Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group said it is considering issuing subordinated Islamic bonds through its South African and Pakistani units to boost their regulatory capital. The Islamic bank’s plans come at a time when sovereign sukuk are expected from both countries later this year. The lender has operations in 15 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Al Baraka is working with the authorities in South […]
Bahrain’s central bank is finalising rules for the supervision of sharia-compliant advisory firms, part of a wider overhaul of standards as the Gulf state steps up its efforts in Islamic finance. Having been a pioneer of the sector, Bahrain is now competing with other centres such as Dubai, London and Kuala Lumpur for Islamic finance business. The rules would help small Islamic finance institutions and fund managers […]
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) will purchase a 25 percent stake in Indonesian Islamic lender Bank Panin Syariah, it said on Monday, as the United Arab Emirates-based bank looks to expand into the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Under the agreement, DIB – the largest Islamic bank in the UAE – will “jointly manage and operate” Bank Panin Syariah along with parent Bank Pan Indonesia, which will remain […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The death toll in the three-year Syrian conflict has risen to about 162,000, an increase of more than 10,000 in less than two months, according to an antigovernment monitoring group that is one of the few organizations still attempting to keep an exact count. The group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain and operates through a network of about […]
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 […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The general in charge of Syria’s air defense has been killed in fighting near Damascus, an opposition monitoring group and Syrian security officials said Sunday. The officer, Lt. Gen. Hussein Ayoub Ishaq, one of the highest-ranking officers to die during the country’s three-year conflict, commanded 60,000 troops in Syria’s air defense forces, said Hisham Jabber, a retired Lebanese Army brigadier general who closely follows […]
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 […]
Egypt’s weak currency, unstable security situation, energy crisis and a government that’s almost bankrupt after three years of political uncertainty hardly make ideal conditions for a market rally. But even as periodic blackouts hit Cairo and Islamist militants carry out attacks on security forces, Egypt this week is welcoming its first initial public offering since a revolution toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Arabian Cement, a […]
Scientists leading the fight against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome say the next critical front will be understanding how the virus behaves in people with milder infections, who may be spreading the illness without being aware they have it. Establishing that may be critical to stopping the spread of MERS, which emerged in the Middle East in 2012 and has so far infected more than 500 patients in […]
The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system, or the podcar, may soon become reality in Dubai. In Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, the little driverless cabins already do rounds as one of the first operating system in the world. Futuristic as they may seem, the system could well be feasible in Dubai, too, as a rising population with high mobility rates pushes towards a diversification of the transport […]
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. […]
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations is under pressure to ratchet up aid to nongovernmental organizations that can operate in the vast sections of Syria under opposition control, as most of the humanitarian relief sponsored by the organization ends up in the western slice of the country held by President Bashar al-Assad. More than 85 percent of food aid and more than 70 percent of medicines went […]
|By TAP Staff| Sunil John, founder and CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, the region’s leading public relations consultancy, has been awarded the “SABRE Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement”, the first person from the Middle East to be honoured with this prestigious global award. The SABRE Awards, which are presented by The Holmes Group, a leading global public relations publishing organisation, acknowledged John’s position at the “forefront of change” […]
Photo: Martin Pope As if the middle classes didn’t have enough to worry about already – what with shrinking pension pots, children who refuse to fly the nest and a ‘hidden’ 60 per cent tax rate, as revealed by the Telegraph – there’s a new crisis on the way: the spelt flour shortage. The ancient grain that has become fashionable among artisan bread-fanciers as a gluten-free alternative […]
SOMA, Turkey — As grieving families prepared to bury more of the dead from Turkey’s worst mine disaster, the country’s energy minister said on Friday that up to 18 people were still missing and the death toll could exceed 300. The assessment was lower than other accounts suggesting that scores of miners were still unaccounted for. An explosion at a coal mine on Tuesday near this town […]
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 […]
Dana Gas, an energy company based in the United Arab Emirates, is trying to leverage its government’s financial aid to Egypt to get preferential treatment on payment for its goods there. Dana has operations in the Nile delta, Upper Egypt and the Gulf of Suez that produced the equivalent of 39,100 barrels of oil a day on average during the first quarter. Yet like other foreign energy […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blocked an illegal influx of Africans into Israel in recent years and pressed the tens of thousands of migrants there to leave – calling them an existential threat to the country. But on Wednesday Israel’s state comptroller issued a stinging indictment of government handling of some 50,000 migrants living in the country, saying that they are barred from a minimal level of […]
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 […]
Equity index provider MSCI reclassified equities across a broad spectrum of markets on Wednesday as part of its semi-annual review, adding among others U.S. social networking company Twitter Inc to its world index. It reclassified Qatar and United Arab Emirates to emerging market from frontier-market status as expected. Qatar will have a 0.47 percent weighting in the MSCI Emerging Market index, while UAE will have 0.58 percent. […]
The Scottish Parliament: no questions welcome (Alamy) The extraordinary row about how the Scottish Parliament’s committees and their supposed reputation for independence is being so systematically compromised by the SNP is more than just a party political spat. That ministers and their paid hacks are suborning their ever-willing backbench MSPs to dilute or even excise any criticism of the Scottish Government is a negation of democracy. It […]
Damac Real Estate Development Ltd. (DMC) is bolstering Dubai’s drive to lead the global Islamic economy with serviced apartments that are Shariah-compliant from their financing to their restaurants and saunas. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC (ADIB) is managing the project’s funding as Damac, which issued its debut sukuk last month, sells the certified Islamic residences, Niall Mc Loughlin, the Dubai-based developer’s senior vice president of communication, said […]
