Mohammed Soltan is pushed by his father during a court appearance in Cairo on March 9. By KAREEM FAHIM May 30, 2015 CAIRO — Mohamed Soltan, an American citizen who spent nearly two years in an Egyptian prison on charges that he supported an Islamist protest, has been released by the Egyptian authorities and flew back to the United States on Saturday, his family said in a statement. Mr. […]
UAE. The depressed oil prices predominant since late last year could herald a lasting trend if, as evidence suggests, we are now facing the low-price segment of an oil ‘super cycle’, according to the latest paper from global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. This new situation would pose both challenges and opportunities to Middle East companies and countries. There is still much volatility in the […]
Intel Corp (INTC.O) has resumed talks to buy programmable-chip maker Altera Corp (ALTR.O) and is close to a $16 billion deal, people familiar with the matter said on Friday, paving way for the third mega semiconductor-chip deal this year. The price for Altera could be as much as $54 per share, according to one of the people. This would be a 15 percent premium over the stock’s […]
The site of an explosion near a Shiite mosque in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. By BEN HUBBARD May 29, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — A suicide bomber dressed in women’s clothing detonated his explosive belt near the entrance to a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday, killing three other people, according to Saudi state media. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility, as it did just a […]
Remedy Service Management 9.0, the new IT service management (ITSM) platform from BMC, is designed to provide both IT managers and end users with a more intuitive, consumer-type experience. BMC announced the release of the new platform, which it claims can boost IT productivity by up to 75 percent, earlier this month. BMC said the Remedy 9 platform provides a Smart Reporting feature for IT professionals that […]
By SAM BORDEN and JODI RUDOREN May 28, 2015 ZURICH — The protesters outside the arena where FIFA staged the opening ceremony for its annual congress Thursday held Palestinian flags and blunt banners. “Red Card Israel Apartheid,” one read. “Occupation = Segregation,” another said. “EXPEL Israel, Say NO to racism and discrimination.” But as the congress convened, the Palestine Football Association’s proposal to oust its Israeli counterpart from FIFA, soccer’s international […]
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 […]
UAE. Fifty-seven percent of global financial services executives believe regulation has enabled growth of their business, according to the results of Deloitte’s Staying Ahead of the Pack survey. In addition, half of executives expect much more regulation in the near future, with 69 percent feeling prepared for it. The survey of 200 executives at banking, securities, insurance and investment management firms around the world was conducted to […]
We all know the Internet has revolutionized civilization, but have you ever stopped to think just how much it has changed your life over the past 15 years — and what the future may hold? The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reports unprecedented growth in information and communications technologies (ICTs) since 2000. Here are some mind boggling statistic from the latest ITU report: there are over 7 billion […]
A logo is pictured at Google’s European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann WASHINGTON The Obama administration on Tuesday sided against Google Inc (GOOGL.O) and said the U.S. Supreme Court should not hear the company’s appeal in a case against Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) with wide implications for the technology industry, according to a court filing. The case involves how much copyright protection should extend to […]
Crude oil prices were broadly unchanged in early trading on Tuesday, as firm demand supported and ample supply dragged, but analysts said there were signs that a recent rally was running out of steam. Robust demand in Asia as well as due to the driving season in the United States is being met by near record output, especially from the Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), although […]
|By Alaa Alghamdi|I feel very proud of our King that, several weeks ago, he took a stand in favour of equality and against racism, even when it meant alienating a family member. King Salman promptly forbade his kin to appear in televised media, as he considered him a poor spokesperson for the royal family and for our country. King Salman made a judicious decision. Perhaps he, like […]
ABU DHABI // A family of children as young as 8 is living in squalor and deprivation, with social services powerless to intervene because they have no legal authority to do so. The 10 children, the eldest of whom is 24 and mentally ill, sleep on the floor in two outdoor rooms reeking of urine and faeces and littered with rubbish. Their kitchen overflows with dirty dishes […]
qI live in the UAE but have an outstanding loan from Kuwait from about a year ago. As I was unemployed I have only made very small payments on the loan in the past year. I now have a full-time job but a debt collector in America has been calling me threatening me with a travel ban, since there is a National Bank of Kuwait in the […]
An attendee at the Microsoft Ignite technology conference is seen next to the Microsoft logo in Chicago, Illinois, May 4, 2015. Reuters/Jim Young Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N) held “significant talks” this spring but failed to agree on a price, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Microsoft was willing to offer about $55 billion for the world’s biggest maker of online sales software. […]
Branding on a budget DUBAI, 16 days ago How does a lone entrepreneur create a brand image and message and keeping costs low? While this really depends on how lean your start-up will be, there are a number of tools which one can pick and mix to launch a brand, a report said. The fundamental strategy when branding on a budget is to eliminate the need for […]
The path to a wearable future lies in academia NEW YORK, 16 days ago By Jeremy Wagstaff For a glimpse of what is, what might have been and what may lie ahead in wearable devices, look beyond branded tech and Silicon Valley start-ups to the messy labs, dry papers and solemn conferences of academia. There you’d find that you might control your smartphone with your tongue, skin […]
UAE. A new study reveals that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs can significantly increase UAE companies’ performance and recognition. The research, commissioned by the social enterprise Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3) and conducted by the global market research company YouGov, presented today at the CSR Summit in Dubai, shows that around three-quarters of residents are more likely to purchase from companies that actively contribute to […]
UAE. Landmark real estate regulatory changes including the UAE-wide Federal Mortgage Cap and Dubai’s doubling of Property Registration Fees last year, which was aimed at curbing speculative activity, have together gradually and successfully contained a market that was in danger of overheating with the level of transactional activity now dramatically reduced, according to latest research released by international real estate consultancy Cluttons. Cluttons Spring 2015 Dubai Residential […]
Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, center, with Ofer Eini, head of the Israeli soccer association, left, in Jerusalem on Tuesday. By JODI RUDOREN May 19, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian grievances against Israel are familiar ones: hampering travel, blocking import of equipment, rampant racism and the treatment of settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli response is also a repeat: security concerns, mostly. But this round […]
There’s a big problem with the security questions often used to help people log into Web sites, or remember or access lost passwords — questions with answers that are easy to remember are also easy for hackers to guess. That’s the key finding of a study that Google recently presented at the International World Wide Web Conference in Florence, Italy. Google said it analyzed hundreds of millions […]
|Special by TAP Staff| RERA’s Rent Index system continues to be unrealistic as it fails to factor in variables such as views, size of units, age of the building, and this might may trigger a period of ‘off-grid’ deals, where landlords and tenants agree to rents that are not in sync with RERA’s recommendations, property consultants Cluttons has predicted. The Cluttons’ report highlights that with supply levels […]
Letter From the Mideast By JODI RUDOREN May 13, 2015 JERUSALEM — The most recognizable Israeli artwork depicting the Iranian nuclear threat was the cartoon bomb that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a red line through at the United Nations in 2012. Now comes Andi Arnovitz, an Orthodox Jewish-feminist painter and printmaker, with a series of collages that are a bit more sophisticated and just as unsettling. There is […]
Top UAE banks paying off the emergency loans they previously took from the Ministry of Finance is a sign they now have ample liquidity and funding alternatives, according to banking industry experts. The UAE banks landed in a serious liquidity squeeze, after foreign banks withdrew Dh100 billion worth of funds from the local banks placed with them to make quick gains from the much-anticipated de-pegging of the […]
