July 24, 2015 By LAILA LALAMI One afternoon last April, I stood in the doorway of my daughter’s room, watching her prepare for a big recital. She was going to perform with her middle-school orchestra in Santa Monica. She packed her violin, rosined her bow, put on a black dress and tamed her wild hair into a bun. ‘‘There,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m ready.’’ How lovely she looked, […]
Video | Kerry Defends Nuclear Deal to Senate Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Iran nuclear deal on Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meeting resistance from Republican members of the group. By JONATHAN WEISMAN and MICHAEL R. GORDON July 23, 2015 WASHINGTON — After four and a half hours of contentious questioning, three cabinet secretaries deployed Thursday by President Obama to the Senate to defend his nuclear deal with […]
UAE. Wermuth Asset Management has announced its expectation that, given the availability of solar power at $4 cents/kWh, a price with which crude oil could only compete if offered below $7/barrel, the ‘carbon bubble’ will burst and that it will have profound implications for the Middle East’s oil producing countries, global financial markets and the world economy. If COP21 leaders this year commit to a global 2⁰C […]
|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 […]
UAE. Dubai continued to see steady supply growth during the first six months of the year, as performance within the residential and hospitality markets began to soften after a three year period of sustained growth, according to the Q2 2015 Dubai MarketView by global property consulting firm CBRE. According to the CBRE report, Dubai’s rental market continues to outperform the transactional market in 2015, although residential leasing […]
A brief period of high profitability for the world’s oil refineries is likely to come to an end as quickly as it began, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. Weak crude oil and relatively high prices for gasoline, diesel and petrochemical feedstock have pushed up refining profits sharply over the last six months, helping oil companies cope with much lower profits from upstream production. In […]
The Follow-up Committee of the Initiatives of the UAE President has approved a number of housing and service schemes across the country. The projects, approved during a meeting on Wednesday, were ordered by President Sheikh Khalifa and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the state news agency Wam reported. Among the approvals was the Dh90 million […]
DUBAI // Mahra Mustafa has been surprised and delighted by the reaction from visitors to the UAE Pavilion at the Milan Expo. The Emirati actor, 9, who stars as Sara in The Family Tree – a short film on the UAE’s heritage being screened at the pavilion – has become an instantly recognisable face at the Expo. “At first I was scared because I didn’t know if […]
GCC construction … buoyant. GCC construction sector in major growth phase DUBAI, 1 days ago The GCC construction industry foresees growth for the next three years, encouraged by factors such as favourable macroeconomics, positive demographics, and rising tourism activities, said an industry expert. “Higher budget allocation towards construction sector, as part of the strategic vision of the member nations, lends an added push to the industry,” added […]
WASHINGTONSurging investment by Chinese companies in U.S. research labs is yielding a fast-growing trove of patents, part of a push to mine America for ideas to help China shift from being the world’s factory floor to a driver of innovation. Largely absent from American research hubs a decade ago, Chinese firms including Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp are now using U.S. researchers to create patents ranging from […]
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Thursday called for a radical transformation of politics, economics and individual lifestyles to confront environmental degradation and climate change, as his much-awaited papal encyclical blended a biting critique of consumerism and irresponsible development with a plea for swift and unified global action. The vision that Francis outlined in the 184-page encyclical is sweeping in ambition and scope: He described a relentless […]
Kashmir killings raise fears of new bloodletting. Full Article India’s patent regime should not change – Cipla CEO. Full Article India raises duties on some steel products to counter Chinese imports. Full Article Bandhan, India’s newest bank, to launch operations in August. Full Article Greenpeace India admits failures after staff claims of rape, sexual harassment. Full Article Hong Kong debates election reform plan with veto likely. Full Article Swiss FIFA inquiry investigates 53 […]
