July, 2016

• 16 July

  Early retirement rates go up in Saudi Arabia

    Riyadh / TNS While total number of retirees from government jobs declined to lowest levels in 2015, early retirement rates among public sector employees increased as compared to 2014. A recent report by General Organization for Retirement revealed a 7.5 increase in early retirement among government sector employees last year. According to report, the percentage of new retirees, as compared ...

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• 16 July

  Riyadh’s new Snow City vies to attract tourists

    Riyadh / TNS Saudi citizens and residents can now enjoy a white winter in an environment that is safe. This follows the Kingdom’s indoor snow theme park at Al-Othaim Mall Rabwa in Riyadh. Riyadh Gov. Prince Faisal bin Bandar inaugurated the Kingdom’s first Snow City. The latest tourist destination is described as a new chapter and a huge leap in ...

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• 16 July

  Ruling for Microsoft helps criminals, not privacy

  

  In an important decision with immense consequences for data storage services and law enforcement, a federal appeals court has quashed a warrant for e-mails that Microsoft was storing on a server in Ireland. Unless Congress changes the relevant law, this ruling creates the incentive for criminals — or anyone else who wants privacy protection from government surveillance — to make ...

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• 16 July

  People should be in charge of their data

    Leonid Bershidsky A clash between European Union bureaucracy and artificial intelligence is a plot worthy of a cyberpunk thriller. It will take place in real life in 2018, once some European data protection laws, passed earlier this year, go into effect. And, though we might instinctively be tempted to endorse progress over regulation, the EU is on the side ...

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• 16 July

  What Pokemon Go actually is (and isn’t)

    Virginia Postrel At 56, I’m way too old to be playing Pokemon Go. After all, the smartphone game’s phenomenal success is built on millennial nostalgia, and I don’t even have any kids to blame. But what started out as research has turned into a mild addiction. It’s fun to wander the streets finding magic critters and the tools to ...

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• 16 July

  Brexit bites: UK construction set for quarterly decline

  

    Bloomberg UK construction is on course to shrink for a second straight quarter and economists are warning of worse to come after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Building output fell 2.1 percent in May, almost double the decline forecast in a survey of economists, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed this week. There were falls ...

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• 16 July

  Brexit could help foreigners buy more of London

  

    Bloomberg One consequence of Brexit could be that more London properties end up in foreign hands. That’s the ironic product of Britain’s decision to exit the European Union — an outcome predicated in part on a desire to reduce immigration to the UK. Investors pulling money from UK property funds out of fear that real estate values will fall ...

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• 16 July

  Work on 2018 World Cup venue halted over dispute

  

    Saint Petersburg / AFP A dispute with local authorities has frozen building work on one of the venues for the 2018 World Cup in Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg, the firm overseeing the construction said this week. Inzhtransstroy-SPB, which is building the new ultra-modern 68,000-seat stadium, said in a statement that local authorities owed it one billion rubles ($16 ...

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• 16 July

  Standard Life, Legal & General join the property-fund sales rush

    Bloomberg Standard Life Investments and Legal & General Group Plc have joined the list of UK real estate fund managers offering buildings for sale after the UK’s vote to leave the European Union sparked an increase in redemptions. The asset managers are working with brokers to sell London office buildings, joining Henderson Global Investors and Aberdeen Asset Management Plc ...

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• 16 July

  Red flag signalling 2007 housing bust is fluttering again

  

    Bloomberg Almost nine years after the housing-market bust helped trigger the most recent recession, RealtyTrac senior vice president Daren Blomquist sees the industry waving a red flag. The same fervent speculation that abetted the housing bubble is showing up in the bloated share of foreclosures snapped up by third-party investors at auction — a record 31 percent in June, ...

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