RT @mashable: United Arab Emirates Drops BlackBerry Ban – http://mash.to/2QOEm
RT @mashable: United Arab Emirates Drops BlackBerry Ban – http://mash.to/2QOEm
October 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
UPDATE: RIM: Can’t Discuss Confidential UAE Agreement – WSJ.com
October 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Following a deal with the United Arab Emirates to avert a ban of key BlackBerry services, Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) said Friday that it can’t discuss the details of confidential regulatory matters in specific countries.
The U.A.E. ban would have come into effect Monday, but Friday its government said that Blackberry services “are now compliant with the U.A.E.’s telecommunications regulatory framework,” and that a “regulatory compliant solution” has been “applied.”
Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM said in a brief statement that it continues to approach lawful access matters internationally within the framework of core principles that it issued in mid-August.
Details of the solution between RIM and UAE couldn’t immediately be learned.
via UPDATE: RIM: Can’t Discuss Confidential UAE Agreement – WSJ.com.
UN Telecom Chief Wants BlackBerry to Divulge User Data
September 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
When it comes to data security issues, there is a blurry line between private sectors and government — particularly if the BlackBerry is involved.
The secretary-general of the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Hamadoun Toure, is attempting to define that gray area in favor of his constituents, calling on BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion to allow government law enforcement agencies access to user information, according to The Associated Press. Toure believes that governments engaged in fighting terrorism have the right to request the customer data.
But RIM begs to differ, stating that although the company readily complies with legal requests, it is unable to relinquish data exchanged over its corporate service due to the secure design.
While the 192-member ITU holds no independent regulatory power, Toure’s comments do reflect to a degree the general sentiment of the agency’s member nations. India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have all considered banning the BlackBerry, citing “security reasons,” mainly terror groups’ abilities to use the device to coordinate attacks against the state.
The BlackBerry is no stranger to being the center of attention in the debate over privacy and communications. Toure’s comments toward RIM simultaneously emerged with reports that Dubai’s police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, is concerned about espionage activities by the U.S. and Israel and has criticized the BlackBerry for being a spy tool.
UAE: BlackBerry Phones Could Threaten Security : NPR
July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The United Arab Emirates’ telecommunition watchdog says BlackBerry smartphones are a potential threat to the country’s national security and it is seeking changes in how the devices operate.
Authorities’ alarm over the phones comes a year after the Middle East country’s biggest state-run mobile operator was caught encouraging unwitting BlackBerry users to install software on the devices that could allow outsiders to peer inside. The government has never made fully clear what happened in that case.
The latest comments from the Emirati regulator raise questions about the gadgets’ legality in the country, home to the Mideast business hub of Dubai. They also highlight the government’s efforts to control the flow of information in the Arab Gulf nation, which actively censors websites and other forms of media seen as harming national security or conservative local values.
Italian executive extradited to US for bribing Indian firms-Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times
July 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
An Italian citizen has been extradited to the US from Germany for participating in an alleged conspiracy to secure contracts by paying bribes to officials of foreign state-owned companies in India and several other countries.
Flavio Ricotti, 49, a former executive of California-based valve company Control Components Inc. (CCI), was arrested Feb 14 in Frankfurt, Germany, and arrived in the US July 2, 2010, the Department of Justice announced.
Ricotti and five other former executives of CCI were charged April 8, 2009, in a 16-count indictment for their alleged roles in the foreign bribery scheme in connection with CCI projects in India, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Qatar and various other countries around the world.
via Italian executive extradited to US for bribing Indian firms-Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times.
A Line in the Sand: Getting Tough on Money Laundering in Dubai and the UAE | Westlaw Business
May 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Whopping $500 million fines are just one reason sanctions and anti-money laundering measures continue to haunt international commerce. With advances in electronic transmittals, hundreds of billions in dirty money swirls all over the world with breathtaking speed and efficiency. Rather than passively watching the problem spiral, however, the United Arab Emirates and one of its prominent regulators have stepped in with aggressive preemptive action.
With last week’s mega fine imposed by the U.S. on ABN Amro (since acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland) for “turning a blind eye” to sanctions against Iran, Cuba and other countries, the focus of international efforts to control criminal cash flows has received renewed attention. The U.S. and the UN have traditionally borne the yoke of international trafficking cops, but when it comes to money laundering, the United Arab Emirates and the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) have drawn a line in the sand.
The Sanctions Committee of the United Nations, for example, is a subset of the UN Security Council. From Saddam’s Iraq, to Darfur in the Sudan, the UN has long advocated the use of sanctions “as an enforcement tool when peace has been threatened and diplomatic efforts have failed.” As a consequence, companies and individuals doing business with rogue states bring themselves within the legal jurisdiction of a world body.
The U.S., meanwhile, has a number of different mechanisms for combating illicit traffic. On an international scale, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), contained within the Department of Treasury, maintains a list of Specially Designated Nationals. Doing business with individuals and companies on this list subjects U.S. citizens and residents to criminal penalties. Because the list is public information, a presumption of intent when doing business with any person or entity on the list. OFAC maintains a list of 20 extant sanctions programs on its website; the site also includes a list of memoranda between OFAC and bank regulators.
Though not as large or influential as the UN or U.S., the UAE, a geographically a tiny Gulf outpost, has in its own right backed up its claim as a world financial center by committing considerable energy and resources to combating not only money laundering but the financing of terror. The DFSA oversees the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a self-contained financial free zone with its own civil and commercial law framework located in the Emirate of Dubai. As for penal law, however, UAE federal law still applies not only to the DIFC but all free zones. The DFSA thus provides the compliance mechanisms and the UAE the criminal penalties for money laundering.
While not an Islamic issue, money laundering has received attention from both the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB). Both organizations, in their respective governance and corporate responsibility provisions, underscore the importance of compliance with relevant AML laws.
via A Line in the Sand: Getting Tough on Money Laundering in Dubai and the UAE.
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Worldwide web goes truly global with Arabic | Gulf News
May 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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There’s good reason Arabic advertisements are appearing more and more on websites across the globe.
Online, the Arab language is flourishing as the English-language dominated internet slowly gives way to a new multilingual era, promising billions of new e-commerce dollars and a growing sense of electronic cultural self-identity in the Middle East.
“With more users in the MENA region connecting to the internet, businesses of all types and sizes are starting to realise the opportunity to express their brand values through the online marketing space,” said Joanne Kubba, Global Communications and Public Affairs Manager at Google, Middle East and North Africa.
“This is being driven by the growth in users coming online in recent years. Whilst Google does not reveal country specific data, we have seen an increased demand for Google AdWords,” Kubba said.
According to World Internet Statistics, latest recorded figures show that from 2000 to 2009, Arabic language on the web grew 2,297 per cent, easily ahead of Russia's 1,359 per cent.
Of the world’s total 1.8 billion web users, 60.2 million (3.3 per cent) are Arabic speaking.
The mushrooming of Arabic on the internet can be attributed in part to ambitious policies such as those advocated by the United Arab Emirates, which leads the Middle East region with 74.1 per cent internet penetration.
As many as 3.5 million of the 4.8 million residents in the UAE are online.
Since 2000, the UAE has witnessed a 384 per cent increase in internet user growth, during a financial and social renaissance that has propelled the Emirates onto the world stage.
via gulfnews : Worldwide web goes truly global with Arabic.
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