US immigration officials have put a severe brake on the processing of H-1B visas over the coming months, potentially sowing confusion for companies that rely on foreign engineers and other experts to fill holes in their employee ranks. Friday’s announcement was billed as an administrative move to reduce a backlog at US Citizenship and Immigration Services. It comes as the Trump administration has been considering deeper changes […]
KUALA LUMPUR Families of passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Saturday launched a campaign to privately fund a search for the aircraft. Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, nearly three years ago, on March 8, 2014. Australia, Malaysia, and China jointly called off a two-year underwater search for the aircraft in January. Grace Nathan, a […]
AMMAN Jordan executed 15 people on Saturday including 10 convicted on terrorism charges ranging from an attack a decade ago on Western tourists to the slaying of a writer, a judicial source and the government spokesman Mohammad al Momani said on Saturday. Al Momani said those executed included one man who was convicted of an attack last year on an intelligence compound that killed five security personnel. […]
Bahrain’s fiscal deficit will fall only marginally to 12.3 percent of GDP this year from 13.6 percent in 2016 as oil prices settle well below the country’s breakeven figure, according to ratings agency Fitch. The agency said it expects Brent to average $45 per barrel in 2017, nearly $40 below the breakeven price for the Gulf kingdom. Fitch Ratings affirmed Bahrain’s long-term foreign and local currency issuer […]
Photo Syrians in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Damascus, last week. Credit Abd Doumany/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The top United Nations diplomat working to resolve the civil war in Syria reported some progress Friday after nearly 10 days of talks, saying both sides finally had agreed on what he described as a “clear agenda” for further negotiations. The diplomat, […]
By Michael Martina and Philip Wen | BEIJING BEIJING Defying pressure for a strong increase in defence spending, China said on Saturday its military budget this year would grow about 7 percent, its slowest pace since 2010. Last year, with China’s economy slowing, the defence budget recorded its lowest increase in six years, 7.6 percent, the first single-digit rise since 2010, following a nearly unbroken two-decade run […]
By Alex Dobuzinskis | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES A massive sewage spill from Mexico’s Tijuana River that polluted miles of coastland in Southern California and northern Mexico has prompted an investigation, with U.S. officials calling it deliberate and Mexican authorities saying it was an accident caused by heavy rain. The pollution closed beaches and kept surfers and swimmers out of the ocean, drawing outrage from residents of […]
By Noel Randewich | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Technology companies have been a driving force behind the U.S. stock market’s recent record rally, and despite mounting evidence of stretched valuations the sector remains a top pick for investors expecting a wave of capital expenditures by U.S. corporations. Corporate tax cuts and reduced regulations planned by President Donald Trump will give companies reason to spend more on cloud […]
Once upon a time, it was seen as a significant concession to put wheelchair-accessible rooms in a hotel room and organise special assistance for getting off a plane. But things are changing – partly because authorities are introducing more disability-friendly regulations, but mainly because tourism operators have twigged that accessible travel is a lucrative market. And that has led to innovations such as these: Accessible skiing in […]
Speaking to American state governors this week in the state dining room of the White House, Donald Trump hit on a point that is of no surprise to investors: healthcare is “an unbelievably complex subject”. The Affordable Care Act, one of the two key pillars of the healthcare reform signed into law by former US President Barack Obama in 2010, is 906 pages long — the table […]
Ismail, a 20-year-old Emirati, has rarely ever stepped into a bank branch. “You won’t believe I haven’t visited my branch for over a year. All my transactions are done online,” he says, as he clicks an app on his phone to make a payment. “I just paid my bill and that’s how it works for me. All the services are at my fingertips and I save immense […]
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Ri Jong Chol arrived in Beijing early on Saturday The North Korean suspect questioned in connection with the death of Kim Jong-nam has said he was the victim of a conspiracy by the Malaysian authorities. Ri Jong Chol said his detention was a “plot” to “damage the honour of the republic”, Reuters news agency reports. He made the comments outside the North […]
