rohatgi in the matter. The government may […]
National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the largest lender in the United Arab Emirates, has appointed a veteran former Barclays banker to run its consumer banking business, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday. Suvrat Saigal, previously head of consumer banking at Barclays in India, takes over from George Beatty, who resigned in January as NBAD’s general manager of consumer and elite banking. An […]
|By TAP Staff| Nigerian property investors account for 60 percent of hotel apartment purchases in the Dubai hospitality market, according to a Nigerian newspaper. During the property market boom which suffered a crash in the world economic recession of late 2008 to 2010, Nigerian investors accounted for well over 40 percent of Dubai’s residential market, such that a significant number of houses on Palm Jumaireh—one of Dubai’s exclusive […]
Israeli police officers arrested a right-wing activist on Thursday after he tried to access the sacred plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary in the Old City of Jerusalem. By ISABEL KERSHNER and JODI RUDOREN October 30, 2014 JERUSALEM — Under heavy pressure and the threat of new Israeli-Palestinian strife, Israel announced on Thursday that it would reopen a contested holy site in […]
Alongside the Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping centers, sits an ersatz version of what would be an authentic retail experience in most Persian Gulf cities: an Arab souk. If, in the evening, you stroll through this air-conditioned, hassle- and haggle-free caricature of a market, staffed mostly by smiling South Asians, you can amble out onto the shores of man-made Burj Khalifa Lake, named after […]
Look at computer models for the Venice-like Arabian Canal proposed for central Dubai, or the plans for the world’s biggest shopping mall, and it seems as if the collapse of the United Arab Emirates real estate market six years ago never happened. Citibank estimated earlier this year that there were already two thirds of a trillion dollars worth of construction projects underway in the UAE. That was […]
|By TAP Staff| International Monetary Fund is pleased to note the moderation in the prices of Dubai’s properties, a senior IMF official said. The IMF has previously warned that rapid rises in Dubai real estate prices, which earlier this year were in some cases a third higher than they were 12 months previously, could lead to another bubble and then a crash in the emirate. But Masood […]
|By Rashidul Bari| When I was writing Grameen Social Business Model, a book detailing the search for a weapon to use against poverty and terrorism, Malala Yousafzai played a key, but kind of secondary, role, a supporting character. But I kind of found, when I was writing another article, “Why do they Hate Obama?” that the force of Malala kept trying to take over, kept trying to […]
|By TAP Staff| Flydubai, Dubai’s low-cost carrier, is following its big brother Emirates airlines to debut a benchmark-sized sukuk issue for which it has mandated seven banks. “As part of the diversification of our financial strategy, we are in discussion with our advisers to explore the possibility of issuing a bond and we will continue to explore all financing options available to us,” flydubai said in a […]
