The Fitbit Blaze The wearables market is under constant scrutiny for its growth potential, but despite a few moments of uncertainty, 2016 turned out to be a blockbuster year for the category overall. According to the latest data from IDC, Wearable shipments globally hit an all-time high of 33.9 million units in Q4 2016, an increase of nearly 17 percent year over year. Shipments for the entire […]
Oman’s government has given itself breathing space from the pressure of financing a large budget deficit by selling $5 billion of international bonds, almost completing its entire foreign borrowing plan for 2017 in a single issue. Wednesday’s bond sale, in tranches of five, 10 and 30 years, was about double the size that most investors had expected and a huge amount for a country which returned to […]
Fact-finding mission or junket? Some lawmakers are bewildered that the groups that paid for their trips are now swept up in Turkey’s current political turmoil. “I can’t imagine what they would have wanted out of the North Dakota state Legislature,” said former North Dakota state Rep. Ben Hanson, a Democrat who went on a trip sponsored by a Gulen group in 2013 with six other lawmakers from […]
Beginning today, rank-and-file journalists at NPR are responsible for making sure appropriate financial disclosures are made in their stories — and they have the information to make that happen. Until now, the responsibility to disclose who funds NPR’s journalism was left to senior supervising producers. But in response to conflict-of-interest questions raised by NPR’s coverage of the Iran deal (a review found no journalistic impropriety), the public radio […]
By Yashaswini Swamynathan U.S. stocks looked set to climb further on Thursday after a record day on Wednesday, as strong economic data added to the optimism about the U.S. economy. Wall Street’s main indexes rallied on Wednesday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sailed past the 21,000 mark, boosted by President Donald Trump’s more measured tone in a speech to Congress and as bank stocks surged on […]
Jeff Sessions, the US attorney-general, failed to disclose during his confirmation hearings that he twice met the Russian ambassador while acting as a close adviser to Donald Trump during last year’s presidential campaign. Mr Sessions met Sergey Kislyak on September 8 in the then senator’s private office in the US Capitol building, after having spoken with him briefly two months earlier at an event sponsored by the […]
Image: Nv/EPA/REX/Shutterstock By Manish Singh2017-03-02 07:24:14 -0500 India’s major IT firms have long required their employees to give a three-month, “non-negotiable” notice before leaving the company, but they could be soon forced to change that. Fed-up IT professionals from across India have reached out to the government, complaining that it is “unrealistic” for anyone to plan that far ahead. Over 28,000 professionals have signed a petition, […]
Inside the $60m yacht at the Dubai Int'l Boat Show Source link
Cars are on their way to becoming ‘mobile phones on wheels’ The car of the future will let you pay for petrol or parking directly from your vehicle and receive traffic alerts and restaurant recommendations from your onboard digital assistant. Connected cars—or “mobile phones on wheels”—will be able to do those things and more, including communicate with each other on the road and with the infrastructure around […]
BERLIN Continental (CONG.DE) expects a possible tie-up between PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) and General Motors’ (GM.N) Opel division would boost its business, its chief executive said. “Opportunities emerge because platforms will be standardized and higher and more interesting volumes will arise” for suppliers, CEO Elmar Degenhart said during a conference call after the automotive supplier published results on Thursday. Separately, Continental said it planned to raise prices […]
Middle East fund managers have turned more bullish towards Saudi Arabian equities on hopes that corporate earnings may finally have bottomed out after a slide due to low oil prices, a monthly Reuters poll found. The poll of 13 leading fund managers, conducted over the past week, also found they had become very bearish on Qatari and Egyptian shares. The poll found 62 percent of managers expect […]
March 2, 2017 by: Nic Fildes, Telecoms Correspondent Deutsche Telekom has taken a €2.2bn charge on its investment in BT, pushing the German group to a fourth-quarter loss in 2016. Europe’s largest telecoms company blamed the Brexit vote, a decline in the value of sterling and the collapse in BT’s share price for the write-off. It holds a 12 per cent stake in BT which has been […]
On Wednesday, Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Commission released a “White Paper On the Future Of Europe” which comes at a time of extensive tensions with the departing UK, and which lays out what Juncker believe are the “main challenges and opportunities for Europe inthe coming decade.” It presents five scenarios for how the Union couldevolve by 2025 depending on how it chooses to respond. The paper comes as […]
