ABU DHABI / WAM The m-Government – Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that 1,800 persons participated in the evaluation of the official portal of the UAE government, Government .ae, during July 2017, with a result showing 84 percent satisfaction with the quality of the portal’s content, while 16% percent said they were dissatisfied with the content, and provided some comments ...
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Clash over Brexit timetable as UK publishes more policy papers
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBloomberg Britain and the European Union are at odds over how soon the Brexit talks can pivot towards a trade deal as Theresa May’s government seeks to turn on the pressure by disclosing more policy details. The UK government will publish five papers this week, with two dropping on Monday. The one that examined the treatment of goods said that ...
Read More »US slashes visa after Russia ‘cuts staff’
Bloomberg The US said it’s slashing visa services in Russia after the Kremlin ordered it to cut two-thirds of staff at its embassy and consulates as relations between the former Cold War rivals spiraled. All non-immigrant visa operations will be halted from Aug. 23 and will resume “on a greatly reduced scale†from Sept. 1, with applicant interviews conducted solely ...
Read More »Citigroup’s Japan HQ, staff to shift
Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. will move its Japan headquarters and about 1,200 employees to a new building in Tokyo by the end of the third quarter, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York-based firm will officially move the location of its main Japan office to the Otemachi Park Building from the Shin-Marunouchi Building on August 28, said the ...
Read More »Advertisers rip a page from Wall Street playbook to curb fraud
Bloomberg An online advertisement for Lancome lipstick or a Lamborghini might not appear to have anything to do with the technology guts of modern financial markets. But with fraud rampant, some of Wall Street’s hottest buzzwords are being uttered on Madison Avenue. About a fifth of digital ad spending—an estimated $16 billion this year—will wind up in the pockets of ...
Read More »Total chases growth with $5bn purchase of Maersk Oil unit
Bloomberg Total SA agreed to buy the oil and gas unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the French company’s biggest acquisition since 1999 and another sign of the accelerating pace of energy deals after a long downturn. Total will pay Maersk with $4.95 billion of its own shares and assume $2.5 billion of the Copenhagen-based company’s debt, according to a statement ...
Read More »Sempra Energy offers to buy Oncor for $9.45 billion
Bloomberg US utility owner Sempra Energy has agreed to buy control of Texas power distributor Oncor Electric Delivery Co. for $9.45 billion, topping a bid by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. just last month. Sempra’s deal for Energy Future Holdings Corp., which owns 80 percent of Oncor, is valued at about $18.8 billion including debt, the San Diego-based company said ...
Read More »Iraq plans major change into oil pricing for Asia
SINGAPORE / DUBAI / Reuters Iraq has informed its customers that it plans to switch its price benchmark for Basra crude in Asia to DME Oman futures from January, dropping the average of Platts’ Oman-Dubai quotes, in a major shift in the way it prices its oil. The proposal by state-oil marketer SOMO would mark a significant change by OPEC’s ...
Read More »Iran seeks ‘funds’ for oil sector
BEIRUT / Reuters Attracting foreign investment for Iran’s oil sector will continue to be a top priority during President Hassan Rouhani’s second term, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said. “Attracting foreign investment and technology is a priority for us in the oil industry, whether in shared fields or for increasing the production of oil at fields that are already operational,†...
Read More »Shell mulls buying Israel, Cyprus gas for Egypt plant
Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc is seeking creative solutions to bring gas from Israel and Cyprus to market, a step that could help turn the Mediterranean region into a major gas- producing hub. Shell is in talks to buy natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan field, combine it with output from Cyprus’s Aphrodite field, in which it owns a 35 percent ...
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