Three GCC-based retailers have been named in a new list of the world’s top 250, with the UAE’s Emke Group ranked the Middle East’s biggest. Emke, which runs the Lulu chain on hypermarkets and earlier this month announces major expansion plans in Saudi Arabia, posted sales revenue of $6.2 billion. Dubai mall operator Majid Al Futtaim saw revenue of $6 billion while Saudi-based food firm Savola posted […]
Evan Spiegel gazed out over the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where onlookers were recording him with his company’s retro-cool, video-enabled sunglasses, then rang the opening bell on Snap’s first day as a public company. Breaking the tech titan’s dress code in his suit and tie, he grinned and, unlike his biggest rival, made no grand proclamations about his company’s world-changing potential. Nearly five years […]
Investors are aggressively betting against US shopping centres using a derivatives index of commercial mortgage-backed securities that has slumped 10 per cent from its peak in January. The health of the US retail industry has been declining for several years but recent lacklustre holiday sales, alongside rising interest rates and a stronger dollar, have reflected the intensifying pressure across the roughly $150bn industry for commercial mortgages tied […]
The stage set up at Rod Stewart’s Du Arena gig on Thursday night was daunting. There were two sparkling drum sets, a couple of fiddles, guitars, two pianos, a saxophone and a giant gilded harp for good measure. One wondered if the British star was fooling us all along. Yes, he would be performing his greatest hits as advertised, but, instead, we would be subjected to Celtic-jazz […]
NBCUniversal has ramped up its partnership with Snap, investing $500m in the owner of disappearing messaging app Snapchat’s initial public offering. The Comcast-owned television group bought shares at $17 apiece this week. With shares jumping 44 per cent in their first day of trading on Thursday, and rising a further 14 per cent on Friday, NBCU’s stake is now worth more than $820m. The stake is the […]
A tell-tale sign of a booming equity market is a hot technology listing and the blockbuster debut by Snap, duly summoned memories of the dotcom era. Shares in the parent of the popular messaging app surged more than 40 per cent in their New York Stock Exchange debut on Thursday where the fresh-faced co-founders rang the opening bell to cheers from the trading floor. On Friday, they […]
COLOMBO Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka fell in February for the first time since a nearly three-decade-long civil war ended in May 2009, government data released on Friday showed. It snapped a 93-month streak of tourist increases on the island, popular for its Indian Ocean beaches and varied wildlife. Tourism accounts for close to 5 percent of Sri Lanka’s economy. Arrivals in February edged down 0.4 percent […]
In the first stage of the Trump Rally (from the election to year-end), investors appeared to hedge as the market rallied. However, since the start of the new year, Goldman Sachs’ proprietary macro hedging indicator has traded along with equities, suggesting that investors are buying stocks and discarding protection. As Goldman’s John Marshall and Katherine Fogertey explain, the Trump rally has changed the market – Investors Stopped […]
JUBA South Sudan has arrested four soldiers after residents accused the army of beating and raping civilians in a small village near the capital last month, a military spokesman said on Friday, in a case that became a symbol of spiralling military abuses. The military launched an investigation after a local bishop brought five victims, including young girls, from Kubi village for medical treatment in the capital. […]
Google is collaborating with the online education company Coursera to train more workers for the growing cloud computing industry. The companies on Friday announced the launch of a series of on-demand Google Cloud Platform training courses, developed and taught by “Google experts,” according to Louise Byrne, head of Cloud Training Delivery for Google Cloud. The courses, available for a range of skill levels from beginner to advanced, […]
DUBAI // What was once a wide, empty terrace at Ranches Primary School has been transformed into a peaceful outdoor garden where children as young as five can meditate and grow fruits and vegetables. Early years pupils visit the Rooftop Mindful Garden at least twice a day to calm their minds and nurture plants as part of a health awareness education programme the school is piloting with […]
In just six short months, the Dubai Opera has made a seismic contribution to the emirate’s cultural scene, living up to its early promise by staging dozens of diverse musical and stage spectacles. But inside certain cultured camps, there may be the somewhat legitimate claim that, despite the name, we have not seen a whole load of opera. The opening weekend’s fleeting Rossini and Bizet productions forgotten […]
