News related to ARABIAN POST SPECIAL

Bound by Bridge, 2 Baghdad Enclaves Drift Far Apart

Slide Show | Two Baghdad Neighborhoods, a World Apart The two neighborhoods, Sunni Adhamiya and Shiute Kadhimiya, once inextricably joined in the imagination of Baghdad residents, are drifting further apart. By ALISSA J. RUBIN July 26, 2014 BAGHDAD — Al Imams Bridge spans the Tigris River between two of the oldest communities in Baghdad — one Sunni, the other Shiite — and on Ramadan evenings it can seem as if [...]

Amid Outcry Abroad, A Wealth of Backing In Israel for Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has so far not agreed to a broader cease-fire plan. By JODI RUDOREN July 26, 2014 JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is stuck between mounting international outcry over civilian casualties from his assault on the Gaza Strip and intensifying calls at home to finish the job he started. Several of his top ministers are pushing for a full takeover of [...]

Politics

EU edges closer to economic sanctions on Russia

The European Union reached outline agreement on Friday to impose the first economic sanctions on Russia over its behavior in Ukraine but scaled back their scope to exclude technology for the crucial gas sector. The EU also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on the chiefs of Russia's FSB security service and foreign intelligence service and a number of other top Russian officials, saying they had helped [...]

Banking & Finance

Jordan issues rules for sukuk

Regulators in Jordan have introduced a set of long-awaited rules for the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, paving the way for both the public and private sectors to tap into growing demand for sharia-compliant investments. Jordan is one of several Muslim-majority countries keen to develop their domestic Islamic finance sector and the government is studying a proposal to issue a sovereign sukuk, mirroring efforts by Egypt [...]

How can the Green Deal be called a ‘success’?

Households could claim cashback for installing double or triple glazing Photo: Alamy After just six short weeks, the Green Deal Home Improvement fund is no more. The cashback fund, launched on June 9, abruptly closed to new applicants on Thursday night. The Department for Energy and Climate said “overwhelming popular demand” meant the allocation of £120m – meant to last until April 2015 – has already been hoovered [...]

July 25

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Economy

du expects network sharing by year-end

Du, the United Arab Emirates' second biggest telecoms operator, expects to offer Internet-based phone calls and broadband services across the country before the year-end in a network sharing deal with rival Etisalat that has been in the works since 2009. This network sharing agreement is an important step for du, which ended Etisalat's domestic telecoms monopoly in 2007, but which has since been limited to newer areas [...]

July 25

India Takes

SEARCHING FOR THE IDEAL FDI IN DEFENCE PRODUCTION

When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley kept the FDI cap in defence at 49 per cent, he said: “Our assessment of the market is that the 49 per cent FDI limit in the sector would be a significant step in establishing domestic defence market. The public opinion and Parliament’s opinion in India is ready to accept the proposal that I have made.”

Mr. Jaitley was also in consonance with the policy sentiment that has evolved within the government over many years. As far back as in 2004, key economists argued before the Planning Commission that 100 per cent FDI in high technology would enable India to reduce or limit its technology imports; in 2008, the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council constituted by former Prime Minister Ma

July 24

Featured

Western banks set to gain big time from Saudi market opening

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) are among the banks set to profit after the Riyadh-based Capital Market Authority announced plans this week to open Saudi Arabia’s bourse to foreign investors. The CMA said on July 22 that it would open up the oil-producing kingdom’s $531 billion stock market to foreigners next year. That may attract inflows of about $35 billion to the [...]

July 24

Q&A: Earliest MSCI Can Add Saudi to Emerging Markets is Mid-2017

A broker monitors stock prices on a screen at the Saudi Investment Bank in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia plans to open its stock market, the Arab world’s biggest, to direct investment by foreign financial institutions in the first half of next year. Reuters With a market capitalisation of more than half a trillion dollars, Saudi Arabia’s plan to allow foreigners direct access to its listed companies early next [...]

July 23

Israel’s Gaza Offensive Continues

Thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks, aircraft and navy ships continued what appears to be a limited advance into the Gaza Strip on Friday, the second day of a ground invasion into the Palestinian territory. Palestinian medics say at least 21 Gaza residents have been killed since the start of the ground offensive, which has the stated aim of destroying tunnels militants have used to attempt [...]

