Middle East By ELISABETH MALKIN and RICK GLADSTONE September 15, 2015 Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that eight Mexicans had been killed in the Egyptian military’s mistaken assault on a tourist convoy in the desert over the weekend. The news quadrupled the number of Mexican tourists known to have been killed in the assault on Sunday in western Egypt’s storied White Desert area. At least 12 people were killed in all, […]
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 […]
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 […]
CAIRO — The mistaken airstrike by the Egyptian military that killed a dozen people on a Mexican tourist trip in the Western Desert hit at a picnic in the middle of the day, witnesses said Monday, raising new questions about both the extent of the error and the official explanations. The convoy of four sport utility vehicles was about three hours southwest of Cairo on a typical […]
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 […]
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Jewish man died early Monday morning after attackers pelted the road he was driving on with rocks as he was returning home from a dinner celebrating Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, the Israeli authorities said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting to discuss rock-throwing, mostly by Palestinian youths. The man was identified in local news reports as Alexander Levlovich, […]
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 […]
FRANKFURT Flush with cash and confidence after years of rising sales, German carmakers are used to reaping industry-leading returns. But with Chinese demand abruptly slowing, the profit engine has begun to sputter, overshadowing the glitz of the Frankfurt auto show which opens on Tuesday. For the home team of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen, as well as European rivals such as PSA Peugeot Citroen, China’s downturn also threatens […]
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 C. J. CHIVERS and ERIC SCHMITT September 11, 2015 The United States has confirmed the presence of traces of sulfur mustard, a chemical warfare agent, on fragments of ordnance recently used by the Islamic State in attacks in Syria and Iraq, according to two American officials familiar with the results of laboratory analysis of the samples. The laboratory tests, which were also performed on scraps of clothing from victims, […]
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 […]
The UAE’s Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group (FERG), comprising of businesses engaged in money exchange and remittances in the country, has ramped up its awareness strategy to combat cybercrime. The strategy focuses on disseminating information to member exchange houses to combat cybercrime activities costing the global economy over $110 billion every year, said a statement. Rajiv Raipancholia, FERG secretary and Orient Exchange’s chief executive officer, said: “Not […]
INTERNATIONAL. Apple® and Hermès today introduced Apple Watch® Hermès, a new collection of Apple Watch in stainless steel with finely crafted leather bands in distinctive styles from Hermès, including the Single Tour, Double Tour and Cuff, while respecting the design and functionality of the Apple Watch. The collaboration merges Apple’s unparalleled product innovation with the heritage, iconography and craftsmanship of Hermès, creating a unique expression of Apple […]
Video The Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton backed the Iran deal in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Wednesday. By DAVID E. SANGER and AMY CHOZICK September 9, 2015 WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday embraced the Iran nuclear deal that she paved the way for as secretary of state, but said it would work only “as part of a larger strategy toward Iran” that contained the […]
Middle East By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN September 9, 2015 WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders on Wednesday postponed debate on President Obama’s landmark nuclear accord with Iran amid a revolt by some Republicans who claimed the White House had not disclosed secret side agreements on the deal. The delay of the historic debate because of Republican infighting opened a new twist in the White House’s effort to move forward with the […]
Middle East Palestinian supporters of mourabitat demonstrated last week against Israeli plans to forbid the group to enter the compound in Jerusalem that Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, or Al Aqsa, and that Jews call the Temple Mount. By DIAA HADID September 9, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel on Monday officially outlawed an organization of Muslim women who chase and shout at Jewish visitors to a contested holy […]
UAE. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, has today published a special report on the middle-income housing segment in the Middle East and North Africa region. The report highlights the social and economic impact of a marked shortfall in the required supply of middle-income housing, suggesting that significant efforts are needed to address the current imbalance. The report clearly outlines that this shortage […]
UAE. A report published today by international real estate advisor Savills has ranked the United States of America (USA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore respectively as the top three countries for residential investability on the basis of economic growth and market recovery. The new Savills World Residential Investability Ranking focuses on countries with cities and resort locations that have consistently attracted investor interest over recent […]
|By Matein Khalid| The Federal Reserve could well raise its overnight borrowing rate at the next FOMC monetary policy conclave on September 17. Though contagion from China’s 40% stock market meltdown has triggered bear markets from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and plunged Asian/emerging markets equities into ta ghastly replay of 1998’s epic meltdown (General Suharto’s overthrow, the Russian rouble default, Malaysia’s capital controls, the run on the […]
