Cheat days have become a modern phenomenon. A quick scan of social media hashtags such as #cheatday and #cheatmeal, yields over a million photos of freakshakes, oozing cheese burgers and deep fried chicken wings. A few hundred more are posted each weekend in a declaration of freedom from the dieting drudgery suffered during the week. Celebrities, who know a thing or two about restrictive diets, have also […]
PARIS Centrist Emmanuel Macron would be slightly ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of France’s presidential election and then go on to beat her comfortably in the second-round run-off, an Odoxa poll showed on Sunday. The former economy minister would win 26.5 percent of the vote in the April 23 first round. This was down 0.5 percent from a previous Odoxa poll […]
PARIS Eleven people have received the 500 endorsements from elected officials needed in order to run in the first round of the French presidential elections on April 23. The top two will qualify for a run-off on May 7. The Constitutional Council announced the final list on Saturday. NATALIE ARTHAUD, 46, WORKERS’ STRUGGLE Economics professor who runs for the far-left Trotskyist party. Wants the voice of the […]
Brazil’s economy will emerge this quarter from its deepest recession on record and reach a growth rate of up to 3 per cent by the final three months of the year, central bank chief Ilan Goldfajn has said. The recovery would be driven by a combination of easier monetary policy as inflation falls to levels not seen since January 2010, economic reforms that are boosting investor confidence […]
The GCC mobile phone market returned to growth in the final quarter of 2016 after suffering three consecutive quarter-on-quarter declines, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). The global technology research and consulting firm said the region saw the shipment of 5.98 million units in Q4, up 7.7 percent on the previous quarter. When viewed year on year, however, the shipment numbers for Q4 were still down […]
Bob Diamond, the former Barclays chief executive, has teamed up with the investment vehicle of the Qatari royal family to launch a bid for Panmure Gordon, the lossmaking stock broker and investment bank. Panmure, whose name dates back more than 140 years, is suffering like many mid-cap brokers from a number of structural challenges, including increased regulation, fewer deals and lower corporate retainers. The deal may be […]
As the UAE continues to evolve, Standard Chartered is at the forefront of innovative financial services. By investing heavily in the digital space, not only does Standard Chartered future-proof investments, but continue to explore new and exciting opportunities, as Julian Wynter, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered UAE, explains. What macro-economic fundamentals make the UAE such a good market for Standard Chartered? For us, the UAE continues […]
By Simon Carraud and Brian Love | PARIS PARIS Francois Fillon’s troubled election campaign suffered yet another blow on Tuesday when magistrates put him under formal investigation on suspicion of embezzling state funds, a first for a presidential candidate in France. Election graphic – here With less than six weeks to go until the first round of voting, Fillon has been unable to draw a line under […]
Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org, Not long ago, a democratizing Turkey, with the second-largest army in NATO, appeared on track to join the European Union. That’s not likely now, or perhaps ever. Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Angela Merkel’s Germany to Hitler’s, said the Netherlands was full of “Nazi remnants” and “fascists,” and suggested the Dutch ambassador go home. What precipitated Erdogan’s outbursts? City […]
Ransomware has become one of the most notorious threats on the web. Image: iStock No wonder ransomware has become one of the biggest menaces on the web; a third of organisations across the globe which became infected by the file-encrypting malware in the past 12 months gave into the demands of hackers in order to regain access to their locked data. With attacks of this kind being […]
PARIS Francois Fillon’s party has apologised for tweeting a caricature of Emmanuel Macron, his main rival in the race to be France’s next president, that Fillon himself admitted was anti-Semitic. Fillon’s conservative The Republicans tweeted an image of the independent centrist Macron with a hooked nose, wearing a top hat and carrying a red sickle with which he was cutting a cigar. The image resembled anti-Semitic propaganda […]
DUBAI // Health and nutrition are key to pedalling to a fitter future, experts told UAE Cycling Girls. Crossfit coach Dalal Hamza spoke to the all-female cycling group recently after they completed a weekend ride at the Al Qudra track. She cautioned against following diets that cut out vital foods. “Some people conflate food with fat, and it is important to talk about this. All people think […]
