DUBAI, 4 days ago Wasl Asset Management Group has signed a ‘cloud for customer’ agreement with SAP, the largest of its kind in the enterprise software market company’s UAE history. The real estate development and management organisation will be deploying SAP’s latest cloud solutions to transform its business and provide an even higher standard of service for its customers, said the statement. Hesham Al Qassim, chief executive […]
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 […]
Mandy Rice Davies photographed in the 1960’s Photo: Rex Features I was 13 when it all happened. Parents in those days wished their children wouldn’t read scandals, with the predictable result that, for the first time in our lives, we read the papers avidly. Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, the girls involved in the Profumo scandal of 1963, were of elder-sister age: the beehive hair, short shift-dresses and […]
|By K Raveendran| India has raised tax rates on petrol and diesel, taking advantage of falling oil prices to bolster government revenues, which will help Narendra Modi’s government to tough fiscal deficit targets. The move has disappointed even the most ardent Modi fans, who would have expected the government to take advantage of the falling oil prices to reduce retail prices of petrol and diesel. But a […]
When it comes to smartphone sales, the growth is still there — but it’s slowing. Smartphone sales growth will continue at nearly 10 percent each year through 2018, well off the pace of recent years, according to a new mobile phone forecast from International Data Corp. (IDC). Worldwide smartphone shipments will reach a total of nearly 1.3 billion units in 2014, an increase of 26.3 percent over […]
NEW DELHI: The government will decide on Saturday whether to press ahead with the Rs 13,000 crore mega project for the private sector to supply 56 medium transport aircraft to the IAF despite only a single bidder, the Tata-Airbus consortium, being in the fray. Though the defence acquisitions council (DAC) chaired by Manohar Parrikar will take the final decision, MoD sources on Tuesday said the “emerging […]
KOLKATA: State-run NTPC, the country’s biggest power generator and thermal coal consumer, plans to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in coal mines abroad to secure longterm fuel supplies for all its power plants, a senior executive said. This is a shift from the company’s earlier stance of seeking only minority stakes in such mines to ensure fuel for plants that operate only on imported […]
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Stunning disclosures by a member of the Bar Owners’ Association against State Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) president, K. M. Mani, has left the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in dire straits. The Government was plunged into a crisis when working president of the Bar Owners’ Association, Biju Ramesh, made the shocking revelation that Mani demanded a bribe of […]
SINGAPORE: India’s state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd aims to double its refining margins once it completes the expansion and upgrade of its Kochi refinery in southern India to process high sulphur crudes by 2016, a senior company official said. The refiner’s margins dropped to $3 a barrel this year, from $4.50 to $5 a barrel last year, but levels will increase by a about $3 to […]
Iran will sell its oil to Asia in November at the biggest discount in almost six years, matching cuts by Saudi Arabia as global crude benchmarks slide deeper into a bear market. State-run National Iranian Oil Co. cut official selling prices of its crude to buyers in Asia for November, two people with knowledge of the pricing decision said yesterday. The decrease came a week after Saudi […]
Fast food chain Dairy Queen is pushing out a security story and it’s anything but sweet. The international firm on Thursday confirmed cyber criminals hit systems at some of its DQ locations and one Orange Julius location in the United States. Dairy Queen blamed the Backoff point-of-sale malware that has been infiltrating retail systems around the country. This is the same malware that invaded Target’s systems last […]
Video | Fighting Rages in Syrian Border Town President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey warned that the Syrian border town of Kobani might fall to Islamist militants as fighting intensified between Kurdish rebels and Islamic State fighters. By KARAM SHOUMALI and ANNE BARNARD October 7, 2014 MURSITPINAR, Turkey — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said Tuesday that the Syrian border town of Kobani, under siege from Islamic State fighters, was […]
Dubai’s Emirates Airline, the world’s largest carrier by international traffic flown, has signed a deal with TAAG Angola Airlines to manage the carrier for 10 years and cooperate on “commercial opportunities” in Africa. The Gulf carrier, which also has a partnership agreement with Australia’s Qantas Airways, will code-share on cargo and passenger services, participate in each carrier’s frequent flier programs and coordinate ground handling, Emirates said in […]
|By TAP Staff| An exhibition of works inspired by artist Arabella Dorman, who lived and worked alongside local people and armed forces across Afghanistan, is set to open in London next month. Arabella is an artist intrigued by the human condition and her work documents people and places affected by conflict across the globe. Before the Dawn – An Artist’s Journey Through Afghanistanat La Galleria Pall Mall, London, […]
Apple is generating plenty of buzz for its iPhone 6 and Apple Watch models, but behind the scenes it’s the iOS 8 that’s gluing all the innovations together. The tech giant will start rolling out the new version of its mobile operating system on September 17 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users as a free update. Apple is billing iOS 8 as a simpler, faster […]
It’s not called the iWatch, but it’s an Apple watch all the same. In fact, it’s called the Apple Watch and the tech giant is billing it as its most personal device ever — chock full of “revolutionary” technologies with a “pioneering” user interface featuring a “Digital Crown” that lets you scroll, zoom and navigate. But what does this device look like beyond all the buzzwords? Well, […]
RAK Ceramics For RAK Ceramics, the world’s biggest manufacturer of tiles, 2014 may become one of the most transformative periods in the company’s 23-year history. Investment firm Samena Capital this year bought a 31% stake in the company that in the past two decades has become the flagship business of Ras al Khaimah, the most northern of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, […]
“We have to be honest, we weren’t able to finish it the way we wanted,” said Kassem Eid, a Syrian rebel who has joined the opposition in exile. By ANNE BARNARD August 29, 2014 BEIRUT, Lebanon — As he rode onto the base of the Fourth Division, the formidable Syrian Army unit that had been starving and bombarding his town near Damascus for months, Kassem Eid prepared for a […]
U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel An image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, taken from a video of a sermon he gave in July in Mosul. By TIM ARANGO and ERIC SCHMITT August 10, 2014 BAGHDAD — When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up […]
Video | Cease-Fires of the Gaza-Israel Conflict With the Israeli Army now moving into defensive positions, a historical look at how the fighting could end. By MARK LANDLER August 4, 2014 WASHINGTON — When the State Department condemned Israel’s strike on a United Nations school in Gaza on Sunday, saying it was “appalled” by this “disgraceful” act, it gave full vent to what has been weeks of mounting American […]
By ISABEL KERSHNER and FARES AKRAM July 31, 2014 JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday that he would not agree to any cease-fire proposal that does not allow the Israeli military to complete its mission of destroying Hamas’s tunnel network in Gaza. “So far we have neutralized tens of terror tunnels,” Mr. Netanyahu said in televised remarks at the start of a government meeting at military […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s president-elect Petro Poroshenko have discussed a ceasefire and other possible steps to de-escalate the crisis between their countries in a brief meeting in France, French officials said. The meeting hosted by French President Francois Hollande, before D-Day celebrations on Friday, took place as clashes continued in eastern Ukraine near a border crossing with Russia, killing at least 15 pro-Russian separatists overnight. Putin and […]
The property game: Help to Buy is also helping Londoners Photo: Justin Sutcliffe The Government is persistently defensive about its Help to Buy scheme, partly because the criticism has been so consistent. Two parts of the scheme have been rolled out by David Cameron in an attempt to improve the route to property ownership, or in his emotive words: “As prime minister I am not going to stand […]
|By TAP Staff| Trade in petrochemicals between Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states is set for robust growth in the coming years led by the development of the region’s rail and transport network, predicts the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA), the region’s longest-standing trade association. “An integrated railway network is an important catalyst in driving increased economic integration between GCC countries as it fosters the region’s development […]
