February, 2017

• 2 February

  Slack messaging sets sights on big businesses

    SAN FRANCISCO / AP Slack Technologies, a fast-growing startup trying to wean businesses off email by hooking employees on its more informal messaging service, is now hoping to snare the world’s biggest companies as customers. The company unveiled a new feature intended to let workers in different departments communicate more easily with each other. The new option, called “Enterprise ...

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• 1 February

  DIFC Courts handles cases valued at AED5.85 billion

    Dubai / WAM DIFC Courts, Dubai’s establis- hed English-language commercial courts, handled cases totalling AED5.85 billion (US$1.59 billion), up 5 percent year-on-year, in 2016. The main Court of First Instance (CFI) handled approximately the same number of cases as in 2015 but saw the average value of each increase by 17 percent to AED104.58 million. The total value of ...

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• 1 February

  RAK foreign trade grows by 38 percent in five years

    RAS AL KHAIMAH / WAM Foreign trade in Ras al-Khaimah grew by 38 percent between 2011 and 2015, according to a study published by the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called “An analytical study about foreign trade in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah”. Dr Ahmed Rashed Al Shamili, Assistant Director-General for Commercial Services and Business Development, said the ...

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• 1 February

  Abu Dhabi panel reviews study on Emiratisation in private sector

    ABU DHABI / WAM The Economic Committee of Abu Dhabi Executive Council’s General Secretariat organised a workshop for reviewing the results and recommendations of the study on the legislation of Emiratisation in the private sector. The year-long study, held under the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, was conducted by a team whose members came from different organisations. It ...

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• 1 February

  Mohamed reconstitutes Abu Dhabi Ports’ board

    Abu Dhabi / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, in his capacity as Chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, has issued a resolution reconstituting the board of directors of Abu Dhabi Ports Company under the chairmanship of Dr Sultan Ahmed ...

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• 1 February

  Stephen Bannon’s dangerous populist revolution

  

  At the red-hot center of President Trump’s first 10 days in office has been his strategist Stephen Bannon, who proclaims a global populist movement for ‘Judeo-Christian’ values and against extremism. Bannon is a passionate ideologue who is the intellectual center of the new administration. For nearly a decade he has been advertising his desire to turn America and the world ...

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• 1 February

  Apple’s glorious past casts pall on pedestrian present

  

    Don’t get lulled into complacency. Everything is not fine in the Apple Inc. empire. On the heels of Apple’s first annual revenue decline in 15 years, the company on Tuesday posted a revenue gain of 3.3 percent in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31. That was better than Wall Street’s recalibrated expectations, and Apple’s sizable profit margins expanded ...

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• 1 February

  Trump and the art of the Syrian peace deal

  

    For almost half a decade, the world’s only superpower has mostly abdicated its role in helping to resolve the world’s most consequential conflict. Now former President Barack Obama’s excessive caution about Syria has given way to President Donald Trump’s unstrategic uncertainty. The question is whether this qualifies as an improvement. It’s certainly good news that Russia has invited the ...

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• 1 February

  Confusion, protests persist over Trump travel ban

    US President Donald Trump’s immigration ban and curb on refugee admission sparked a global backlash. It is highly confusing and utterly condemnable. Refugees, visa holders and permanent US residents are all among those affected. On the other hand, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued a statement declaring that the entry of green-card holders is in the national interest. He ...

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• 1 February

  The dream of cheap nuclear power is over now

  

    For much of my life, I loved the idea of nuclear power. The science was so cool, futuristic and complicated, the power plants so vast and majestic. I devoured science-fiction novels like “Lucifer’s Hammer,” where a plucky nuclear entrepreneur restarts civilization after a comet almost wipes us out. I thought of accidents like Three Mile Island and even Chernobyl ...

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