Saudi Arabia may increase its domestic gasoline prices by 30 percent from July, industry sources said, part of a reform plan by the world’s top oil exporter to align its fuel prices with global benchmark levels. In December 2015 the kingdom raised the price of 95 octane gasoline to 0.90 riyal ($0.24) per litre from 0.60 riyal. However, that still kept Saudi Arabia among the countries with […]
Arto Nummela, Chief Executive Officer at HMD Global, shows the new re-launched Nokia 3310 phone, ahead of Monday’s opening of the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017. Finland-based HMD Global is re-launching the simple Nokia 3310 model along with unveiling three new devices at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Samsung’s product showcase Sunday is notable for what’s missing: […]
27 February 2017 Dubai, UAE: The global food industry needs to make fundamental shifts in its operations to advance food safety worldwide, the Global Halal Industry Platform held in Dubai today has heard. The Platform, organised by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Meteorogy (ESMA) and part of the educational programme of Gulfood, the world’s largest annual food event running at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) until […]
LONDON The threat of a new Scottish independence referendum is creating unnecessary uncertainty and division, a government spokesman said on Monday, responding to media reports that Scottish nationalists were preparing to demand one. “The question is not whether there could be a second referendum, it is whether there should be one – and the clear answer to that is no,” the spokesman said. “The decision to remain […]
Telstra and Ericsson have announced that they will be launching an LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B) network across the country by 2018 using 3GPP standards. The network, announced during Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Monday morning, will be progressively deployed starting in 2017. As part of the rollout, Ericsson and Expway are working to implement multicast operation on demand (MooD) technology — which will shift customers between unicast […]
LONDON/FRANKFURT The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) has all but ended a planned merger with Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) to create Europe’s biggest stock exchange by ruling out meeting a European antitrust demand, saying it has strong prospects alone. In a bid to create a European trading powerhouse that would better compete against U.S. rivals making inroads on their home turf, the two exchanges struck a 29 billion euro […]
· Phase 3 of MAG 5 Boulevard launched in response to huge demand for luxury mid-range units at the community · Dubai South’s strategic location a major factor driving demand, alongside the project’s convenient payment plan and state-of-the-art design 27 February 2017 MAG 5 Property Development (MAG 5 PD), the leading property developer of luxury mid-range developments and pioneering affordable housing initiatives, has launched MAG 5; […]
Submitted by Alex Gorka via The Strategic Culture Foundation, The rifts within the EU continue to widen as Poland and Hungary join together in opposition to the EU bureaucracy. Soon after Poland’s ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in October 2015, the Polish parliament passed a law allowing the government to appoint the judges of its choosing to the highest court and not recognize […]
By Stephanie Nebehay and John Irish | GENEVA GENEVA Syrian activists called on Sunday for the Assad government to engage in serious talks on political transition and for the United Nations to strengthen the fragile ceasefire as violence engulfed parts of the country. U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said a militant attack in Homs on Saturday was a deliberate attempt to wreck the Geneva peace talks, while […]
In the previous episode of the currency wars, a few years ago, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate was in the spotlight. This has now completely disappeared to the background and whilst the countries of the Eurozone must be pretty happy with the weak currency (which boosts the export and increases the demand for domestically produced goods), the United States are less than happy as it weakens the position […]
By Eric Auchard | BARCELONA BARCELONA Nokia (NOKIA.HE) sees demand for higher speed 4G network equipment starting to recover this year, led by Japan, the company’s chief executive Rajeev Suri said on Sunday as he announced a series of contracts with telecom operators. Speaking at a news conference ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Suri also predicted a new wave of industry consolidation among telecom […]
MOSCOW Thousands of Russians marched through the centre of Moscow on Sunday to honour opposition leader Boris Nemtsov two years after he was gunned down near the Kremlin walls, and to call for further investigations into his killing. The 55-year-old Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin late in the evening of […]
