Iran appeared to take a harder line in its nuclear dispute with world powers on Sunday by dismissing as “ridiculous” one idea that could allay Western concerns about a planned atomic research reactor. The fate of the heavy-water reactor at Arak, which has not yet been completed, is one of several thorny issues in talks between Iran and six powers aimed at reaching a long-term deal on […]
Analysts are predicting a pre-Ramadan correction on the Dubai Financial Market. They say this has happened twice before: in early 2006 after the near doubling of the market in 2005; and in 1999 when the Emaar-IPO bubble burst. It will happen again. The price-to-earnings ratio has swung from an under-valued 10 to an extremely over-sold 21. Emerging markets in the MSCI Index, whose highly prized inclusion of […]
WASHINGTON — To those who lost loved ones in the suicide bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in April 1983, it is often called “the forgotten bombing” — overshadowed by an even deadlier attack on a Marine barracks at the Beirut airport six months later. Now, a new book shines a spotlight on the embassy bombing, which killed 63 people, 17 of them American, including […]
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The strike had entered its second day when construction workers at Labor Camp 42 got word that their bosses from the BK Gulf corporation had come to negotiate. Mohammed Amir Waheed Sirkar, an electrician from Bangladesh, scrambled down the stairs to meet them. But when he got to the courtyard, he saw the truth: It wasn’t the bosses who had come. […]
Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Saudi Arabia is considering trade measures against the Netherlands because of stickers resembling the kingdom’s flag and carrying anti-Islam slogans printed by far-right politician Geert Wilders. Local business daily Al Eqtisadiah reported on Friday that the chambers of commerce have received an order to ban Dutch companies from bidding for future projects in the country, halt visits of business […]
Thirteen labourers were killed and more than a dozen injured early yesterday when their bus ploughed into the back of a lorry. The tragedy happened on Dubai’s Emirates Road soon after 6.30am Nine of the dead were from India and four from Bangladesh. The nationality of the other two victims is unknown. The injured are being treated at Al Baraha Hospital and in Rashid Hospital, Oud Metha. […]
Happier days: Nick Clegg and David Cameron in 2010 agree to form a coalition government Photo: Getty Images Just before the general election, the Conservatives released a party political broadcast warning that a coalition would bring disaster. “Under-the-table deals will be the order of the day,” we were told. The fate awaiting savers was depicted by a hammer smashing a piggy bank. The process of proper government would […]
Stock markets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar will see relatively large one-off inflows of money at the end of May as funds tracking the MSCI indexes adjust their positions in line with updated benchmarks. MSCI will move stocks from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to its emerging market index from its frontier market benchmark at the end of May, meaning they will be tracked by […]
Qatar is pledging labor-law reform in response to what critics have called systemic exploitation that traps thousands of foreign workers in low-wage jobs and squalid living conditions. Construction workers at a building site in Doha, Qatar Getty Images The reforms proposed Wednesday include an abolition of the so-called kafala sponsorship system and removing the need for a visa to exit the country. They come as Qatar prepares […]
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — The United States Defense Department is considering a request from the Army to transfer Private Chelsea Manning, convicted of leaking national security data to WikiLeaks, to a civilian prison so that she can get treatment for her gender disorder, a Pentagon official said Wednesday. Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had approved a request from […]
Samsung Electronics Co Chairman Lee Kun Hee, who leads Asia’s biggest technology company and helps generate about a quarter of South Korea’s economic output, remains in stable condition after emergency surgery following a heart attack. Lee, 72, is at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul after being resuscitated following an acute myocardial infarction, Rhee So Eui, a spokeswoman for Samsung Group, said in an e-mailed statement. Lee, who […]
Gold fell to its weakest in a week early on Monday as the euro hovered near a one-month low on fears of policy action from the European Central Bank, but the metal recovered some losses on safe-haven demand over escalating violence in Ukraine. Spot gold eased 0.2 percent to $1,286.40 an ounce by 0313 GMT, after dropping to a one-week low of $1,279.60 earlier in the session. […]
