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INTERNATIONAL. The era of the autonomous vehicle (AV) is fast approaching. Mass-market adoption of AVs will be the greatest inflection point for the automotive industry since the introduction of the assembly line and will confer tremendous benefits on society, according to a new report from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled Revolution Versus Regulation: The Make-or-Break Questions About Autonomous Vehicles, is being released today. It […]

INTERNATIONAL. Emerging Asian economies remain a challenging operating environment according to new risk ratings released today. In their first jointly produced economic and political risk ratings, Oxford Economics and Control Risks have evaluated the outlook for 164 countries worldwide, producing for each country a score based on a weighting of key political, economic, business and security risks. The ratings, drawn from the new Economic and Political Risk […]

UAE. Forbes Middle East has unveiled the names of its Most Powerful Arab Women for 2015 at a glittering awards ceremony that shone a light on some of the region’s most influential and accomplished leaders. The impressive event recognized the achievements of women in reaching the top of their fields in business and government and, in doing so, working towards a fairer and more equal working environment […]

Middle East By ISABEL KERSHNER September 18, 2015 JERUSALEM — Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, called Pope Francis to brief him on the “ongoing Israeli aggression in occupied East Jerusalem, and particularly against Al Aqsa Mosque.” Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, told the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, that “Israel is acting against the violence on the Temple Mount” and “is strictly maintaining the status […]

DUBAI // Forty-seven teams have been cleared for take-off for the forthcoming Red Bull Flugtag event in Dubai. The home-made flying machine competition takes place at Dubai Creek Park on November 27 after a nine-year hiatus. Participants will aim to break the world Flugtag record, which was set by the Chicken Whisperers in 2013, who managed to propel their flying machine 78.64 metres at an event in […]

A magnifying glass is held in front of a computer screen in this picture illustration taken in Berlin May 21, 2013. Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. The U.S. Defense Department is building a massive, electronic system to provide an overview of the vulnerabilities of the military’s computer networks, weapons systems, and installations, and help officials prioritize how to fix them, the deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command […]

Middle East By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI and ERIC SCHMITT September 17, 2015 The government of Iran released five senior members of Al Qaeda earlier this year, including the man who stepped in to serve as the terrorist group’s interim leader immediately after Osama bin Laden’s death, and who is the subject of a $5 million bounty, according to an American official who had been briefed on the matter. Iran’s release of the […]

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News Analysis President Obama in Washington on Wednesday. White House aides said Mr. Obama had always been skeptical about training Syrian rebels. By PETER BAKER September 17, 2015 WASHINGTON — By any measure, President Obama’s effort to train a Syrian opposition army to fight the Islamic State on the ground has been an abysmal failure. The military acknowledged this week that just four or five American-trained fighters are actually […]

The Federal Reserve kept its policy interest rate unchanged, showing reluctance to end an era of record monetary stimulus in a time of market turmoil, rising international risks and slow inflation at home. “Recent global economic and financial developments may restrain economic activity somewhat and are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term,” the Fed said in its statement. Thursday’s action signified […]

Private equity funds managed by Blackstone is set to acquire a majority of Serco Group’s private sector business process outsourcing (BPO) operations. The definitive agreement will include the former Intelenet business, for a consideration of £250 million ($385.7 million), approximately INR2,558 crores, said a statement. The enterprise value of this deal represents the largest acquisition by Blackstone in India, it said. The business has expected annual revenues […]

The development of autonomous vehicles (AV) hinges on cooperation among technology players in the areas of cybersecurity, high-definition maps, and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, said an industry expert. “But there are equally pressing questions about liability, vehicle certification, and regulatory frameworks,” explained said Nikolaus Lang, a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm. “Multi-stakeholder collaboration is key to developing win-win solutions—and […]

In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. today ruled that Apple has the right to seek an injunction to prevent Samsung from using several smartphone features found to have infringed on Apple patents. In a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court asserted that U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh erred in an earlier ruling against Apple’s request for an […]

Middle East Maricela Rangel Davalos, one of the Mexican tourists wounded on Sunday in an Egyptian Army airstrike in the Western Desert, left a Cairo hospital for the airport on Thursday. By JARED MALSIN September 17, 2015 CAIRO — Egypt’s chief prosecutor issued a ban on news media coverage in the case of an attack by security forces that killed 12 people, including eight Mexican tourists and their Egyptian […]

A recently discovered vulnerability in Android Lollipop allows an attacker to bypass the password lockscreen on a mobile device and gain full access. The flaw was discovered by a security researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, who said he has already alerted Google about his findings. The exploit requires an attacker to have physical access to the device but it will only work if the […]

Middle East Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday of foreign enemy subversions. By THOMAS ERDBRINK September 17, 2015 TEHRAN — Negotiating the nuclear agreement was a torturous, two-year process for Iran’s leaders, but a new kind of struggle is unfolding now in Iran, where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Hassan Rouhani have begun to tackle a question Iranians have not thought about much since the revolution […]

The Federal Reserve began a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday with economists evenly split on whether Thursday will see the first official U.S. interest rate rise since 2006. The decision by the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected on Thursday at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT). U.S. economic data are flashing conflicting signals, with unemployment falling but inflation subdued, while slowing growth in China […]

Middle East World Briefing By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS September 16, 2015 Lebanese police officers beat back protesters with clubs and sticks and arrested dozens on Wednesday in Beirut in the latest confrontations over the country’s summer trash crisis. A small group of activists had gathered near the Parliament building, some carrying eggs to pelt politicians’ convoys while others tried to block the street. Riot officers beat two demonstrators, and the […]

ABU DHABI // Young Emiratis must become fully engaged in the political process to ensure next month’s FNC elections are a success. Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for FNC Affairs and Chairman of the National Elecctions Commission, stressed the essential role youths have to play on October 3. “The youths’ voice is the most important voice in the coming elections,” Dr Gargash said. “We would like […]

|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 […]

WASHINGTON — Only four or five Syrian individuals trained by the United States military to confront the Islamic State remain in the fight, the head of the United States Central Command told a Senate panel on Wednesday, a bleak acknowledgment that the Defense Department’s $500 million program to raise an army of Syrian fighters has gone nowhere. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the top American commander in […]

WASHINGTON — President Obama will host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House on Nov. 9 in their first face-to-face meeting since their rupture over the international nuclear agreement with Iran, the White House said Wednesday. Mr. Obama invited Mr. Netanyahu to talk about the way forward now that the Iran agreement has cleared obstacles in Congress. The president has offered to find ways […]

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 […]

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 […]

|By TAP Staff| Global investors’ confidence in the world’s economic outlook has fallen significantly due to concerns over China and emerging markets, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for September. Asset allocators have adopted a “risk-off” stance in response. Some of the responses are: Threat of recession in China increases as biggest tail risk; concern over a potential emerging markets debt crisis also rises […]

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