REUTERS – Amazon.com Inc’s shares surged more than 20 percent in early trading on Friday, adding more than $46 billion to the company’s market value, after strong growth in the e-commerce giant’s cloud business drove a surprise quarterly profit. The company’s market capitalization soared to more than $270 billion, overtaking that of Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s biggest retailer. Revenue from Amazon’s cloud operations – Amazon Web Services […]
ADEN // An Emirati plane landed in Aden at dawn on Friday, bringing humanitarian aid to the southern Yemeni city only hours after its airport came under rocket fire from rebels. In total, four aircraft have arrived at the port city since the symbolic reopening of Aden’s international airport on Wednesday, which followed nearly four months of fierce fighting. The UAE plane delivered medical supplies from the […]
Shepherding livestock in the West Bank village of Susiya. Residents have been displaced three times in the last 30 years and are faced with ejection once again. By DIAA HADID July 23, 2015 SUSIYA, West Bank — Yousef Nawajaa strode between the tents bedecked with Palestinian flags, scattered through parched orchards and rocky hills, shouting delightedly to a man nearby: “Hey, did you hear? John Kerry spoke about Susiya!” […]
A zoomed image of a computer screen showing the Amazon logo is seen in Vienna November 26, 2012. To match Special Report TAX-AMAZON/ Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) swung to an unexpected quarterly profit on higher sales in North America, its popular Prime subscription service and growing demand for its Web services, sending the online retailer’s shares up more than 17 percent. Amazon also forecast third-quarter revenue […]
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, right, and Gen. Taleb Shegati al-Kenani, second from right, commander of Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service, reviewed maps at the joint operations center in Baghdad on Thursday. By HELENE COOPER July 23, 2015 BAGHDAD — Around 3,000 newly American-trained Iraqi troops, along with 500 trained Sunni tribal fighters, have been deployed to help in an expected government offensive to retake the Sunni stronghold of Ramadi […]
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter gave a surprisingly upbeat assessment on Wednesday of American relations with Saudi Arabia, asserting that the kingdom welcomed the international nuclear deal reached with its regional rival, Iran. Mr. Carter, who visited Jidda and held his first meeting with King Salman, also said the Saudi monarch would visit the United States this fall and is committed to fighting […]
Citigroup Inc’s consumer bank has been ordered to pay $700 million in relief to borrowers for illegal credit card practices, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said. The CFPB, set up under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act aimed at reforming Wall Street, has been cracking down in recent years on credit card companies offering payment protection, credit score tracking and other add-on products. Citi will also pay civil […]
The IBM logo is seen outside the company’s offices in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv October 24, 2011. Reuters/Nir Elias International Business Machines Corp’s (IBM.N) revenue fell for the 13th consecutive quarter and missed the average analyst estimate, as it continued to shed low-margin businesses and the strong dollar weighed on Big Blue’s results. Shares of the world’s largest technology services company fell about 5 percent in […]
WASHINGTON — The Islamic State’s reclusive leader has empowered his inner circle of deputies as well as regional commanders in Syria and Iraq with wide-ranging authority, a plan to ensure that if he or other top figures are killed, the organization will quickly adapt and continue fighting, American and Iraqi intelligence officials say. The officials say the leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delegates authority to his cabinet, or […]
SINGAPORE, 3 days ago Chinese ultra wealthy individuals claimed nine of the 10 spots on a list of Asia’s richest millennials (definite as those born from 1981 to 1997), revealed Wealth-X, an authority on wealth intelligence, providing sales, marketing, strategy and compliance solutions to clients in the financial services, luxury, not-for-profit and education sectors. Three of the 10 spots on the list were occupied by female Asian […]
JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities have uncovered a network of Hamas militants suspected of involvement in a shooting that killed an Israeli man and wounded three others in the West Bank in June, Israeli security officials said Sunday. Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said in a statement that the military and the police had arrested four Palestinians this month — three residents of the West Bank village […]