Iran’s Supreme Leader described as “stupid and idiotic” Western expectations for his country to curb its missile development, striking a defiant tone ahead of a fresh round of nuclear talks. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to mass produce missiles and said the nuclear negotiations were not the place to discuss Tehran’s defense program or to solve the problem of sanctions damaging the Iranian economy. […]
Dennis Lockhart, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, spoke to the American Business Council of Dubai on Sunday. Reuters Large Middle Eastern holders of U.S. Treasuries shouldn’t worry about the stability of their investments especially as the U.S. economy shows more signs of improvement following the worst recession in a generation, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said on Sunday. U.S. government debt has long been a key […]
The fallout from the Syrian war continues to weigh on Lebanon’s economy and fiscal stability with long-needed structural reforms now more challenging to implement, an International Monetary Fund mission visit to the country found after routine consultations with local authorities. A political impasse “has amplified the microeconomic imbalances,” a mission report summary said, in a country with one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world. Here […]
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says it plans to clamp down on beef exports if it takes power after general elections that end on Monday, threatening supplies from one of the world’s biggest shippers of the meat. Surprisingly in a country where so many view cows as sacred, India has been poised to become the No.1 beef exporting nation, supplying markets such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and […]
With Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filing to go public, the biggest winner won’t be founder Jack Ma or his fellow executives or even venture capital backers like Silver Lake Management LLC. It’ll be Japan’s Masayoshi Son. Fourteen years ago, Son’s SoftBank Corp. started with a $20 million bet on a then-unknown Web portal connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. That site evolved into China’s biggest Internet shopping […]
|Richard Weizel | STORRS Conn. (Reuters) – University of Connecticut alumnus Rick Mastracchio took a break from orbiting the globe on the International Space Station to deliver an address to students graduating from the university’s School of Engineering on Saturday. With a large black UConn banner and UConn baseball cap floating behind him, Mastracchio hovered between two space suits and spun upside down several times during the pre-recorded […]
The one-time White House intern whose affair with President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment in the US Senate has broken her long silence in the media. In Vanity Fair magazine, Monica Lewinsky, 40, writes that she deeply regrets the fling. The president “took advantage” of her, she writes, though she describes their relationship as consensual. In 1998, Republicans failed in their effort to oust him from […]
Emirates, the No. 1 international airline, won’t be asked to move to Dubai’s new super-hub until 2024, avoiding disruption to its growth as it takes delivery of the world’s biggest fleet of wide-body jets. The sheikdom’s Al Maktoum airport, which opened in October and is targeting a capacity of 228 million passengers at a cost of 156.8 billion dirhams ($43 billion), should instead become an interim base […]
|By Nicole Blackmore| Is Dubai the new Spain? Britons are abandoning their place in the Spanish sun for countries with better work opportunities and more stable house prices – and the Middle East is one of several areas attracting growing numbers of emigrants. While Dubai may not be a popular retirement option given the high cost of living, young professionals are moving there in droves. NatWest’s latest […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Trying to become even bigger — and make more money — Facebook will allow users to reveal a little less. The social network announced on Wednesday that when its 1.3 billion users log in to other websites or mobile apps through their Facebook identities, they will be able to limit what they reveal to the site or app to just their email addresses and public […]
Middle East fund managers have become more cautious about stock markets in the United Arab Emirates because of concern that Dubai may be overheating, a monthly Reuters survey shows. The survey of 15 leading investment managers, conducted over the past 10 days, found they are still bullish about the region’s stock markets in general: 33 percent expect to increase their Middle East equity allocations in the next […]
Deutsche Lufthansa’s new chief executive officer identified the menace of fast-expanding Gulf carriers such as Dubai-based Emirates as his biggest challenge, threatening to reopen a war of words with Mid-East operators. Carsten Spohr, who takes over from Christoph Franz as CEO of the German company on May 1, said the emerging long-haul heavyweights represent a different proposition to short-haul discount operators such as Ryanair Holdings Plc. “Those […]
