|By Matein Khalid| The world’s emerging markets have been savaged by multiple economic, banking, currency and political shocks since 2011. Global emerging markets are far too diverse and nuanced to be analyzed as a single asset class but now trade at a 24% valuation discount to developed markets. The financial markets now price draconian scenarios for earnings, exports, sovereign credit, industrial production and economic growth. The shortage […]
ABU DHABI // Emiratis living in Khalifa City A want more footpaths, a better road network and more after-school activities for their children. A suburban area of mostly villas, the neighbourhoods do not have parking or traffic congestion problems. But some residents say the lack of paths makes it dangerous to walk. “We do not have any parking shortages here compared with the city,” said Mohammed Al […]
ABU DHABI // Government organisations have continued their fightback against claims that the UAE has the most polluted air in the world. Earlier this year, the World Bank released The Little Green Data Book, which said the country had particle pollution levels (PPM) much higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended guidelines. It said the UAE was the “country with the most polluted air”, which was immediately […]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Amazon (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos unveiled plans on Tuesday to build a rocket manufacturing plant and launch site in Florida to better compete with fellow billionaires using their fortunes and tech prowess to open a new frontier in human space travel and exploration. Bezos’ space startup, Blue Origin, intends to invest more than $200 million to build the rocket-making facility adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy […]
September 15, 2015 Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY Two French illustrators have been denounced on social networks in recent days for publishing editorial cartoons inspired by harrowing photographs of Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian boy whose drowning in the waters off Greece this month prompted an outpouring of sympathy for migrants. Most of the outrage has been directed at Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French newspaper that was […]
Dubai’s diamond trade will grow as the emirate attracts dealers from the industry’s traditional hub in the Belgian port of Antwerp after one of the city’s main lenders closed, depriving buyers of needed financing, according to National Bank of Fujairah. “Do we anticipate a big shift of rough diamond traders to Dubai?” Davy Blommaert, unit head for precious metals and diamonds at National Bank of Fujairah, said in […]
Middle East By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE September 15, 2015 GENEVA — The brother of a Washington Post journalist imprisoned in Iran for more than a year appealed to a United Nations human rights panel on Tuesday to intercede with the Iranian authorities to obtain his release. Ali Rezaian, whose brother, Jason, was arrested in Tehran in July 2014, made his entreaty at a meeting in Geneva of the United Nations […]
The Cisco Systems logo is seen as part of a display at the Microsoft Ignite technology conference in Chicago, Illinois, May 4, 2015. Reuters/Jim Young/Files FRANKFURT Security researchers say they have uncovered clandestine attacks across three continents on the routers that direct traffic around the Internet, potentially allowing suspected cyberspies to harvest vast amounts of data while going undetected. In the attacks, a highly sophisticated form of […]
LONG TERM COLLABRATION BEING WORKED OUT By K.R Sudhaman India-US bilateral trade, among the top 2 or 3 countries,…
For decades, the world of science fiction has been shaping our expectations of the future, with many puzzling terms of the past like 3-D printing, aerial drones, and virtual reality now having become reality nowadays. However, while we might be familiar with these terms, not all of us have actually experienced the full extent of how these concepts have revolutionised modern living. One of the sectors that […]
ABU DHABI // The capital of the UAE is a symbol of the future, the co-founder of a project to circumnavigate the world in a solar-powered aircraft told an audience on Monday. “Abu Dhabi is an oil producer that is diversifying to clean energy technologies and I think it is the perfect symbol,” said Bertrand Piccard, who was in the capital after being named the first Middle […]
ABU DHABI // The communities of Al Ain and Al Gharbia are being targeted for a series of walks to raise health awareness and battle diabetes. Six community walks a week for the next eight weeks will lead up to November’s Yas Island walkathon. The first two walks in Al Ain this weekend attracted 40 participants and organisers hope to see that number grow over coming weeks. […]
Two years on from its launch in the city, ride-hailing service Uber is using its Middle East & Africa headquarters in Dubai to lay the groundwork for expanding in the region–through more than just operating in new cities. Since August 2013, the US-based company, which connects drivers and passengers through smartphone apps, has commenced operations within the GCC in Doha, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah and Saudi Arabia’s […]
A display for the Windows 10 operating system is seen in a store window at the Microsoft store at Roosevelt Field in Garden City, New York July 29, 2015. Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/Files REUTERS – Microsoft Corp sent out invitations on Monday for an event on Oct. 6, where it is expected to unveil new devices that run on Windows 10, its latest operating system. “We’re eager to share […]
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 FRANKFURT German premium carmakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are snapping up software experts as tech firms such as Google threaten to outflank them in the race to develop a self-driving car. Software expertise has become a new battleground for automakers and tech firms as […]
GENEVA — The United Nations human rights chief called on Monday for an independent inquiry into violations in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition and by the Houthi rebels the coalition is fighting. More than 2,000 civilians have been killed and 4,000 wounded in the Yemen conflict, and the United Nations official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that the fighting had left 21 […]
JERUSALEM — Palestinian youths, some of them masked, clashed with Israeli police officers who entered Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound early Sunday in what appears to have become an increasingly familiar occurrence on the eve of Jewish holidays. This time, the police said, they had intelligence that youths had holed up in the mosque overnight and were planning confront Israeli security forces in an attempt to prevent […]
HAJJA, Yemen — The airstrike slammed into Al-Sham water-bottling plant at the end of the night shift, killing 13 workers who were minutes away from heading home. Standing among the strewn bottles, smoldering boxes and pulverized machines a few days after the airstrike here, the owner, Ibrahim al-Razoom, searched in vain for any possible reason that warplanes from a Saudi-led military coalition would have attacked the place. […]
LEBANON. On Sept. 11, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on the Republic of Lebanon to negative from stable. At the same time, we affirmed our ‘B-/B’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings. RATIONALE The outlook revision stems from our view that political uncertainty in Lebanon and regional tensions will continue to weigh on economic growth in the mediumterm. In […]
Middle East News Analysis By PETER BAKER and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS September 11, 2015 WASHINGTON — Having beaten back a congressional campaign to derail his nuclear agreement with Iran, President Obama now faces a panoply of challenges that may be just as daunting: making the deal actually work while repairing relations with disaffected allies and constraining Tehran’s regional ambitions. He got started Friday even as the House was still voting by announcing […]
Middle East By BEN HUBBARD September 11, 2015 IZMIR, Turkey — A large construction crane toppled over and crashed into the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca on Friday, killing at least 107 people and raising fears about the safety of the site before the yearly hajj pilgrimage that is expected to bring in millions of visitors to Saudi Arabia this month. Saudi Arabia’s civil defense authority […]
Huawei, a leading information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, has launched a new Joint Innovation Center (JIC) in Saudi Arabia together with Saudi Aramco and King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). Located in Dhahran Techno Valley Innovation Center, the centre will be dedicated to the oil and gas industry, jointly working with the leading oil and gas company and the university, said a statement. […]
UAE. Latest business survey data pointed to a robust and accelerated expansion in Dubai’s private sector output during August. Furthermore, the rate of business activity growth was the fastest seen since May, with all three monitored sub-sectors reporting stronger output growth in the latest survey period. The rebound in activity growth was underpinned by a stronger expansion in new business, which increased at the strongest rate in […]
ABU DHABI // As Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed continued to meet the families of the 45 servicemen who were killed in Yemen one week ago, charitable organisations and leaders have offered to provide support to their families. Sheikh Mohammed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, met bereaved families in Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah. And, in the capital, Sheikh Rashid […]
