By Crispian Balmer | ROME ROME When former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano tapped Matteo Renzi as prime minister in February 2014, he urged his younger colleague to change the constitution in order to make it easier to govern Italy. Early this year, Napolitano fretted that Renzi was taking the wrong approach in doing so. A referendum on the constitutional changes had been called. But instead of focusing […]
Image: Dropbox Dropbox on Tuesday announced the launch of Dropbox Mobile Offline Folders. The cloud-based file sharing service provider says the new premium feature will let users stay on task on their smartphones even when data and Wi-Fi is unavailable. With mobile offline folders, users can tag an entire folder to have its contents synced automatically to their phone or tablet, as opposed to marking each individual […]
NEW DELHI—Jayaram Jayalalithaa, the powerful chief minister of the state of Tamil Nadu whose fervent following was matched by few other Indian politicians, died late Monday after she failed to recover from cardiac arrest. The daughter of an actress in Tamil-language films, Ms. Jayalalithaa’s first career was in show business. She was featured in more than 100 movies, which catapulted her to fame before she turned to the political arena […]
Alaska Air Group Inc (ALK.N) is likely to get the U.S. Justice Department’s approval for its $2.6 billion acquisition of Virgin America Inc (VA.O) soon, a person close to the deal told Reuters. Separately, a government official said an announcement of the approval was scheduled for Tuesday, but neither source said what conditions would be put on the deal. Experts had previously said they expected Alaska to […]
The petrochemical sector helped carry Saudi Arabia’s stock market to a fresh one-year closing high on Tuesday after crude oil prices hit a 17-month peak. The main Saudi index added 0.7 percent to 7,155 points in extremely heavy turnover with gainers outnumbering losers 139 to 18. The index is now up 3.5 percent year-to-date. The petrochemical sector stayed strong; it has been contributing to the market’s positive […]
Several European companies in China have been unable to remit dividends abroad following new exchange controls, in the first confirmation that a complicated approval process for making payments out of China is having a wider impact than first indicated. The EU Chamber of Commerce in Beijing said the payment difficulties experienced by EU companies were “disruptive to business operations”. The measures, introduced on November 28, appear designed […]
Albaddad Capital has announced plans to expand its factory space in Dubai to 500,000 sq ft to enable growth in the production of temporary buildings and relief units. Albaddad said in a statement that it expects to triple its growth during the next five years to meet the Emirati market needs and customers’ requirements in the GCC, Africa and Middle East markets, in addition to expanding into […]
By Jonathan Cable | LONDON LONDON Britain will most likely leave the European Union having signed a bilateral trade agreement, according to a Reuters poll of economists on Tuesday that also suggested there remains little chance of the country slipping into recession. Since the June 23 decision to leave the EU, Britain’s economy has performed much better than had been previously feared. The Bank of England is […]
The UAE Armed Forces is now using two of the most advanced military vehicles, which have been both designed and manufactured in the Emirates. NIMR Automotive, a subsidiary of Emirates Defence Industries Company and which has a manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi, has introduced the N35 and the Ajban-class Special Operations Vehicle (SOV). Both were on display at the UAE’s National Day parade. The N35 is a […]
“We’ve found that [Facebook’s] Workplace has been an easy sell to people because they can use the same platform inside and outside the business,” says CIO Graham Benson. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto Rentalcars.com is one of the first companies to use Workplace by Facebook, the recently launched enterprise social media platform. The service has now been live for staff for two months, according to Graham Benson, CIO at […]
InfoComm MEA Opens Today as Region’s Leading A/V Event, Showcasing Holograms, Videoboards, and Audio and Lighting Systems DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – 6 December 2016 Holograms, massive videoboards, and state-of-the-art audio and lighting displays will be among the audiovisual innovations set to make Expo 2020 in Dubai the world’s most technologically advanced event. The UAE is one of the fastest-growing professional audiovisual markets in one of […]
Ouch. Shares in spread-betters have tanked after the Financial Conduct Authority announced a comprehensive series of proposals to tighten up on a business that it says is poorly understood by clients. Over 80 per cent of customers lose money on these financial-market bets, the FCA said. At pixel time: CMC Markets shares are down by over 30 per cent to 128.4p. Shares in IG Group are down […]