Telstra and Ericsson have announced that they will be deploying a Cat M1 Internet of Things (IoT) network across the country, with trials already under way in Melbourne and Tasmania. The announcement, made at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Sunday, is in partnership with device providers Sierra Wireless, Altair, and Bosch. One of the trials has seen them collect data from sensors at Pooley Wines […]
o Food consumption in the GCC to expand at a 4.2 per cent from 48.1 million MT in 2016 to 59.2 million MT in 2021 o Consumers spending Dh250 worth of Prestige cookware/kitchenware products is guaranteed of winning something back! 26 February 2017o Food import bill is expected to have crossed US29.17 billion in 2016 o UAE’s packaged food import bill reached US$4.3 billion in […]
Rangoon Director: Vishal Bharadwaj Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor Four stars Not that a Kangana Ranaut movie needs any prepublicity stunts – the leading lady’s presence guarantees a peak in interest – but her recent interview and verbal sparring with Karan Johar on Koffee with Karan ensured that even those of us only half-interested in her latest Bollywood project, Rangoon, would at least think […]
GENEVA A United Nations peace envoy said a militant attack in Syria on Saturday was a deliberate attempt to wreck peace talks in Geneva, while the warring sides traded blame and appeared no closer to actual negotiations. Suicide bombers stormed two Syrian security offices in Homs, killing dozens with gunfire and explosions including the head of military security, prompting airstrikes against the last rebel-held enclave in the […]
By Tom Miles and Yara Abi Nader | GENEVA GENEVA Syria’s opposition is impatient for face-to-face peace talks in Geneva, but things could fall apart if Russia does not pressure President Bashar al-Assad on holding talks and push it to abide by a ceasefire, an opposition member said on Saturday. The United Nations opened the peace talks with a symbolic ceremony on Thursday, attended by representatives of […]
Political opponents of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday turned a traditional celebration of a “People Power” uprising against dictatorship three decades ago into a protest march condemning his war on drugs. The small political opposition and left-wing activists held separate commemorative events at the historic highway where more than a million Filipinos gathered in 1986, forcing Ferdinand Marcos and his family to flee to Hawaii after […]
Developer BioWare’s last release was Dragon Age: Inquisition and the title succeeded in satisfying most fans of the Dragon Age series. The company is well known for making role playing games which are not only entertaining, but also tend to create some very well drawn out characters. The developer’s next game Mass Effect: Andromeda is slated to be released in the U.S. on March 21 while a multiplayer beta of the game could launch before […]
Suppliers to Tesla and other electric carmakers are scrambling to secure shipments of the key battery material cobalt after a group of hedge funds amassed a large stockpile of the scarce metal. In a bold wager on higher prices, half a dozen funds, including Swiss-based Pala Investments and China’s Shanghai Chaos, have purchased and stored an estimated 6,000 tonnes of cobalt, worth as much as $280m, according […]
Donald Trump delivered a vehement and sometimes contradictory screed against the press during his appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, calling media reports “fake news” while expressing his support for the First Amendment. During the speech, which came on the penultimate day of the CPAC conference, Trump was especially critical of news organizations that use anonymous sources, saying that reporters “shouldn’t be allowed to use […]
By Venus Wu and Greg Torode | HONG KONG HONG KONG Developments in Hong Kong have affected confidence in a system of government intended to ensure the Chinese-ruled city’s autonomy, though its rule of law remained robust “despite challenges”, former colonial power Britain said on Friday. Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 with guarantees it would retain extensive autonomy, an independent legal system and […]
DUBAI // “It’s New Year’s Eve all over again … but the real way we should have celebrated,” declared Mariah Carey, launching into Emotions at Dubai Jazz Festival — and tackling the elephant in the room head-on. Thursday’s concert was Carey’s first public gig since that over-reported, televised “meltdown” on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, in which she embarrassingly struggled through the same song, and was […]
By By Rozanna Latiff and Emily Chow, Reuters Feb 24, 2017 at 7:56 pm | Print View KUALA LUMPUR — VX nerve agent, a chemical the United Nations classifies as a weapon of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a bizarre murder in Malaysia last week, police said on Friday. Kim Jong Nam was killed on […]
