SAUDI ARABIA. A recent study released by Glowork, the leading organization for women employment in the region highlights female’s perceptions before graduation. A total of 2000 women from 10 universities Kingdom-wide were surveyed. There were some interesting statistics revealed as it was broken down by city. 49% of women in Riyadh expected to work in a supervisor or manager level when graduating, it was much higher in […]
ANTAKYA, Turkey — A Pentagon program to train moderate Syrian insurgents to fight the Islamic State has been vexed with problems of recruitment, screening, dismissals and desertions that have left only a tiny band of fighters ready to do battle. This tiny band, 54 in all, suffered perhaps the most destructive problem yet on Thursday: Its leader, deputy and at least five others were abducted in Syria, […]
United Airlines is the latest to fall victim to a data breach. The hackers stole flight manifests, which disclose information about passengers on the flight and their destinations. News reports are pointing fingers at hackers backed by China. Some are attributing the attacks to the same group that attacked health insurer Anthem and U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In February, Anthem informed millions of its customers […]
|By Matein Khalid|So Pearson PLC has sold the FT Group (with its flagship Financial Times newspaper) to Japan’s Nikkei Inc for $1.32 billion. Pearson will use the cash proceeds to increase its investment in education publishing businesses in the US and Canada, now 75% of revenues. This deal is a milestone in the history of newspaper publishing and my own life as an investor/financial journalist. I discovered […]
|TAP Special By K Raveendran| With the fuel subsidies issue having been settled, attention now shifts to the possibilities of introducing value added tax as another option to bolster the UAE’s financial resources. Starting August 1, 2015, special grade petrol across fuel stations in the UAE will cost Dh2.14 per litre, up 24.4 per cent from Dh1.72. The super grade will cost Dh2.25, up 22.9 per cent […]
INTERNATIONAL. The undisputed king of oil and gas is making some moves that could change the face of the global refining sector. In June 2015, Saudi Arabia pumped a record 10.564 million barrels a day, a record level. As if being the world’s biggest exporter of oil was not enough, the desert kingdom is now looking to conquer the refining sector as it has quickly become the […]
UAE. To preserve economic and social stability and continue with development plans, MENA governments are considering tax measures to broaden their revenue base and increase tax yields. The evolving tax landscape in the MENA region was discussed at the EY MENA Tax Conference held recently in London. The conference was attended by EY Tax specialists and senior finance and tax executives from major European companies with investments […]
TEHRAN — For Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter now on trial for espionage in Iran, the incident was extraordinary but still looked like another example of the difficulties in covering the country’s politics. On a spring day in March 2014, his wife and a female photographer were stopped in broad daylight in their car on a busy Tehran highway and taken into a van, where, friends […]
Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the Gulf’s only listed stock exchange, reported a 48 percent fall in second-quarter net profit on Monday as bourse turnover slumped. The firm, which runs securities trading in Dubai, made a net profit of 132.4 million dirhams ($36.05 million) in the three months to June 30, down from a net profit of 252.5 million dirhams in the year-ago period, a statement said. DFM’s […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai residential rents declined by 3% during the second quarter of 2015, according to the latest ADIB/MPM Properties Real Estate report. This comes amongst a surge in supply as 6,750 new residential units were delivered this quarter, taking the total Dubai residential stock to 479,000 units. The majority of the new supply was added along the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed road, with the International […]
DUBAI // A leading estate agent and property management company in Dubai has gone out of business with the loss of dozens of jobs. S K Real Estate ceased trading last Tuesday without warning to most of its 70 employees. The glass door to the company’s office on floor 11 of Concord Tower in Media City has been smashed. Staff at neighbouring businesses arrived at work yesterday to […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a striking admission, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said on Sunday that the country’s army faced a manpower shortage and had ceded some areas to insurgents in order to hold onto other regions deemed more important. Mr. Assad also acknowledged in a speech televised from Damascus, the Syrian capital, that many Syrians could not watch the address because of the lack of electricity […]