By John Ruwitch | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI The fortunes of the richest 100 members of China’s parliament and its advisory body – all dollar billionaires – grew about 64 percent in the four years since Xi Jinping rose to power, according to data from an organisation tracking wealth in China. Xi has overseen a crackdown on corruption and decadence, and made the fight against poverty a top priority […]
Snap Inc, the parent company of photo-sharing app Snapchat, announced on Wednesday evening that 200 million shares would be sold for $17 a piece when it starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday under the ticker symbol SNAP. The social media giant will sell 145 million of those shares — allowing it to raise more than $2.4 billion — while executives and early […]
Former senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada’s deputy chief of staff who is at large for plunder over the pork barrel scam was dismissed and perpetually barred from public office by the Ombudsman. In a statement on Thursday, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said she has ordered the dismissal from service of Pauline Labayen and 13 others who were found guilty of grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of […]
Craig Newmark, the entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded Craigslist, announced on Wednesday a $1 million gift to ProPublica. The gift will “allow ProPublica to deploy resources and address opportunities, including adding staff, where they are most needed over a wide range of issues in the public interest,” according to an announcement from the investigative nonprofit. “A trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy,” Newmark said in […]
Bin Shafar: “Empower’s annual agenda has many initiatives that target the whole society” Dubai, UAE, 2 March 2017: Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, has been awarded the Dubai Chamber CSR Label for the third consecutive year, in recognition of the company’s social initiatives which seek to raise social and environmental awareness among its employees, clients and the whole society. […]
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Wednesday landed at a military airbase in the capital of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, to kick off the longest leg of a month-long trip across Asia. The visit is the first by a Saudi monarch in nearly five decades and will see the two nations sign a pact to combat terrorism, according to the Saudi envoy to Indonesia. Secular Indonesia […]
BRUSSELS Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, raised its forecast for savings from its near $100 billion takeover of SABMiller after weaker than expected earnings as beer sales suffered in Brazil. The company, now more than double the size of nearest rival Heineken, increased its cost savings and synergy target to $2.8 billion from $2.45 billion. This includes $1.05 billion that SABMiller had previously announced before the […]
SHARJAH // Heavy fog and low visibility worsened usual rush hour traffic across the country on Thursday. Bumper-to-bumper traffic was reported on Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road from Sharjah ring road to Mirdif in Dubai. Al Ittihad Street in the direction of Dubai was also congested following an accident near Al Taawun Roundabout, adding further delays to motorists. In Dubai, heavy delays were reported by Dubai Police […]
SEOUL Isolated North Korea is developing sophisticated tools to digitally spy on its citizens, who are increasingly using mobile devices to connect to each other, a U.S. government-funded report released on Wednesday says. The report, “Compromising Connectivity”, says North Korea has allowed the growing use of mobile phones and domestic internet access in return for the detailed information the network feeds Pyongyang’s surveillance state. “By giving citizens […]
Social media conversation about ride-hailing app Uber is on the decline in the Middle East, while its local competitor Careem is gaining pace, according to a new report. US-based Crimson Hexagon, a social media analytics company, on Wednesday said in its “The Middle East Consumer Trends” report that Careem is gaining traction over Uber because it is perceived as a “local” brand as regional consumers now prefer […]
Having warned that “everything will grind to a halt on March 5th” due to the under-appreciated debt-ceiling debacle that looms over Washington, and exclaiming that “what is going on today is complete insanity,” former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman is rapidly losing faith that anything can be done… “I’ve thrown in the towel because he’s not paying attention and he’s not learning anything and he’s making ridiculous […]