Video | Morsi Death Sentence Confirmed by Judge A judge in Egypt announced the confirmation of last month’s sentence of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK June 16, 2015 CAIRO — An Egyptian judge slammed the rule of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi as “a black night that lasted a whole year” and confirmed a death sentence against […]
Video | Orange’s Boss Meets With Netanyahu Stéphane Richard, the chief executive of Orange, the French telecom giant, tells Israel’s prime minister that he regrets the furor caused by his statements about doing business in the country. By JODI RUDOREN June 12, 2015 JERUSALEM — The chief executive of a French telecommunications company made an extraordinary personal pilgrimage on Friday to apologize to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, […]
UAE. Economic Insight: Middle East Q2 2015 is produced by Cebr, ICAEW’s partner and economic forecaster. Commissioned by ICAEW, the report provides a snapshot of the region’s economic performance. The report undertakes a quarterly review of the Middle East, focusing on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait), as well as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon […]
Al Hilal Bank opens new branch in Masdar City ABU DHABI, 6 days ago Al Hilal Bank has inaugurated its new brand in the Masdar City, a mixed-use project being developed in Abu Dhabi which is envisioned to emerge as a sustainable eco-city. The branch aims at highlighting Al Hilal Bank’s commitment to introducing products, services and facilities that are environmentally friendly and powered by state-of-the-art technology. […]
Renovations have started at a 9.5-acre compound in the West Bank that started as a church-run hospital in the 1950s and later became a hostel for travelers. By JODI RUDOREN June 9, 2015 NEAR EL AROUB REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — The old stone compound set amid Palestinian farmland between the cities of Bethlehem and Hebron has a relatively new fence. The compound, with eight buildings spread over 9.5 […]
Video | Libya: Wake Up, Benghazi! On June 25, 2014, Salwa Bugaighis was shot dead in her home by unknown militants, marking a new milestone in the country’s descent towards anarchy: the first female political assassination. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK June 7, 2015 Scores or perhaps hundreds of killings remain unsolved in Benghazi, Libya, since the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi nearly four years ago. But no victim has symbolized […]
Adams … master-planning is important for sustainable developments. Master-planning key to sustainable mixed-use projects DUBAI, 3 days ago The Middle East has a unique set of challenges and opportunities with regard to creating large, mixed-use developments, says Louise Adams, former country manager UAE at Aurecon, an engineering, planning, project management and consulting company. Adams describes the importance of investing in master-planning, some of the current opportunities and […]
By ISABEL KERSHNER June 4, 2015 JERUSALEM — A growing global pro-Palestinian movement to boycott Israel instantly created a national furor on Thursday after the top executive of Orange, a leading French telecommunications company, said he would withdraw from the Israeli market if he could. The Facebook page of an Israeli company, Partner Communications, which has a license to use the Orange brand, was filled with customer complaints demanding […]
The UAE has launched a comprehensive review of its environmental achievements in time for today’s World Environment Day. The UAE State of Environment Report 2015 was launched in the country’s pavilion at the Milan Expo yesterday by Dr Rashid bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water. Clean energy – led by Abu Dhabi company Masdar – sustainable transport, green architecture and efficient use of resources are among […]
Men stood on a building damaged during Hamas’s last war with Israel. Gaza’s unemployment rate has risen to 44 percent, the highest in the world. By DIAA HADID and MAJD AL WAHEIDI June 1, 2015 GAZA CITY — On a street here crammed with glittery clothing and electronic shops, Mahmoud Matar flipped through the receipt book for his appliance store, much of it blank: His lone sale that day was a $7 […]
Mosed Shaye Omar, 64, a naturalized American citizen since 1978, sued the State Department and Secretary John Kerry, claiming he was coerced into acknowledging that he had a name different from what was on his passport. By LIZ ROBBINS May 27, 2015 For nearly five hours on Jan. 21, 2013, in a windowless room at the United States Embassy in Sana, Yemen, an American citizen and Brooklyn grocery store […]
|By TAP Staff| Qatar currently has an estimated US$220 billion worth of projects in the pipeline. This new work is already positively impacting the interiors and fit-out market across all major sectors and there are no signs of this rapid growth slowing. The Qatar interiors and fit-out market had an estimated value over US$800 million during 2014, with some studies expecting the value to have doubled by […]
