Trusting your telecom provider with your 'Digital Self'

KUWAIT: As online business continues to grow, the issue of identity becomes increasingly thorny. Passwords proliferate and security details are requested by an ever growing number of service providers and content owners. New services, such as cloud computing, make the protection of personal details even more complex. As we shop, meet friends and share information online, we create an identity that is uniquely our own. We create a 'Digital Self.'With so much of our 'self' online, who do we trust to protect, use and manage our information?A privacy survey conducted by Nokia Siemens Networks in September 2009 in 14 countries revealed that banks are the most trusted institutions when it comes to looking after personal data, followed closely by telecommunications service providers. Mobile providers, landline telephone providers and internet providers also ranked considerably

Small businesses play strategic role in development of Kuwait

KUWAIT: On Monday April 26, 2010 under the Patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Sabah the Kuwait Economic Society (KESOC) organized a conference titled "Development Plan and future of Small Business and Employment Opportunities Conference."MP Dr. Rola Dashti, the head of the KESOC said, "This conference is an extension to the regional conference for small businesses prepared by the Economic Society which paved the way for the national and regional interest in this Industry. In addition, it helped shed the light on the role of the youth in advancing development."MP Dashti stressed that KESOC is eager to transform the demographic stow, by this she means the minority of the Kuwaiti nationals in the country, into an advantage by supporting the small and medium businesses sector. In addition, this sector proved its efficiency by providing a

Philippine Embassy, Overseas Labor Office launch Job Fair for Filipinos

KUWAIT: The Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines and The Philippines Overseas Labor Office in Kuwait, in cooperation with the Asian Cultural Network, will hold a Job Fair for the expatriate Filipino workers in Kuwait on May 1, 2010. The event is being held under the patronage of Ambassador of the Philippines to Kuwait Ricardo Endaya. It will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hyatt Hotel in Maidan Hawally. The event, organized in celebration of Labor Day, will offer 1,500 jobs for Filipinos in Kuwait and the Philippines.Ambassador Endaya stated, "The job fair intends to

Avatar sets first-day Blu-ray sales record

LOS ANGELES: DVDs and Blu-ray Discs of James Cameron's Avatar flew off store shelves Thursday, the movie's first day in stores, despite being available in just the 2D format.An early industry estimate set overall disc sales comfortably north of 4 million units, putting it well on track to become the year's top-selling release to date.Blu-ray sales - at 1.5 million copies - well outpaced first-day sales of previous high-definition top dog The Dark Knight.Retailers sold out of 60 percent of their Blu-ray inventory on average, said a spokesman for distributor 20th Century Fox. He declined to specify unit shipments. Mass

Kuwait happy with oil price, but not OPEC compliance

KUWAIT: Kuwait, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is happy with oil prices but unhappy with the producer group's compliance with output targets, its oil minister said on Thursday.US crude traded around 83 US dollars a barrel, just a few dollars from an 18-month high over $87 hit earlier this month. Oil has stayed for four weeks traded above the $70-$80 range that top exporter Saudi has described as fair.The current price was "very fair", Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah Al-Sabah told reporters after inaugurating a new oilfield facility. There was no need for OPEC

Zain Saudi faces no funding problems

RIYADH: Loss-making mobile operator Zain Saudi Arabia does not face any financing pressure despite huge investments it has made, its chief executive said on television, reiterating it might raise its capital.The company, which is 25 percent owned by Kuwait's Zain, said in January it was in talks with creditors after missing some commitments last year on a 2.5 billion US dollar Islamic loan.It started operations late in 2008 after paying with other investors $6 billion to win the third Saudi mobile license. It competes with larger rivals Saudi Telecom and Mobily."There is no funding pressure due to our heavy investments,"

Kuwait hires LNG tanker as offshore terminal for summer imports

CAPITALS: Kuwait has hired a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker to serve as an offshore terminal to help the country meet rising demand for gas from power plants during the summer months.The ship, Explorer, owned by Excelerate Energy and Exmar NV, arrived in Kuwait on March 28 with a cargo of LNG from Trinidad and Tobago, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The tanker can convert LNG back to a gas."The Explorer will stay until autumn to receive LNG via ship-to-ship and to regas the LNG," said Andree Stracke, chief commercial officer of Excelerate, an LNG trading company

'Yes' to privatization

KUWAIT: We can repeat ourselves again and again. It's time to move ahead and depend on our private sector to create new job opportunities for our young graduates that are now reaching over 9000 per annum. We are pleased that the gravitation law was passed by the majority of our national assembly on its deliberation last week. Furthermore, we are optimistic that it will get the final approval in the next session.It's the only way to move ahead with our future development plans. It is to be the core of our success. Without it Kuwait can't move ahead, it will remain static and can say goodbye to any progress that we had in mind of financially and economically growing and in creating our future human resources.By all means our government can recruit as many Kuwaitis or be forced

Fatma Al-Ali calls for further investment in culture

SOUSSE, Tunisia: There should be further investment in cultural sectors through setting up of cultural channels aimed at promoting the responsible modernist culture to support cultural and artistic creativity by women and society as a whole, Kuwaiti writer Dr. Fatma Al-Ali said on Sunday.Dr. Ali stressed in a statement to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) at the close of the 15th Creative Arab Women Festival the necessity of dealing with what she described as "trends seeking to assassinate man's humanity" through muzzling the latent faculties of creativity.She pointed out that modernism is a humanist movement that believes in the future

Maradona hints at Munich line-up for World Cup opener

BUENOS AIRES: Diego Maradona said on Friday that Argentina's line-up in their World Cup opener against Nigeria could be identical to the one which started the 1-0 win over Germany in a warm-up in Munich last month.Maradona, speaking to local radio station FM Metro, said Argentina will play with four centre backs and Jonas Gutierrez and Angel Di Maria on the wings at the tournament in South Africa. He added that 20 players were sure of a place in the squad for the finals starting on June 11. Argentina meet Nigeria in Johannesburg on June 12 in Group B which

Nomura initiates GCC equity markets with positive view

CAPIATLS: Nomura started coverage of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) equity markets with a constructive short and long-term view. The brokerage said factors such as GCC's strong economic fundamentals, equity liquidity, increasing liberalization of the financial sector and likely graduation of some GCC markets from frontier to emerging status should increase institutional participation."We believe that GCC's status as one of the easiest places to do business in the world - both developed and emerging - is not being properly acknowledged," the brokerage said in a note.Educational standards and skills in GCC markets were ahead of emerging markets even though they