The emirate of Abu Dhabi reintroduced a 5 percent cap on annual rent increases on Tuesday in an effort to protect tenants from unjustified hikes, after abolishing the cap three years ago. After 18 months of relatively stable conditions, real estate prices showed signs of declining in the three months to June 30 as low oil prices slowed Abu Dhabi’s economy, consultancy JLL said in July. “Rents […]
Investors are making a record bet on global bank shares following the US election, according to a new survey of institutional money managers that also highlights the risks to the sector if Donald Trump fails to deliver faster economic growth. The allocation that investors made to bank stocks this month climbed to a weighting of 31 per cent above their benchmarks, up from 25 per cent in […]
ERBIL, Iraq — The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that a United States airstrike had killed three Islamic State operatives who were involved in mounting terrorist attacks in Europe, including the deadly assault in Paris in November 2015. The three men were killed on Dec. 4 in an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State’s declared capital, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary. He described the men […]
Microsoft launched officially its latest chat bot, Zo.ai, along with a new external AI web site with information on its various AI-related projects. Credit: Microsoft Microsoft officials talked up the company’s momentum across its various AI projects and initiatives at its AI day in San Francisco on December 13. A week ago, word leaked that Microsoft was providing early access to users on Kik to Zo. Zo […]
By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON More than 100 employees of technology companies including Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and Salesforce pledged on Tuesday to not help U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration build a data registry to track people based on their religion or assist in mass deportations. Drawing comparisons to the Holocaust and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the employees […]
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and a number of other prominent figures among the world’s richest people are pledging a $1 billion investment fund for clean energy efforts. The new investment fund aims to help advance clean energy production, which in turn would help fight climate change and the negative impact it has on the environment. Breakthrough Energy Innovations The effort is a multiyear fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which […]
Low interest rates pose one of the biggest threats to the US economy and expose investors to the potential for heavy loses from a price shock across a range of markets, according to an independent arm of the US Treasury. The concerns are raised in the Office of Financial Research’s annual financial stability report to Congress, which concludes that threats to stability remain “in a medium range”. […]
Qualcomm said it will work with Google to combine Android Things, an Internet of things operating system, and its Snapdragon processor. The move could give Google a much larger ingredient brand play in the smart home, Internet of things and smart city deployments. If the collaboration is successful, Android will be embedded with the processors in the IoT food chain. Keep in mind that Qualcomm recently acquired […]
“If you look at the Lionel Messi of these times or the Diego Maradona of that time, I think the Messi of this time is 20 times better than the Maradona of that time,” van Gerwen said. (He was asked, for the sake of clarity, if he was Messi in this comparison of Argentine soccer players. “Yes,” he said. “Yes.”) Continue reading the main story Like Messi, […]
ABU DHABI // Security and economic and cultural integration will help the Arab world build a prosperous future, experts from the region said on Tuesday. They were speaking on the second day of the Fikr 15 conference, which is aimed at finding solutions to the risks, challenges and threats facing Middle East unity and identity. “The threats that face the security of the Arab world are external […]
The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) is reportedly planning to install pre-paid electricity meters for new subscribers. Company spokesman Abdullah Al Rakaf said the move was part of wider plans to cut electricity consumption, according to Saudi Gazette. Installing pre-paid meters in customers’ homes will enable them to control their electricity consumption by re-charging the meter according to monthly needs. SEC will be publishing a statement setting out […]
Google, Facebook and other online advertising businesses face strict new privacy rules from Brussels on the ways they can track people online. The new rules would compel websites and browsers, such as Google Chrome, to switch from a default of allowing users to opt out of online advertising to asking them to opt in to view adverts based on their browsing history, according to a leaked draft […]
Intuit’s TurboTax Online software is the bedrock of the company’s consumer tax product portfolio. During the 2016 tax season, Intuit sold 33.9 million TurboTax units, a growth of 12 percent from the previous year. But with Intuit’s latest move, the company is aiming to make TurboTax a year-round financial services product and ultimately a more steady source of corporate revenues. Specifically, the personal and small business financial […]
Russia’s rouble has cemented its position as the best-performing currency of the past three months, enjoying the benefits of a strong oil price at a time when the US appears to be tilting towards a more accommodating relationship with Vladimir Putin. A 2.3 per cent rise in the rouble’s value against the dollar on Monday was followed by a further half per cent gain during Tuesday trading. […]
Hamil Harris, who has been a staff writer at The Washington Post for more than two decades, is leaving the newsroom. The departure was announced on Tuesday in a memo by local editor Mike Semel, who called Harris “a presence at virtually every major news event in the Washington area for the past 24 years.” Harris covered the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11, anchored coverage of […]
Photo Families that fled violence in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo on Tuesday arriving in the Fardous area, where shooting was also reported. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images GENEVA — Pro-government forces retaking the eastern neighborhoods of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo killed at least 82 civilians on Monday, the United Nations estimated, in what one official called “a complete meltdown of humanity.” Zeid […]
Almost 3,500 individuals and companies in the Panama Papers are probable matches for suspected criminals including terrorists, cybercriminals and cigarette smugglers, according to a document seen by the Guardian. The analysis, which was carried out by Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, sheds more light on the breadth of criminal behaviour facilitated by tax havens around the world. “The main point here is that we can link […]
Wall Street looked set to open higher on Tuesday, as investors keep a close watch of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting where it is widely expected to raise interest rates for the second time since the financial crisis. A hike of 25 basis points in the Fed’s target range of 0.25-0.50 percent is priced in, but investors will be examining the Fed’s statement and economic forecasts for […]
Salesforce on Tuesday outlined LiveMessage, a conversational service available for Service Cloud that aims to connect consumers and enterprise via text messaging and apps. The gist of LiveMessage is that companies should be able to connect to customers and service them as a friend-to-friend interaction would occur via an app like Facebook Messenger. Salesforce acquired HeyWire in September for the underlying technology behind LiveMessage. Salesforce said LiveMessage […]
A new approach for analyzing big data has been developed that can drastically improve the ability to make accurate predictions about medicine, complex diseases, social science phenomena, and other issues. (via WSJ)
Demand for oil will outstrip supply in the next six months as long as Opec and countries outside the cartel can implement a deal signed over the weekend to lower output, according to one of the world’s leading energy forecasters. The International Energy Agency said the planned production cuts, which add up to 1.8m barrels a day, could reduce stockpiles by as much as 600,000 b/d over […]
Boeing Chinese hackers are targeting aviation systems in the quest for information and intellectual property which will boost the country’s competitiveness, security researchers say. Cyberattacks against the aviation industry are nothing new, but with the inclusion of Internet-capable devices at the basic level of embedded devices to in-flight Wi-Fi and connected aviation systems, there are more avenues than ever that threat actors can exploit. Successful attacks which […]
A powerful cyclone that hit India’s southeastern coast on Monday killed up to 10 people, according to India’s National Disaster Management Agency. The cyclone, packing winds of 74-80 miles per hour, with brief gusts measuring up to 86 miles per hour, is expected to weaken over the next 12 hours as it moves north, resulting in light rainfall in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, […]
The battle for eastern Aleppo will be over soon, but tens of thousands of Syrians there will find little peace. The victory for the government of President Bashar al-Assad will open another violent, disorienting chapter in their lives, and a dangerous one for the opposition. Soon, civilians and rebel fighters alike will either be punished or have to flee the city and join the many thousands of […]
