|By Arabian Post Staff| First Gulf Bank reported a lower Group net profit for the first half of this year, recording AED 2.64 billion for the six-month period ended 30 June 2016, compared to AED 2.87 billion for the first half of 2015 FGB, one of the leading banks in the UAE, reported second quarter 2016 Group revenue growth of 3%, while Q2’2016 net profits were recorded at AED […]
Solar Impulse 2 has taken off for the final time, but its crossing of the Saudi desert – managing no-fly zones, wind and heat – could make its last flight the most difficult. Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard, who took off from Cairo on Sunday and is expected to land in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, will be navigating a region riven by tensions and conflicts that prevented him […]
ABU DHABI // They may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but driverless cars could be key to reducing the number of accidents in the UAE, experts say. More than 90 per cent of accidents involve driver error and machines have been proven to drive more reliably than humans, said Lee Woodcock, global product director for intelligent mobility at the engineering consultancy Atkins. “The potential is […]
A worker climbs outside an Apple store in Hong Kong April 10, 2013. Reuters/Bobby Yip/File Photo HONG KONG Apple Inc found itself on the receiving end of a small, short-lived anti-U.S. protest this week in China, the tech firm’s biggest overseas market and a country where foreign firms have suffered damaging boycotts following international spats. A handful of unofficial Apple stores were picketed and social media users […]
The good news is that most of the people who buy the Apple Watch like the product. The bad news is that not as many are buying the device as last year. Although the Apple Watch is still the leader in the new world of smart watches, holding a 47 percent market share in 2016, that figure is down from the 72 percent share it held in […]
INTERNATIONAL. Even before the failed military coup, Turkey’s President Erdogan governed like a dictator who had the last word on all state matters. The botched coup was nothing but, as he put it, “a gift from God” to purge what is left of Turkey’s democracy and cleanse the army and judiciary in order to ensure the total subordination of all institutions to his whims. For Erdogan, being […]
The culmination of the world’s first tournament of automated computer security systems is set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 4. The Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) will be hosted by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the Paris Hotel, where seven security teams will put their automated systems to the test for a chance to win almost $4 million in prizes. “Today’s approach […]
UAE. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, today has released its Q2 2016 Dubai Real Estate Q2 Overview report that evaluates the impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union on the Dubai Real Estate Market across office, residential, retail and hotel sectors. Dubai caters to the most open real estate market within the region and as a result is more susceptible to […]
|By Matein Khalid|Brexit will have a profound impact on international banking. It was no coincidence that the shares of UK, German, Swiss, Italian, Spanish and other banks fell 20-25% in a single trading session on news of Brexit. Even American money center banks and investment banks with a large footprint in the City of London fell 8 – 10% on Friday, June 24, 2016. As Deutsche Bank […]
Elton John, Selena Gomez, Major Lazer and All Saints are among the raft of international stars to perform in the UAE before the year is out. The names have been revealed as part of the upcoming autumn season of concerts at Dubai’s new Autism Rocks Arena. John will perform at the purpose built venue, at Dubai Outlet Mall, on December 15. Appearing as part of the next […]
UAE. Implementing change strategies to reinvent the value proposition of the Islamic financial services industry is high on the agenda of industry leaders, according to Deloitte’s new whitepaper entitled “The catalysts for change: Strategic priorities in governance and regulation in Islamic Finance practice.” This necessity is fueled by recent global economic downturn coupled with geopolitical risks that have put more pressure on industry strategists and policymakers. The […]
A virtual map of Bryant Park is displayed on the screen as a man plays the augmented reality mobile game ”Pokemon Go” by Nintendo in New York City, U.S. July 11, 2016. Reuters/Mark Kauzlarich/File Photo MEXICO CITY A Mexican taxi driver has jumped on the Pokemon GO craze sweeping the world by driving smartphone-armed customers around in search of the augmented reality game’s target creatures. The mobile […]
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside are bringing their idea for a ‘Window to the Brain’ transparent skull implant closer to reality through the findings of two studies that are forthcoming in the journals Lasers in Surgery and Medicine and Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. The implant under development, which literally provides a ‘window to the brain,’ will allow doctors to deliver minimally invasive, laser-based treatments […]
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — For most of his adult life, Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi worked among the bearded enforcers of Saudi Arabia. He was a dedicated employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — known abroad as the religious police — serving with the front-line troops protecting the Islamic kingdom from Westernization, secularism and anything but the most conservative Islamic practices. […]
Negotiators had been talking for hours with the hunkered-down killer of five police officers in downtown Dallas when the man suddenly resumed firing with an assault rifle. Fearing additional casualties, the officers deployed a small, remote-controlled robot to carry an explosive device near shooter Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, which they then detonated, killing him. “We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place […]
It is said that good things come to those who wait. If so, then the European Union’s (EU) new Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy, more than a decade overdue, must be a very good thing. Actually, it is exactly what Europe needs. But the timing of its release — in the immediate aftermath of the United Kingdom’s (UK) vote to leave the EU — could […]
The author of ‘Apple Tree Yard’ on the Indonesian roots of her new novel ‘Black Water’ — and why she’s glad to see the back of ‘chicklit’ Louise Doughty was born in the East Midlands in 1963. She took an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia and has written eight novels, including her latest, “Black Water”, which was published by Faber last month. […]
When Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation, said he wanted the Lexus brand to be more sporty, this is what he had in mind. The Lexus GS models are rear-wheel-drive sports sedans. The entry GS 200t is a new model for 2016 that comes with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Our tester had the F Sport performance package that should ramp up the fun-to-drive meter even more. […]
KEFLAVIK, Iceland Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins. In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers […]
Scientists with NASA’s Dawn mission have identified permanently shadowed regions on the dwarf planet Ceres. Most of these areas likely have been cold enough to trap water ice for a billion years, suggesting that ice deposits could exist there now. “The conditions on Ceres are right for accumulating deposits of water ice,” said Norbert Schorghofer, a Dawn guest investigator at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Ceres […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approached, jihadist propagandists told their followers that it was a good time to kill people. The spokesman for the Islamic State said in late May that jihadists should “make it, with God’s permission, a month of pain for infidels everywhere.” Another extremist distributed a manual for using poisons, adding, in poor English: “Dont forget […]
ABU DHABI // The most academically gifted pupils in the country were rewarded for their hard work at a ceremony at the Emirates Palace hotel on Wednesday. One hundred and fifty high achievers from public schools received certificates from Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, at the Best Achievers Awarding Ceremony There was jubilation at the ceremony, organised by Abu Dhabi Education […]
|By Matein Khalid| David Cameron, Wall Street’s elite, Mutti Merkel, Obama, the Eurocrats of Brussels, the great and the good of the City and the IMF’s Lady Christine all got it so horribly wrong. I slept Thursday night with sterling at 1.50 on New York and awoke to see it trade at 1.34 on Friday, a 30 year low before the Plaza Accords. Britain has voted to […]
BERLIN/LAGOS When German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet launched Jumia in 2012 as a would-be African Amazon, it was optimistic that a rapidly expanding middle class would quickly shift from street markets to shopping online. Four years on, falling sales for sites like Jumia and slower growth from Nigeria to Russia and Brazil is casting doubt on Rocket Internet’s ambition to become the world’s biggest Internet company outside […]
