UAE's commercial agencies' draft law to boost country’s competitiveness

Hussein Ibish: There are reasons for Democrats and Republicans to be happy

Rashmee Roshan Lall: Who are the women driving Joe Biden's success?

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now

Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Real Madrid (2) v Bayern Munich (1)
Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
When: 10.45pm, Tuesday
Watch Live: beIN Sports HD

Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses

Seek professional advice from a legal expert

You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor

You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline

In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support

Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

Power: 819hp

Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm

Price: From Dh1,700,000

Available: Now

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

National Editorial: Suleimani has been killed, now we must de-escalate

Mina Al Oraibi: Air strike casts a long shadow over the decade ahead

Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble

Matthew Levitt: Iran retains its ability to launch terror attacks

Hussein Ibish: Trump's order on solid constitutional ground

Simon Waldman: Cautious Israel keeping a low profile

Dr Nawal Al-Hosany: Why more women should be on the frontlines of climate action

Shelina Janmohamed: Why shouldn't a spouse be compensated fairly for housework?

Justin Thomas: Challenge the notion that 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus'

The National Editorial: Is there much to celebrate on International Women's Day 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal. 

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.” 

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.

Richard Heydarian: Decoding Asean's deliberate silence over the Myanmar coup

Kareem Shaheen: Our Myanmar reactions shaped by simplistic narratives

Sholto Byrnes: Washington tells South-East Asians to pick a side

UAE coins

Dh5 note

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• Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
• George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
• Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
• Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

• Priority access to new homes from participating developers
• Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
• Flexible payment plans from developers
• Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
• DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates

• Alistair Burt: Despite Brexit, Britain can remain a world power
• Sam Williams: Departure is influenced by its sense of place

All matches at the Harare Sports Club:

1^st ODI, Wednesday, April 10

2^nd ODI, Friday, April 12

3^rd ODI, Sunday, April 14

4^th ODI, Tuesday, April 16

UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed

 May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members

May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party

Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff

Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson

Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party

Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters

Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz

Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party

Clean water and solar homes: Zayed prize finalists present sustainability solutions 

Youth take centre stage for this year's Zayed Sustainability Prize

• Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
• Premier League-standard football pitch
• 400m Olympic running track
• NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
• 600-seat auditorium
• Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
• An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
• Specialist robotics and science laboratories
• AR and VR-enabled learning centres
• Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

National Editorial: Suleimani has been killed, now we must de-escalate

Mina Al Oraibi: Air strike casts a long shadow over the decade ahead

Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble

Matthew Levitt: Iran retains its ability to launch terror attacks

Damien McElroy: A CEO tasked with spreading Iran's influence

Hussein Ibish: Trump's order on solid constitutional ground

Simon Waldman: Cautious Israel keeping a low profile

Rashmee Roshan Lall: Sound of silence in South Asia

Richard Olson: Why Afghanistan will be very wary

Huddersfield Town permanent signings:

• Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
• Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
• Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
• Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
• Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
• Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
• Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
• Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer

Rating: 4/5

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris

• Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
• Power: 640hp
• Torque: 760nm
• On sale: 2026
• Price: Not announced yet

Kareem Shaheen: Even a pandemic could not unite today's America

Michele Wucker: The difference between a black swan and a grey rhino

Robert Matthews: Has flawed science and rushed research failed us?

Dr Nawal Al-Hosany: Why more women should be on the frontlines of climate action

Samar Elmnhrawy: How companies in the Middle East can catch up on gender equality

The National Editorial: Is there much to celebrate on International Women's Day 2021?

Justin Thomas: Challenge the notion that 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus'

National Editorial: Donald Trump has left his mark on the Middle East

Con Coughlin: The thorn in the side of Biden's foreign policy team

James Reinl: Biden’s Yemen U-turn gets thumbs-up overseas

Raghida Dergham: Will Biden's 'maximum diplomacy' with Iran work?

• Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
• Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
• Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
• Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
• 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
• Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women

Why Myanmar couldn't rise to meet the world's expectations

Suu Kyi's unholy alliance with Orban is a new despicable low

The halo that once crowned Suu Kyi has been replaced

France orders 250 million masks to ease shortage

Cannes Film Festival postponed due to coronavirus outbreak

France opens housing for infected homeless people

Canada should look past the US election outcome

There would be no Alphonso Davies without open borders

Hard-hit Canada is springing back to life – or to the already cliched 'new normal'

UAE coins

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Dh20 note

Dh50 note

Dh100 note

Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.

Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.

Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.

Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.

Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.