When the Earth decided to disrupt everyone’s schedules by not ending as promised on December 21 last year, film studios had to hurriedly fish their 2013 calendars out of the bin.
While this means that we'll be actually getting to catch a bit more of Smaug in the second Hobbit, it does also mean we'll have to endure Bruce Willis squeezing into a vest once more and Vin Diesel driving a car really quite fast again.
Here are the titles likely to dominate the box offices.
Superheroes? In films? Yes, it's true. And arguably the most anticipated film of the year is the biggest of them all. Man of Steel (June) sees Henry Cavill don the iconic red trousers as Superman, with Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as ma and pa Kent and Amy Adams as Lois Lane. Directed by Zack Snyder (300) and a script from The Dark Knight co-writer David Goyer, it's set to be pretty massive when it lands.
Then there's Iron Man 3 (May), this time with Guy Pearce as an evil geneticist (in a lab coat, no doubt) as the creator of a virus spreading through nanotechnology and the Hong Kong star Andy Lau adding some international punches (hello, huge Chinese cinema market!).
Thor: The Dark World (July) completes a trio that, combined, are likely to make more money that most countries' GDPs. Assuming it's not as bad as the last outing from the nail clipper-lacking one, The Wolverine (July) could also be worth a shot, and while it's likely to be the less serious of the bunch, if it's anything like the first, Kick-Ass 2 (July) should be ace.
It's not only superheroes who get sequels. If you've seen the 12-minute-long trailer, you should have noticed J?J Abrams's Star Trek into Darkness (May) looks pretty epic, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the main villain and Spock getting up to all sorts of logical mayhem in a volcano.
At 57, you might have thought Bruce Willis would have settled into light-hearted family dramas. A Good Day to Die Hard (February) does involve John McClane's estranged son, but predictably the drama entails a prison escape, a rogue Russian leader and the assassination of a US president.
If you like that sort of thing, Fast Six (May) sees Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Michelle Rodriguez pull some more serious expressions while in cars going above the speed limit, this time in the UK.
And finally, at the end of the year comes The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (December). If you've only just caught the visual treat that was the first, which gave just a sneak peek of the all-important dragon, you'll be counting down those 11 months.
There are a couple of high-profile returns in comedy land, too, with Ron Burgundy leading the pack in Anchorman: the Legend Continues (December) almost a decade since the lovably sexist news anchor first unleashed a thousand catchphrases.
The Hangover 3 (May) sees the usual suspects reunite for more uncouth, dialogue-light high jinks, while Pixar's prequel Monsters University (June 21), seemingly a lifetime in production, takes Mike and Sulley back to their fratboy youths.
Also in funnyland comes The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (March), in which Steve Carell does his best Siegfried and Roy impressions as a big-haired Las Vegas magician taking on the street performer Jim Carrey (last seen being genuinely amusing some time ago).
Did you love Sam Raimi's low-budget 1981 frightfest The Evil Dead? Well, you're set to (probably) hate The Evil Dead (April), featuring neither Raimi's distinctive camerawork nor Bruce Campbell's blood-curdling screams from the original. There's more hope for Oldboy (October), loosely based on the 2003 South Korean thriller, given that Spike Lee is at the helm.
Perhaps most impressive for 2013 are the number of big-budget mega-production films without any franchise connections. Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim (July) has had people licking their lips since it was first announced, with giant robots, giant beasts and giant budgets battling it out in homage to Japanese monster films.
Elysium (March) sees Neill Blomkamp carry on District 9's class warfare to the future, with Matt Damon as an ex-con on a mission to bring equality to an overpopulated future Earth and a luxurious space station where all the rich people live.
Brad Pitt battles a zombie apocalypse in World War Z (June), while in Oz: The Great and Powerful, James Franco goes back to the wizard's roots as a Kansas-based magician who sets up shop in the land of yellow brick roads.
Ah yes, that'll be The Lone Ranger (May), with Armie Hammer doing the "Hi-yo Silver"ing as the masked ex-Texas ranger and Depp heavy in face paint as his Indian warrior companion Tonto. Given that it's got the same writers, director, producer and star as Pirates of the Caribbean, you can pretty much guess the rest.
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
SPECS
Nissan 370z Nismo
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 363hp
Torque: 560Nm
Price: Dh184,500
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
The%20Killer
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EDavid%20Fincher%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EMichael%20Fassbender%2C%20Tilda%20Swinton%2C%20Charles%20Parnell%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
