The Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan today paid an emotional tribute to the metropolis that houses the world's largest movie industry.
In a series of tweets on the micro-blogging site Twitter, Bachchan wrote: "This city Mumbai is as amazing as can be ... be by yourself for longer than desired and it shall push you out on to the streets."
He also posted: "Mumbai the city, provokes, provides, persuades ... till you get out and get it.
"Mumbai - truly cosmopolitan ... spreading out to all communities, who live and prosper together ... absorbing all, giving to all!"
Describing the city with myriad adjectives, he wrote: "Mumbai - restless, impatient, aggressive, compassionate, caring, loving, harsh ... but loved and admired always!"
Paying tribute to the metropolis admired for its industriousness, the 69-year-old actor said: "Mumbai - thinking, ticking and moving all the time ... if you are accomplished, you can ride it ... else be prepared to be thrown off!"
Hundreds of film aspirants flock to Mumbai each year to make a dream debut in Bollywood, as well as struggle to cope with life in the big city.
Oscar nomination ballots sent to voters
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday sent out Oscar ballots to its members, who will select the nominees for Hollywood's top film honours.
The academy's 5,783 voting members must cast their ballots by January 13 to determine the Oscar nominations, which will be announced on January 24.
The statuettes will be handed out at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, which will be held on February 26 at Hollywood's Kodak Theater.
The Oscars veteran Billy Crystal has stepped in to host this year's show, after the actor Eddie Murphy pulled out. This will be the ninth time for Crystal to host the event.
Among this season's best-picture prospects are the black-and-white silent film The Artist, the American Deep South drama The Help, George Clooney's family tale The Descendants and Steven Spielberg's First World War epic War Horse.
Sinead O'Connor ends marriage after 16 days
The Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has admitted that her fourth marriage has ended after just 16 days, with the star blaming pressure put on her husband by those close to him.
O'Connor, 45, met therapist Barry Herridge, 38, earlier this year when he responded to an online appeal posted by the singer. They married in a Las Vegas chapel on December 8.
But in a blog post on Monday, the singer revealed that the marriage had lasted only 16 days, until December 24, and that the couple had lived together for just seven days.
"From the moment myself and my husband got together not long ago, there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life not to be involved with me," wrote O'Connor.
"[We] weren't aware or prepared for the consequences on my husband's life and the lives of those close to him," O'Connor said.
"He has been terribly unhappy and I have therefore ended the marriage."
John Legend engaged to model
John Legend, 33, will no longer be a bachelor. The singer's publicist said Tuesday that Legend recently proposed to his girlfriend, model Chrissy Teigen, in the Maldives.
Legend has won nine Grammys and released four albums. Teigen was named "rookie of the year" in the Sports Illustrated magazine's annual swimsuit issue last year. She also runs a food blog.
Colosseum continues to crumble
The Colosseum lost another piece on Tuesday as Rome's most famous monument deteriorated further ahead of a long-delayed €25 million (Dh119m) three-year restoration funded by the Italian billionaire Diego Della Valle, founder of shoemaker Tod's. The restoration is set to begin in March.
The chunk of volcanic tuff fell from one of the arches of the nearly 2,000-year-old structure - just two days after a similar incident reported by a group of concerned tourists on Christmas Day put local staff on alert, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The Colosseum director Rossella Rea denied the reports and blamed a "psychosis" that she claimed occurs every so often that Rome's iconic stadium is crumbling.
More than six million tourists visit the Colosseum each year.
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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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.”
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Hotel Silence
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Pushkin Press
Tesalam Aleik
Abdullah Al Ruwaished
(Rotana)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