PARIS France’s far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon said on Saturday he had secured the 500 endorsements from elected officials needed in order to run in the election. “We have our 500 sponsors!” Melenchon tweeted. The European parliamentarian, whose “Indomitable France” grouping is backed by the country’s Communist party, had reached 432 signed endorsements from lawmakers and mayors on Friday, according to France’s constitutional court. Former Economy Minister […]
Burkhard Varnholt last week paid €14 for lunch for two people at a smart restaurant in Berlin. “The euro is so cheap,” says Credit Suisse’s deputy chief investment officer. It is cheap because of one factor: Marine Le Pen. In normal circumstances, the euro would be trading a lot higher on the back of the eurozone’s record current account surplus, an unemployment rate at its lowest in […]
Saudi Arabian corporate earnings may finally have bottomed out after two years of falls due to low oil prices and the government austerity which followed, with the petrochemicals sector leading signs of recovery. But a sharp rebound is unlikely for companies in the Middle East’s biggest economy as further austerity looms and they are competing for customers who are no longer flush with cash. Analysts say stronger […]
By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asian stocks edged up and the dollar rose to 1-1/2-month highs versus the yen on Friday, ahead of the closely-watched U.S. non-farm payrolls report due later in the day. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2 percent, taking cues from a modest bounce in Wall Street overnight. Japan’s Nikkei climbed more than 1 percent on the back of […]
By Leigh Thomas and Sudip Kar-Gupta | PARIS PARIS Centrist Emmanuel Macron saw his position as favourite to win France’s presidential election boosted on Thursday in two polls, with one showing him ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of the two-stage contest. A monthly Cevipof survey, considered the most authoritative because it has a far bigger sample size than most polls, put […]
|By Matein Khalid| Janet Yellen confirmed the Wall Street consensus that the Federal Reserve will raise its overnight borrowing (Fed Funds) rate at the March FOMC. Wage growth, inflation, crude oil, asset prices, economic data momentum and Trump’s fiscal stimulus all reinforce the dual mandate logic of a rate hike. Only a really awful February non-farm payroll shock (consensus is 200,000 jobs) will avert a rate hike […]
GoldenEye ransomware targets human resources departments because they’re used to opening emails and attachments from unknown sources. Image: Ali Donzanti What is a ransomware attack? Cybercriminals didn’t use to be so obvious. If hackers infiltrated your corporate network, they would do everything possible to avoid detection. It was in their best interests not to alert a victim that they’d fallen victim to cybercrime. But now, if you […]
Few institutions embodied the eurozone crisis more clearly than Bankia, the Spanish lender which was bailed out in 2012. Yet you would have been hard pressed to see any signs of that as the lender tapped debt markets this month. The bond sale by Bankia, still majority owned by the Spanish government, attracted almost €5bn in orders for the €500m of debt it sold. Its “tier 2” […]
By Sophie Louet and Claude Canellas | PARIS/BORDEAUX PARIS/BORDEAUX Francois Fillon fought off a rebellion that had threatened to end his candidacy for the French presidency on Monday as party leaders swung behind the centre-right former prime minister despite allegations that he had misused public funds. Hours after party heavyweight Alain Juppe ruled out challenging Fillon, the conservative Republicans’ party leadership unanimously backed their beleaguered candidate, Senate […]
Alain Juppé has ruled out a French presidential bid, putting an end to speculation that the former prime minister could have replaced François Fillon, his party’s embattled centre-right nominee. The decision ends intense party manoeuvring to try to persuade Mr Juppé to salvage the Republicans’ presidential campaign which has been battered by Mr Fillon’s deepening legal woes and dwindling support among the rightwing electorate and senior party […]
PARIS Under-fire candidate Francois Fillon has lost support in France’s presidential election campaign, but fellow conservative Alain Juppe would reach the second round should he replace him, an opinion poll said on Sunday. The poll by Kantar Sofres-Onepoint was conducted between March 2 and March 4 as pressure from within Fillon’s own party mounted on him to stand down and for Juppe to take his place. It […]
François Fillon put his future as French presidential candidate for the centre right in the hands of party leaders after mobilising tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Paris. Mr Fillon said he was the victim of a “manhunt” but notably omitted to tell the crowd — mobilised as show of strength among grassroots Republicans — that he would fight on as Republican candidate despite […]
