When Shahram Amiri emerged from the shadows into the spotlight six years ago, he was a young Iranian scientist who suddenly appeared on YouTube from a safe house, telling a bizarre story of having been kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency. Then, in another video that quickly followed, his story changed: He had come to the United States voluntarily to study, but desperately missed his son back […]
LEBANON. Byblos Bank issued today, in cooperation with the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut, the results of the Byblos Bank/AUB Consumer Confidence Index for the second quarter of 2016. The results show that the Byblos Bank/AUB Consumer Confidence Index improved by 5.3% in each of April and May, while it regressed by 1% in June 2016. The Index averaged 36.1 in the […]
UAE. [ME NewsWire] –The latest Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) from ACCA and IMA, suggested positive signs for businesses in the GCC but a stark forewarning of how the shock of Brexit will hit a fragile recovery in global business confidence. Responding to the findings, Lindsay Degouve de Nuncques, head of ACCA Middle East said: “It is encouraging to see that our members’ business confidence has improved […]
WASHINGTON — The Syrian military was foundering last year, with thousands of rebel fighters pushing into areas of the country long considered to be government strongholds. The rebel offensive was aided by powerful tank-destroying missiles supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia. Intelligence assessments circulated in Washington that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was losing his grip on power. But then the Russians arrived, bludgeoning […]
A security guard stands guard outside a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016. Reuters/Erik De Castro MANILA A Bangladesh central bank team visiting Manila to recover $81 million stolen from its account in New York said it was close to getting back $15 million of the loot frozen by the Philippines, but first has to prove ownership […]
A security guard stands beside a logo of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) posted at the main gate in Manila, Philippines April 28, 2016. Reuters/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo MANILA The Philippine central bank said on Friday it would fine Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCB.PS) (RCBC) a record 1 billion pesos ($21 million), after the bank was used by cyber criminals to channel $81 […]
The Chicago Beach Hotel, Hard Rock Café and Jumeirah TV Tower are famous Dubai landmarks that disappeared years ago. Next to be added to the list: the Ramada Dubai. The hotel is another link to an old Dubai receding into memory at a rapid rate. When the four-star Ramada opened in Bur Dubai in 1983, it was mostly surrounded by desert. Today, more than three decades on, […]
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggested that oil prices have probably bottomed out at about $40 per barrel after tumbling more than 20 percent in the past two months into a bear market. “It’s hard for me to imagine it going very much lower, but it could,” he said Wednesday, according to the transcript of a conference call organized by Rock Creek Group, an investment advisory […]
BREMEN, Germany — Believing he was answering a holy call, Harry Sarfo left his home in the working-class city of Bremen last year and drove for four straight days to reach the territory controlled by the Islamic State in Syria. He barely had time to settle in before members of the Islamic State’s secret service, wearing masks over their faces, came to inform him and his German […]
SolarCity Corp (SCTY.O) agreed to Tesla Motors Inc’s (TSLA.O) $2.6 billion offer to buy the solar panel installer, the companies said on Monday, clearing one obstacle in the way of Elon Musk’s ambitious plans for a carbon-free energy and transportation company. Tesla’s offer represented about half of SolarCity’s value a year ago, a tumble reflecting the solar company’s slowing growth, complex financial structure and the increased scrutiny […]
DUBAI // Two Russians kidnapped a Ukrainian tourist after offering her a lift home before assaulting her and stealing her passport. The men, aged 30 and 34, were convicted of kidnap, physical assault and robbery by Dubai Criminal Court and jailed for two years each. On January 13 this year one of the men approached the woman in Bur Dubai and asked if she knew any good […]
INTERNATIONAL. – Higher GDP per capita alone does not determine real quality of life. This is according to the Social Progress Index (SPI) 2016 published recently by US-based nonprofit, the Social Progress Imperative. The Index ranks Finland the world’s most socially progressive country, Canada in second place tops the G7 nations. Economic growth is not the sole determinant of quality of life The 2016 Index finds that whist […]