July 18

Golan Diary: A View into Syria

A view of southwestern Syria in late April, from an Israeli lookout post in the Golan Heights. Israel has placed soldiers in the Golan to stand guard against any Syrian attack. Nicholas Casey/The Wall Street Journal GOLAN HEIGHTS—Each morning after sunrise, soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces stand on a hill and look into their binoculars over two parallel fences topped in barbed wire that stretch out [...]

June 05

Assisted dying Bill: can you really tell if someone’s of sound and settled mind for suicide?

In the small number of other countries that have legalised assisted suicide, there have been mistakes Photo: PA As a psychiatrist I have spent my working life helping people to find a reason for living and to make sense of disability - not a reason to hasten their death. So imagine my concern to find yet another attempt to legalise what is euphemistically called 'assisted dying' planned for [...]

June 04

Sisi declared Egypt’s next president

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has won Egypt's presidential elections by a huge majority, the country's election commission has said. The former military chief, who last July overthrew Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, won 96.91 of legal votes cast in last week's election. SISI 23,780,104 (96.91%) SABAHI 757,511 (3.09%) Accepting the result, Sisi urged Egyptians to work to restore stability and achieve "freedom" and "social justice". "I look forward to your [...]

June 04

Quips at the ready, the former premier is a man transformed facing a fight that he can win

By Alan Cochrane, Scottish Editor 8:59PM BST 03 Jun 2014 A FUNNY thing happened to me on my way to save the Union yesterday; Gordon Brown cracked a joke and everyone laughed. Mind you, there was a bit of a delay, a sort of double-take, whilst the people in the room – assorted Labour politicians and reporters – worked out if their ears had deceived them or [...]

EgyptAir Expects Stability to Boost Its Growth Prospects

With the election in Egypt last week of former army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi as the new president, a nation and a region awaits a potential period of stability in the troubled Arab state. And one company that is desperate for calm is the flag carrier EgyptAir. EgyptAir website “We expect some indication of recovery, especially after the presidential election,” said Sameh El Hefny, the chairman [...]

Off the Cuff

Astronomers discover 17 times bigger earth

A rocky planet weighing 17 times as much as Earth has been found, surprising astronomers who expected it to be a big ball of gas. Scientists dubbed the planet a “mega-Earth” because it's much larger than previously discovered rocky celestial bodies. The planet, sighted by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Kepler spacecraft, is located 560 light years from Earth and circles a Sun-like star every [...]

Off the Cuff

Banker-turned-bookie is World Cup betting king

Inside a nondescript office building in central London, a roomful of men and women sit at computer screens and talk over Skype with people in faraway places. Sharp-edged Cantonese fills the air, and a flat-screen TV emits a continuous din. It’s the chanting, singing Midlands crowd at Birmingham, England’s Villa Park Stadium: Liverpool at Aston Villa. The match has just kicked off. The name of the company, [...]

Palestinians form consensus government

Ramallah, occupied West Bank - Fatah and Hamas have unveiled a government of national consensus that will pave the way for elections for a new Palestinian president and parliament. The government of 17 politically-independent members, agreed on Monday, is already being put to the test, as Israel announced it would not negotiate any peace deal with it. The announcement came after the passing of a five-week deadline that [...]

Deadly fighting erupts in Libya’s Benghazi

Heavy fighting is raging in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, apparently between the armed group Ansar al-Sharia and irregular forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a former army general. Witnesses said on Monday that gunfire, which began the day before, could be heard across the city, particularly coming from a special forces army base in a western suburb of Benghazi. At least seven people have died and [...]

‘Give up dairy products to beat cancer’

'As a scientist, all I can do is tell the truth based on the evidence,' says Dr Jane Plant Photo: MARTIN POPE In 1993, the breast cancer that had plagued Jane Plant since 1987 returned for the fifth time. It came in the shape of a secondary tumour – a lump in her neck the size of half a boiled egg. Doctors told her that she had only [...]

Economy

Discount on Dubai assets seen turning to premium

|By TAP Staff|Investors are paying a premium to buy highly rated MENA sovereign assets, indicating tighter spreads on them, Citibank said in a report. In the case of the mid-rated sovereigns of Bahrain and Dubai, spreads are still marginally higher than the BBB average, implying these sovereigns trade at a discount. But the report suggests that the recent rally in Bahraini and Dubai sovereign debt has meant [...]