Dubai, 1st March, 2017 www.AWOK.com, one of the leading online shopping destinations in the UAE- has released some of the online shopping trends in the region in the past one year. With e-commerce being one of the strongest growing businesses in the UAE, the sector has seen some very interesting trends. Males have been highlighted as the predominant force behind ‘click and buy’; representing an overwhelming 73% […]
North Korea is evading international sanctions with a sophisticated network of overseas companies, enabled partly by its continued access to the international banking system, says a forthcoming United Nations report seen by Reuters. North Korea is under heavy U.N. sanctions and a strict arms embargo designed to impede the development of its banned nuclear and missile programmes. The U.N. panel of experts, which produced the 100-page draft […]
“What’s up with the dollar?” has been the recurring question for investors lately as the reserve currency has slipped from a 14-year high set at the start of January. The answer may lie in the link between the dollar and real yields, a proxy for how investors in the bond market view prospects for stronger economic growth and the normalisation of interest rates. Whereas nominal yields give […]
Conceived by legendary Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz as a single novel of about 1,500 pages, The Cairo Trilogy is a timeless work of modern Arab literature, with themes, characters and ideas that are familiar and ring true almost 60 years after it was published. “The Cairo Trilogy is a work on a par with Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks,” says Dr Rasheed El […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police identified a senior official in the North Korean embassy on Wednesday as a suspect in the murder of Kim Jong Nam, and said another was linked to North Korea’s state airline. Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said both suspects are still in Malaysia and have been called in for questioning. He said North Korean diplomat held the rank of second secretary at the […]
After two days of questioning, Ramon Fonseca Mora and Jurgen Mossack were detained by prosecutors in Panama on 9 February. The pair have been denied bail as they have been deemed flight risks. They are being held as part of a probe into corruption and bribery allegations involving Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, which has admitted paying $1bn (£800m, €943m) in bribes to obtain contracts in 12 […]
By Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday scheduled oral arguments in a major dispute on transgender rights for March 28, when the U.S. Senate is set to be in the midst of a political fight over President Donald Trump’s nominee to a vacant seat on the bench. By March, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is likely to be deliberating on whether to approve […]
A prestigious association of medical professionals in Great Britain has urged its staff to avoid the use of the term “expectant mother” to avoid offending transgender and intersex patients. Published late last year and found inside a 14-page booklet, the British Medical Association’s guidelines instead recommend the use of “pregnant people.” Inclusive Language The guidance on inclusive language, in the subsection “pregnancy and maternity,” states that gender inequality […]
Smartwatches aren’t the easiest things to control, with their small screens and owner’t bulky fingers. Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have invented new ways to interact that provide a little more control. Among their enhancements using LG and Sony watches: Scrolling through apps running your fingers along the watch band Launching eight smartwatch apps by tapping key points on the watch case (or bezel) Rejecting phone calls […]
By scanning 66 million tweets linked to nearly 1,400 real-world events, researchers have built a language model that identifies words and phrases that lead to strong or weak perceived levels of credibility on Twitter. Their findings suggest that the words of millions of people on social media have considerable information about an event’s credibility — even when an event is still ongoing. (via WSJ)
[Most recent updates: January 19, 2017] As we enter 2017, Windows 10 is approaching its second birthday. In keeping with the operating system’s “Windows as a service” design philosophy, Windows 10 users will soon receive a third major update. That’s an unprecedented rate of change, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to upgrades that arrive every three years or so. If you have questions about installing (or reinstalling) […]
Kraft is still a very hands-on owner, but three of his sons have taken on greater responsibilities with the Patriots and the family’s portfolio of company investments, including a Major League Soccer team, the New England Revolution. More and more, Kraft said, he is focusing on strategizing and bringing people together. Like Arabs and Jews. He has sought to broker Middle East conciliation through sports and investments, […]
This week, BuzzFeed roiled the media world when editors published a 35-page dossier containing explosive and unverified accusations against President-elect Donald Trump. Shortly after, Trump blasted BuzzFeed in his first press conference since the election, calling the company “a failing pile of garbage.” But does he have grounds to take his grievance from the briefing room to the courtroom? Legal experts say he’d have a tough case. […]
By Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON In one of his final acts before leaving office, President Barack Obama on Tuesday commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst behind the biggest breach of classified materials in U.S. history, the White House said. Just last Thursday, anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the recipient of materials from Manning, tweeted that its founder Julian […]
By Stephen Kalin | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq As Iraqi government forces advanced towards his eastern Mosul neighbourhood in November, a group of Islamic State militants stormed Abu Rami’s home, put a gun to his head and told him and his family to get out immediately. The militants, including a local man whose name he knew, brought with them a bearded comrade clutching a sniper rifle whom […]
International investigators have said for the first time that they suspect President Bashar al-Assad and his brother are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, according to a document seen by Reuters. A joint inquiry for the United Nations and global watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had previously identified only military units and did not name any commanders […]
Scientists have developed a microscope that can chemically identify individual micron-sized particles. The new approach could one day be used in airports or other high-security venues as a highly sensitive and low-cost way to rapidly screen people. (via WSJ)
Shaan Taseer, the son of a prominent Pakistani politician assassinated over blasphemy allegations, is himself now the target of a police case and a fatwa calling for his killing after he recorded a Christmas message criticizing the country’s blasphemy law. Mr. Taseer, a human-rights activist, was condemned in the religious edict by an Islamic group from the country’s mainstream religious tradition, after he recorded the message for […]
Recently, there has been an increase in anti-Semitic statements at the United Nations. Ambassadors have used its forums to accuse Israel of everything from harvesting the organs of slain terrorists to committing a “final solution” against the Palestinian people. In one case, a United Nations under secretary general has made coded comparisons of Israel’s actions to those of the Nazis during the Holocaust (a common anti-Semitic trope). […]
BLOOVO.COM identifies key areas of regulatory focus to help SMEs take on job creation and national economic expansion role Dubai December 20th, 2016 With the oil price slump creating a USD 275 billion export shortfall for GCC countries, regional governments are prioritising economic diversification. Accelerating SME sector growth is an integral element of this economic strategy, says a new report by WWW.BLOOVO.COM . www.BLOOVO.COM’s research shows that SMEs […]
The evidential burden for cases brought under proposed changes to the Privacy Act — that criminalise the intentional re-identification and disclosure of de-identified Commonwealth datasets — would be reversed, such that defendants would need to prove their innocence. “The defendant entity or agency bears the evidential burden for each of these exceptions, which reverses the criminal law principle that the prosecution must prove every element of the […]
Our round-up of the week’s best comment and analysis from the Financial Times focuses on expectations of a Trump-presidency stimulus and the danger of complacency. The selection is taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, written by industry contributors and FT commentators. Wall Street might be too complacent about Donald Trump’s corporate tax stimulus and are not pricing in an upsurge in volatility, argues the […]
New cancer therapies harness the immune system to fight tumors. One of the main principles behind these therapies is to find out precisely which molecules on cancer cells trigger an immune response. A team of researchers has, for the first time, identified suitable protein structures directly from patients’ tumor cells. The procedure therefore opens up new possibilities for individualized targeted cancer treatments. (via WSJ)
Almost 3,500 individuals and companies in the Panama Papers are probable matches for suspected criminals including terrorists, cybercriminals and cigarette smugglers, according to a document seen by the Guardian. The analysis, which was carried out by Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, sheds more light on the breadth of criminal behaviour facilitated by tax havens around the world. “The main point here is that we can link […]