Pearson Plc is in talks to sell its half stake in the publisher of the 172-year-old Economist magazine, marking another step toward the former conglomerate’s transformation to an education company. The Economist is one of the assets that were excluded from London-based Pearson’s agreement this week to dispose of the FT Group to Japan’s Nikkei Inc. Pearson’s 50 percent holding could be valued at as much as […]
The bargain hunters who thronged Kumar Jain’s jewelry store in Mumbai as gold prices tumbled in 2013 are staying away for now. They’re holding off because they think this week’s collapse to the lowest price in five years has further to run, according to Jain. That’s a view shared with Goldman Sachs. “It hasn’t been anything like what happened two years ago,” Jain said, referring to the […]
A surge in shares of Amlak Finance since they returned to Dubai’s stock market last month has raised concerns about a new wave of unbridled speculation on one of the region’s biggest exchanges. The Islamic mortgage lender has soared about 150 percent since it restarted trading in early June after a six-year suspension due to debt problems. At its latest close of 2.52 dirhams, the stock is […]
A wounded soldier received treatment in January 2013, at an Egyptian hospital. The poor condition of medical and other public facilities in the country have been illustrated on Facebook pages. By KAREEM FAHIM and MERNA THOMAS July 24, 2015 CAIRO — When the prime minister of Egypt visited two Cairo hospitals last month, he said he was shocked by the disorder and decay he encountered. No one else was. Egyptian doctors […]
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, right, and Gen. Taleb Shegati al-Kenani, second from right, commander of Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service, reviewed maps at the joint operations center in Baghdad on Thursday. By HELENE COOPER July 23, 2015 BAGHDAD — Around 3,000 newly American-trained Iraqi troops, along with 500 trained Sunni tribal fighters, have been deployed to help in an expected government offensive to retake the Sunni stronghold of Ramadi […]
INTERNATIONAL. In my “Net Assessment of the World,” I argued that four major segments of the European and Asian landmass were in crisis: Europe, Russia, the Middle East (from the Levant to Iran) and China. Each crisis was different; each was at a different stage of development. Collectively the crises threatened to destabilize the Eurasian landmass, the Eastern Hemisphere, and potentially generate a global crisis. They do […]
The United Arab Emirates said it would let domestic fuel prices move more freely in a politically sensitive reform that could save the government billions of dollars and begin reducing the wealthy country’s love of gas-guzzling cars with big engines. Gasoline and diesel will be deregulated from Aug. 1 and a new pricing policy linked to global levels will be introduced, state news agency WAM quoted the […]
Apple Inc. shares tumbled, wiping out $32 billion in market value, after disappointing iPhone sales rekindled concerns over whether the company can keep making must-have products. Even though iPhone sales climbed 35 percent to 47.5 million units in the fiscal third quarter, the result fell short of the 48.8 million shipments projected by analysts. That, plus a revenue forecast for the current period that missed estimates, on […]
An Apple iPhone 6 is seen on display at the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. Reuters/Mike Segar Forget that iPhone unit sales were not as strong as many had expected; that the revenue forecast fell short of the average estimate, and that there was no clarity on Apple Watch sales. Analysts, for the most part, remain […]
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter gave a surprisingly upbeat assessment on Wednesday of American relations with Saudi Arabia, asserting that the kingdom welcomed the international nuclear deal reached with its regional rival, Iran. Mr. Carter, who visited Jidda and held his first meeting with King Salman, also said the Saudi monarch would visit the United States this fall and is committed to fighting […]
|By Matein Khalid| As a student of investing and the son of a painter/art historian, I cherish art as a visceral, spiritual value but am also intrigued by its historical linkage to banking and the financial markets. The happiest moments of my life have been spent in the Prado, Tate, Hermitage, Rijksmuseum, Ufizi, MOMA, Met, the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay and so […]
The IBM logo is seen outside the company’s offices in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv October 24, 2011. Reuters/Nir Elias International Business Machines Corp’s (IBM.N) revenue fell for the 13th consecutive quarter and missed the average analyst estimate, as it continued to shed low-margin businesses and the strong dollar weighed on Big Blue’s results. Shares of the world’s largest technology services company fell about 5 percent in […]
