For years, Abu Dhabi’s real estate market has paled next to its more dynamic, glamorous rival in neighbouring Dubai. But that may be changing as Abu Dhabi engineers a market recovery that could attract billions of dollars of fresh foreign investment. Real estate prices in Dubai jumped over 20 percent last year, analysts estimate, as the emirate rebounded from a crash in 2008-2010 which slashed prices by […]
Robocoin said on Tuesday that later this month it will install the first automated teller machines in the United States that let users buy and sell bitcoin, the latest step into the mainstream for the digital currency. The kiosks, to be installed in Seattle, and Austin, Texas, are similar to ATMs but have scanners to read government-issued identification such as a driver’s license or a passport to […]
A subsidiary of Dubai-based builder Arabtec Holding has won a 1 billion dirham ($272 million) contract in Kazakhstan, Arabtec said on Wednesday. The subsidiary, EFECO, will carry out mechanical, electrical and plumbing work at the Abu Dhabi Plaza development in the Kazakh capital Astana. The development is under construction by a joint venture of Arabtec and Consolidated Contractors Co, under a 4 billion dirham contract with Abu […]
Du, the United Arab Emirates’ second biggest telecoms operator, expects further growth in the business due to a buoyant local economy, its chief executive said after reporting a rise in revenue and a better than expected fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday. Du expanded rapidly after ending Etisalat’s domestic monopoly in 2007 to claim 46.4 percent of mobile subscribers as of Sept. 30, the most recently available data. However, […]
High energy price volatility has for the first time replaced global climate framework as the top critical uncertainty driving the world energy agenda, according to the 2014 World Energy Issues Monitor, released by the World Energy Council (WEC). Global climate framework uncertainty, while still a key issue, is now perceived by energy leaders to have less impact than in the previous three years of the study. Meanwhile, […]
Abu Dhabi’s new financial free zone has hired a former executive from neighbouring Dubai’s financial centre to spearhead its growth. Jan Bladen will be executive adviser and programme leader at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a full-service financial zone which the wealthy emirate is building on an island near its downtown area, the ADGM said in a statement on Tuesday. From 2005 until late last year, Bladen […]
A Saudi English-language daily has become the country’s first newspaper with a female editor-in-chief after the Saudi Gazette this week appointed Somayya Jabarti to succeed veteran journalist Khaled Almaeena for the top post. “I was pleasantly surprised,” she told the Wall Street Journal over the phone, “because I did not think we as a country were ready for a female editor. But I believe this is a […]
Iran’s largest private bank is suing the British government for almost $4 billion in damages after the Supreme Court quashed sanctions imposed against it over alleged links to Tehran’s nuclear program. Bank Mellat wants compensation for the “significant pecuniary loss” and substantial reputational damage it sustained as a result of sanctions imposed in 2009, according to a claim filed in London’s High Court and seen by Reuters […]
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s most profitable lender, said it will consider acquisitions in the Middle East as part of plans to boost earnings from the region by 50 percent this year. “We’re looking to see if there are acquisition opportunities,” Zhou Xiaodong, chief executive officer for the Middle East, said in an interview from the lender’s Dubai offices. “It’s a good strategy. […]
Kickstarter, the fundraising platform used by millions of people to raise capital for creative projects and businesses, said on Saturday that hackers had gained access to some of its customers’ data earlier this week but that the breach had been repaired. “No credit card data of any kind was accessed by hackers. There is no evidence of unauthorized activity of any kind on all but two Kickstarter […]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she would talk to French President Francois Hollande about building up a European communication network to avoid emails and other data passing through the United States. Merkel, speaking on Saturday ahead of a visit to France, has been pushing for greater data protection in Europe following reports last year about mass surveillance in Germany and elsewhere by the U.S. National […]
Disparity in customs duties on imported gold works has diverted gold trade from Saudi Arabia to Dubai despite the existence of a unified GCC customs duties system, a key jewel expert in Jeddah told local media. In Saudi Arabia, gold traders have to pay 5 percent of the value of gold works imported into the Kingdom whereas traders in Dubai are paying 0.5 percent of that value […]
