ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Former President Bill Clinton said on Sunday that he believed that New York University and the Abu Dhabi government would conduct a thorough investigation into worker rights abuses at the university’s new campus here in the country’s capital. Delivering the first graduation speech at the campus, Mr. Clinton said the controversy had “dominated the coverage” of the university during the days […]
ABU DHABI // Taxi drivers are considered the most dangerous drivers on the road, the survey reveals. Of the 1,208 residents polled, 32 per cent said they considered cabbies to be the most dangerous, followed by young drivers (26 per cent) and lorry drivers (22 per cent). Sameer Afridi, 27, a Pakistani driver who works for Al Ghazal Taxi, one of the six franchise-holding companies in Abu […]
ABU DHABI // Technical faults and human error are the two major causes of bus accidents, according to the drivers of labourers’ buses. They said that mobile-phone use while driving, drivers not getting enough sleep and older buses with outdated braking equipment also play a role. Most of the buses are fitted with air braking systems, which often fail, the drivers said. “All workers’ buses should be […]
Pope Francis at Israel’s separation barrier Associated Press BETHLEHEM, West Bank–Palestinians had been hoping that the papal visit to the West Bank would kick up international sympathy with their campaign for statehood and against Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, and many were pleased with his actions. “It’s a great day for Palestine par excellence,” Palestinian Parliament Member Mustafa Barghouti said after after Pope Francis finished a […]
CAIRO — Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former army officer soon to be Egypt’s president, promises to remedy Egypt’s crippling fuel shortage by installing energy-efficient bulbs in every home socket, even if he has to send a government employee to screw in each one. “I’m not leaving a chance for people to act on their own,” Mr. Sisi said in his first and most extensive television interview. “My […]
The MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition, one of the biggest startup events in the Middle East, will announce its winner on Thursday evening at an event in Cairo. Here’s the five startups that caught the Wall Street Journal’s eye from the shortlisted semi-finalists. Elwafeyat.com: The concept of Cairo-based Elwafeyat.com is dead easy to understand. The website is an online platform to honor deceased family members and […]
Following a report this week about mistreatment of workers who built New York University’s new Abu Dhabi campus, N.Y.U. apologized and said it would work with its partner to investigate. The next day, the partner, the Abu Dhabi government, confirmed it would participate. N.Y.U. has declined to specify how such an investigation might proceed, or what remedies it might pursue. But experts on labor conditions in the […]
What do you do if you are a cheerful 25-year-old college student in Iran tired of your country and its people being portrayed in the world as angry, provocative and depressed? Answer: You make a video of your friends being happy, singing and dancing in the streets of Tehran to Pharrell Williams’ smash hit song “Happy.” “People of Tehran are happy! Watch and share our happiness! … […]
The BBC’s John Inverdale got himself into trouble when he posited that Marion Bartoli ‘never going to be much of a looker’ Photo: Reuters In 1994, a 20-year-old trainee physiotherapist received a letter from Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United Football Club, declining her request for a work placement. Ferguson explained his reasoning thus: “Most of the players felt that football was very much a male sport, […]
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 […]
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. […]
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is keeping a close watch on markets after shares rallied to record highs on speculation that exit polls would show the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies winning a majority in the election, a senior official with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Several traders attributed the gains in Indian shares, which sent the Nifty to record […]
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 […]
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 […]
BEYOND – Memoirs In A Time Lapse from Beno Saradzic on Vimeo. If you haven’t made it to the United Arab Emirates yet, there’s no immediate need to fret. We’re about to save you a lot of time and money because watching this INCREDIBLE time lapse video will show you every aspect of the UAE in just a few short minutes. Shot over the course of two […]
All markets in the Gulf edged up on Thursday, led by Saudi Arabia which rose to a six-year high on the back of petrochemicals and cement makers. The kingdom’s main index gained 0.8 percent to 9,660 points, its highest close since June 2008. Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), up 2.6 percent, was the main support, also topping daily turnover. Overall, Saudi petrochemicals gained 1.5 percent while cement […]
The U.S. government lost $11.2 billion on its bailout of General Motors Co, more than the $10.3 billion the Treasury Department estimated when it sold its remaining GM shares in December, according to a government report released on Wednesday. The $11.2 billion loss includes a write-off in March of the government’s remaining $826 million investment in “old” GM, the quarterly report by a Treasury watchdog said. The […]
| Joseph Mayton | Wearable technology looks likely to be heading through Google, after Nike announced it would be moving away from wearable tech and more into the software development sector. It comes after repeated rumors that the massive apparel corporation was dropping its Fuelband. It appears that the company isn’t giving up entirely and will be leaving the hardware business behind to focus more on the software […]
Qatar reduced the number of stadiums it plans to build for the 2022 soccer World Cup by a third amid rising costs and delays. The country, which won the right in 2010 to host the world’s most-watched sporting event, plans to build eight stadiums for the games, Ghanim Al Kuwari, the organizing committee’s senior manager for projects, said at a conference in Doha yesterday. The country originally […]
The Sensex could pause for breath after a record-setting rally as quarterly earnings reports, inflation data and the continued five-week long elections breed caution. Software stocks are on watch with Infosys Ltd kicking off March-quarter earnings season on Tuesday, followed by Tata Consultancy Services on Wednesday. Wipro and HCL Technologies report on Thursday. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries is due to post its results on Friday. India’s consumer […]
John Defterios speaks with the developers behind a waterfront development hoping to make Cyprus island a luxury yachting destination. If your browser has Adobe Flash Player installed, click above to play. Otherwise, click below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. (via CNN)
A top Dubai economic policymaker said on Monday that an agreement to merge the two main stock markets in the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, had been reached in principle but nothing had been finalised. “It is going to be very positive. The agreement has been reached between the two – there is a dialogue but it is not […]
The S&P 500 closed at another record high on Wednesday as signs of steady private-sector hiring suggested that the economy was slowly building momentum after a winter-related pullback. That also put more focus on Friday’s government jobs data, which is among the most widely watched economic indicators. “There’s positioning ahead of that report,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president of BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. He […]
Northern Chile was shaken by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake, triggering a tsunami warning along most of the Pacific Coast of South America. There were no immediate reports of major damage or deaths. The quake struck at 9 p.m. local time 95 kilometers from the city of Iquique at a depth of 20 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The first tsunami waves reached as high as […]