Jack Ma, founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group speaks during the inaugural ”Xin” Philanthropy Conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, July 9, 2016. China Daily/via Reuters A Chinese consortium that includes game developer Shanghai Giant Network Technology Co Ltd and e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma has agreed to acquire Caesars Interactive Entertainment Inc’s online games unit for $4.4 billion in cash, the […]
LIBYA. A multi-million redevelopment of Tripoli International Airport is getting ready for take-off following the Libyan Local Investment & Development Fund’s (LLIDF) appointment of PwC as its strategic advisor. The LLIDF is supporting the redevelopment of Libya through its new Investment Programme which includes the redevelopment of Tripoli International Airport into a world-class international airport. Based within a secure hub on the former airport site, the ambition […]
A new research replication project, involving 24 labs and over 2100 participants, failed to reproduce findings from a previous study that suggested that self-control is a depletable resource. The findings are published as part of a Registered Replication Report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Over the last twenty years, numerous studies have provided evidence supporting the idea that our […]
ABU DHABI // They may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but driverless cars could be key to reducing the number of accidents in the UAE, experts say. More than 90 per cent of accidents involve driver error and machines have been proven to drive more reliably than humans, said Lee Woodcock, global product director for intelligent mobility at the engineering consultancy Atkins. “The potential is […]
ABU DHABI // Love the idea of Pokemon Go, but can’t be bothered putting in the leg work? There is a solution – but it doesn’t come cheap. Players at advanced levels are selling their accounts for up to Dh15,000 on classified websites. Omar Moued, 29, decided to try his luck on dubizzle.com after watching a video about a player in the UK who sold his account […]
INTERNATIONAL. Even before the failed military coup, Turkey’s President Erdogan governed like a dictator who had the last word on all state matters. The botched coup was nothing but, as he put it, “a gift from God” to purge what is left of Turkey’s democracy and cleanse the army and judiciary in order to ensure the total subordination of all institutions to his whims. For Erdogan, being […]
The death of King Albert I of Belgium in 1934 — officially a climbing accident — still fuels speculation. Forensic geneticist Maarten Larmuseau and his colleagues at KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium), have now compared DNA from blood found on the scene in 1934 to that of two distant relatives. Their analysis confirms that the blood really is that of Albert I. This conclusion is at […]
DUBAI // Around 130 residents of Sulafa Tower took shelter at a nearby hotel after their apartments were damaged or destroyed in Wednesday’s fire. A blaze broke out in the 75-storey tower in Dubai Marina on Wednesday afternoon, spreading quickly around the residential building and damaging apartments on at least eight floors. Management at the nearby Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina tweeted an offer […]
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk attends a forum on startups in Hong Kong, China January 26, 2016. Reuters/Bobby Yip/File Photo Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O) chief Elon Musk’s ambitious new “master plan” provided a vision of the company as a leader in sustainable energy, but lacked details on how the plan would be funded and executed. Musk sketched out a plan on Wednesday for an integrated carbon-free energy […]
Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka March 8, 2016. Reuters/Ashikur Rahman/Files DHAKA/NEW YORK When the Federal Reserve Bank of New York cleared five transactions made by the Bangladesh Bank hackers, the money went in two directions. On Thursday, February 4, the Fed’s system sent $20 million to Sri Lanka and $81 million to the Philippines. The Sri Lankan transaction contained […]
DHAKA/NEW YORK Jupiter. That single word, by a stroke of luck, helped stop the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from paying nearly $1 billion (£757 million) to the cyber-criminals behind a notorious bank heist earlier this year, according to sources familiar with the incident. When hackers broke into the computers of Bangladesh’s central bank in February and sent fake payment orders, the Fed was tricked into […]
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer delivers her keynote address at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada in this January 7, 2014, file photo. Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files SAN FRANCISCO Former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig has not worked at the pioneering internet company in nearly a decade. But last week, as Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) prepared to sell its core internet business, he was sporting a Yahoo T-shirt […]