A well-timed launch saw Dubai Investments Park achieve favourable terms on its debut $300 million, 4.296 percent five-year Reg S sukuk issue, a deal that may serve to accelerate the plans of other regional potential issuers. The real estate firm, rated BB by Standard & Poor’s, kicked off the deal in a strong week for emerging markets and to a market starved of Middle East paper: it […]
A U.S. border checkpoint located a day’s flight from New York in the Arabian desert promises to become an oasis for weary travelers heading for the States. U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened an Abu Dhabi base on Jan. 24, the first in the Middle East and the second outside the Americas after Ireland. Another post is planned in Dubai within a year as part of a […]
Emirates and Jetstar have announced an agreement which is set to open up new destinations for Emirates passengers across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia as the Dubai-based airline continues to connect people, places and passions. Emirates’ code will now be placed on a number of routes operated by Jetstar Airways in Australia and New Zealand and Jetstar Asia, giving passengers access to 27 new routes […]
Comcast Corp is buying Time Warner Cable Inc for $45.2 billion in an all-stock deal, combining the nation’s two largest cable operators, according to people familiar with the matter. The friendly takeover comes as a surprise after months of public pursuit of Time Warner Cable by smaller rival Charter Communications Inc, and immediately raised questions as to whether it would pass regulatory scrutiny. Comcast will pay $158.82 […]
A massive cyber attack from unknown sources that has been spamming bitcoin exchanges is highlighting some of the dangers people can encounter when they exchange cash for digital currencies like the bitcoin, experts said on Wednesday. The attack, which is technically known as a distributed denial of service attack, involved thousands of phantom transactions, forcing at least three of the online platforms that store bitcoins and trade […]
HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has been cleared of any wrongdoing following a doping scandal at his Godolphin racing organisation that saw a trainer banned for eight years, an internal report said on Wednesday. HH Sheikh Mohammed, Dubai’s ruler and Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE, commissioned a report by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police chief commissioner, to investigate the scandal and interview key […]
Dubai is considering the introduction of a salary threshold for being eligible to own a car, Director General of Dubai Municipality Hussain Lootah told a local newspaper. This will encourage more people to use Dubai’s public transportation, he said. “There are more than 200 nationalities in Dubai,” he said. “I can’t see [education and awareness] having an effect. Adding that, “unless you go hard, no one will […]
U.K. billionaire Richard Branson said his Virgin Galactic venture is on track to carry its first fare-paying passenger to the edge of space this year, and that he plans to take his family on a flight some time in 2014. Virgin Galactic, which completed the third rocket-powered supersonic flight of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle from Mojave Air and Space Port in California last month, is on course to […]
President Barack Obama was sued by Senator Rand Paul over U.S. electronic surveillance he claims is illegal, adding to challenges that may land post-Sept. 11 government data collection in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Kentucky Republican announced today that he had filed his complaint in Washington federal court. Paul was joined as co-plaintiff by FreedomWorks Inc., a Tea Party-backed group. The filing couldn’t be immediately confirmed in […]
Fox News – The Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan has already put the world on notice, from its standard stance on opulence in the S550 to the impeccably impressive S63 AMG super sedan. Now, the sedan gets a sleeker, sportier companion: the 2015 S-Class Coupe. A striking profile marks the S-Class Coupe apart from the teeming hordes of four-doored coupe wannabes. This is a true coupe, and it wears its proportions like a larger-than-life sports […]
Nokia said on Wednesday it plans to challenge a Delhi High Court ruling that is blocking the transfer to Microsoft of assets related to its mobile phone business. One such asset – a plant in Chennai – is among Nokia’s biggest phone-making factories. Local authorities seized it last year in a tax dispute, blocking its transfer to Microsoft which bought Nokia’s mobile phone business. Nokia agreed in […]
Devender Ojha was a student in high school when he created a comic strip about a headmaster who used to turn up to class drunk. The teenager made copies of his work and displayed them in his village in Uttarakhand. It wasn’t long before it got noticed. “After that, that headmaster was sacked from the school and new headmaster came there,” said Ojha, who is now 24 […]