The vast majority of UAE-based CEOs are confident about prospects for their organisations over the next three years, according to the KPMG 2016 CEO Outlook report. The survey findings revealed that 76 percent of polled UAE-based CEOs – compared to 41 percent of global CEOs – believe that their business will change significantly over the next three years. The survey also found that UAE bosses believe that […]
Jason Dorfman, MIT CSAIL MIT researchers have unveiled a new way for consumers and businesses to take to the skies — by designing and developing their own drones. The program, created by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), is a prototype computer system (.PDF) which allows users to create a variety of drones. According to the lab, […]
TOKYO Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it will expand the development of its gasoline-hybrid technology over the next five years to speed up the introduction of lower-emission engines in the face of stricter global emissions standards. The announcement was the latest by the Japanese firm aimed at making cars “greener” as global automakers face tighter regulations in China, the United States and other regions that will […]
Lego is undertaking the biggest organisational shake-up in its 84-year history, in a move aimed at exploiting its toy brand more broadly after a decade of strong growth for the maker of plastic bricks. Under the Danish toymaker’s new structure, its current chief executive, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp — who rescued the brand from near financial collapse in 2004 — will become chairman, taking over from Niels Jacobsen. […]
The UAE Armed Forces on Monday said it has signed contracts worth AED763 million ($207.7 million) with seven of the region’s leading F&B suppliers on the opening day of the SIAL 2016 exhibition. Major-General Staff Pilot Ishaq Al Balushi, head of the Supply Department of the General Command of the Armed Forces, signed contracts with the Army Officers Club, Abu Dhabi National Hotel Company Middle East, Al […]
It’s been a bad year for newspapers. Money from print advertising is tanking. Layoffs have affected newsrooms large and small. And The President-elect isn’t shy about abusing journalists on Twitter. But today, just a few weeks before Christmas, the clouds parted a bit as New York Times CEO Mark Thompson spoke at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in Manhattan. He dispensed a couple of encouraging […]
Transport for NSW is looking to partner with industry to develop a series of pilots that will see the trial of on-demand public transport services. The state government has gone to tender, calling for pitches comprising “innovative models” for on-demand services that also offer customers personalised and flexible technology-enabled solutions. According to Transport for NSW customer services deputy secretary Tony Braxton-Smith, partnering with industry leaders would put […]
BANGKOK Floods in Thailand have killed 14 people and badly affected southern holiday islands as the country heads into the December-January high season for tourism, authorities said on Tuesday. A low pressure system has brought heavy rain to parts of the south including the islands of Samui and Pha Ngan in the Gulf of Thailand, and floods have also severed the rail link to the south and […]
The inaugural event will serve as a platform for industry wide knowledge exchange and discussions around legacy creation 06 December 2016 Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Dubai Business Events in collaboration with the BestCities Global Alliance and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), inaugurated the first ever BestCities Global Forum yesterday. Dubai is proud to host the first event of its kind organised by the global alliance, set […]
Time magazine said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won its online readers’ poll which contributes to its selection of its person of the year. Mr. Modi beat U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama to win 18% of the vote. He also beat Hillary Clinton, Mark Zuckerberg and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Mr. Modi last month unleashed chaos in the South Asian nation with a surprise […]
By Julia Love | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Sales of the Apple Watch to consumers set a record during the first week of holiday shopping, and the current quarter is on track to be the best ever for the product, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Tim Cook told Reuters. Responding to an email from Reuters, Cook said the gadget’s sell-through – a measure of how many units […]
ABU DHABI // As ties between Turkey and the UAE grow increasingly warm, Ankara’s new ambassador — formerly the most senior Middle East official in the Turkish foreign ministry — says his appointment shows his country is serious about improving bilateral ties. “That is my mission here,” Ambassador Can Dizdar, who began his tenure in October, told The National. “I want to increase the pace, and achieve […]