AL MUKALLA, Yemen — Houthi rebel fighters fired rockets toward the southern city of Aden on Sunday, killing at least 43 people in a residential neighborhood, health and military officials said. The attack came two days after the exiled Yemeni government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia and opposes the Houthis, declared that Aden had been “liberated” after the Houthis and their allies were driven from several […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The security forces in Saudi Arabia have carried out a nationwide dragnet in recent months that resulted in the arrest of more than 400 people believed to be connected to the Islamic State jihadist group, the Saudi Interior Ministry said on Saturday. The people who were arrested were linked to recent attacks inside the kingdom; they planned attacks or monitored potential targets, or used […]
ABU DHABI // Drivers of silver taxis are crying foul over what they call unfair competition from unlicensed cabs offering cheaper fares. Taxi drivers are under immense pressure to meet their targets, often working 12 to 14 hours every day. They say the increasing number of uninsured and unregulated cabs has made it harder for the city’s 10,000 drivers to find customers. Owners of private vehicles are […]
ABU DHABI // It has gone so fast – and so far, so good. It’s already the third anniversary of work starting on the UAE’s first nuclear power plant at Barakah, near the border with Saudi Arabia. And it is still on budget and set to go live in late 2017, ultimately providing a quarter of the Emirates’ energy needs. But becoming the first new member to […]
|By TAP Staff| The Saudi stock market, the largest market in the GCC with a total market capitalisation of approximately$550 billion, is drawing interest from a large number of potential foreign investors. The Saudi Stock Exchange opened to qualified foreign investors (QFI) for the first time one month ago. Increased participation from international financial institutions is primarily designed to help enhance the sophistication and stability of the […]
CAIRO — Security forces killed six antigovernment protesters at Islamist demonstrations near Cairo on Friday morning, highlighting continued tensions two years after the military takeover that removed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The clashes, in the Giza neighborhoods of Talbiya and Nahia, took place as crowds gathered after morning prayers that signaled the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, at the end of the holy […]
Microsoft is touting the latest update to its operating system, due for release starting July 29, with the line, “It’s the Windows you know, only better.” Underscoring the distance that Microsoft wants to put between the new OS and the previous version is the fact that it’s named Windows 10 — there will be no “9” to succeed the less-than-beloved Windows 8. Windows 10 will also be […]
Google Inc’s (GOOGL.O) shares soared as much as 16.8 percent on Friday, crossing the $700 mark and adding nearly $68 billion to its market value, as strong growth in YouTube viewership allayed concerns about Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) push into video. The stock’s surge, which sent the Nasdaq composite index to a record intraday high, came a day after Google reported better-than-expected profit for the first time in […]
A Google self-driving vehicle is parked at the Computer History Museum after a presentation in Mountain View, California May 13, 2014. Reuters/Stephen Lam/Files DETROIT One of Google Inc’s self-driving cars was involved in an accident early in July, in which three employees were injured when a vehicle equipped with Google technology was rear-ended by another vehicle, the company said. Several employees suffered minor whiplash in the July […]
INTERNATIONAL. Global investors have raised their holdings of cash significantly in response to a weaker global economic outlook, particularly in China, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for July. Overall, equity allocations are unaffected by the higher risk aversion, however. • Confidence in the global economy falls sharply: 42percent of investors expect strengthening over next year, down from 55 percent a month ago.• China heads concerns: […]
Relatives of three Americans imprisoned in Iran expressed optimism on Wednesday that the nuclear agreement reached in Vienna had removed a significant political obstacle to the United States government’s efforts to secure their release. But the relatives also said they had received no specific indications that anything had changed, tempering their excitement. “We obviously hope that this is moving on, and now we can see some movement,” […]
VIENNA — One by one, the roadblocks to a nuclear accord between Iran and the United States had been painstakingly cleared. But as the negotiations went into their third week in the neoclassical Coburg Palace hotel this month, a major dispute lingered over whether a ban on Iran’s ability to purchase conventional weapons and missile technology would remain in place. The American delegation, led by Secretary of […]
DUBAI // For decades, Dubai Creek has been a hub of activity as traders bring in goods and sell their wares at the bustling markets nearby. Even today, laden dhows can be seen unloading items to be sold at the Spice Market, on the Deira side of the saltwater Creek, and other souqs around the city. Most of these dhows’ captains are Bangladeshis and Pakistanis but, in […]
