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ISIS

ISIS Destroys More Artifacts in Syria and Iraq

By RICK GLADSTONE and MAHER SAMAAN July 3, 2015 Islamic State militants indulged in new public displays of artifact destruction this week, sledgehammering a half-dozen statues said to have been stolen from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The militants also broke up a hidden 2,000-year-old lion statue they discovered in a Palmyra museum garden and demolished a 13th-century tomb near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The destruction, publicized in […]

Aleppo Fighting Flares Up as Syria Insurgents Attack

By ANNE BARNARD and MAHER SAMAAN July 3, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — The fiercest fighting in months raged in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, as newly reorganized insurgents carried out a new offensive on government-held areas. Two insurgent coalitions — a new one that includes the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, and one formed in May by local factions long active in Aleppo — attacked simultaneously […]

Mall rental rates curbing retail growth in Saudi

Saudi Arabia … expanding population base ofbrand-conscious consumers.Image: Bigstockphoto. For illustration only. Mall rental rates curbing retail growth in Saudi DUBAI, 15 hours, 58 minutes ago High rental rates in the top-tier malls are deterring the growth of Saudi Arabia’s retail market, a report said, noting that the kingdom is currently facing a great challenge due to scarcity of human resources owing to high attrition rates. Availability […]

US short-term real interest rates to remain near zero for foreseeable future, reveals industry poll

UAE. Short-term real interest rates (US) will remain near zero for more than three years, according to the majority of institutional investors, academics and policy makers polled at the AQR Asset Management Institute’s inaugural Perspectives event, at London Business School. At the start, delegates were asked how much longer they expected short-term real interest rates (US) to remain near zero, with 38% answering more than three years. […]

Egypt, Stunned by Sinai Assault, Vows to Erase ‘Terrorist Dens’

A funeral on Thursday in Ashmoun, in the Nile Delta, for First Lt. Mohamed Ashraf, one of the soldiers killed Wednesday in a militant attack in the Sinai Peninsula. By KAREEM FAHIM and MERNA THOMAS July 2, 2015 CAIRO — Egypt’s military killed 23 militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula early Thursday, a senior security official said, as the government sought to reassert control and eradicate what it called the area’s […]

Don't over-engineer growing entrepreneurs

UAE. John Mullins, Associate Professor of Management Practice in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, London Business School, comments: “As in most places, the best thing regional governments can do to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses in the Middle East is to not over-engineer their efforts to assist.  A key strategy to adopt is to focus on nurturing local talent by encouraging professional development through education and apprenticeships, rather than […]

Open Source: Israel’s Cartoon Diplomacy Equates Iran and Islamic State

Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY Apparently undeterred by the backlash over its last venture into cartoon diplomacy, Israel’s government released an animated video on Tuesday that equates the threat from Islamic State militants to that of a nuclear-armed Iran. The 28-second animation, uploaded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official accounts on social networks, attempts to erase the distinction between the Sunni Muslim extremists of the Islamic State […]

Limitless nears $564m debt deal

Dubai real estate developer Limitless has taken a step closer to securing a second restructuring on debt outstanding from Dubai’s property crash six years ago. It said on Monday it would repay 2.07 billion dirhams ($564 million) to creditors and has won the approval of almost 90 percent of banks to extend its remaining debt to December 2018. Limitless is seeking to follow in the footsteps of […]

Wall Street Breakfast: Greek Crisis Batters Markets Worldwide

Kuwait Identifies Suicide Bomber in Mosque Attack

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Kuwait has identified the bomber who carried out a deadly suicide attack in a Shiite mosque as a citizen of Saudi Arabia who arrived in the small Persian Gulf nation just hours before blowing himself up, the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said on Sunday. Kuwaiti authorities also arrested a local man who had driven the car that dropped the bomber off and the Kuwaiti owner […]

Mass Funeral Held in Kuwait for 27 Killed in Bombing

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of Kuwaitis, both Sunnis and Shiites, marched Saturday in a funeral procession for the 27 victims of a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque during communal prayers the day before, an attacked claimed by the jihadists of the Islamic State group. The Kuwaiti authorities were questioning a number of people to determine whether they were connected to the plot, and the Interior Ministry […]

Gold recovers as Greece deal fails

Gold edged higher on Friday, recovering from its lowest in more than two weeks as Greece failed to reach an agreement with its international creditors, although gains were capped by expectations of a U.S. interest rate hike. Asian equities fell as Greece failed again to reach an agreement with its creditors and stumbled towards a default, while major currencies like the euro and dollar drifted as the […]

Terrorist Attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait Kill Dozens

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Terrorists attacked sites in France, Tunisia and Kuwait on Friday, leaving a bloody toll on three continents and prompting new concerns about the spreading influence of jihadists. In France, attackers stormed an American-owned industrial chemical plant near Lyon, tried unsuccessfully to blow up the factory, and left behind a decapitated corpse. In Tunisia, at least one gunman disguised as a vacationer opened fire at […]

ISIS Attacks Two Border Towns in Northern Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The militants of the Islamic State carried out two new offensives in northern Syria on Thursday, entering a provincial capital and detonating large bombs in the border town of Kobani, where intensive airstrikes by a United States-led coalition helped Kurdish forces rout the jihadists last year. In southern Syria, rebel groups began a new campaign to push government forces from the city of Dara’a. […]

The Many Miseries of Yemeni Families

As the civil war in Yemen continues, many families say they are living in constant fear. Parents say that their older children have been wetting their beds at night, and that younger ones are so traumatized that they are sent running for cover by the sound of a door slamming. The fighting between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces has displaced a million people, destroyed cultural heritage […]

Saudi Intervention Only Fans Yemen’s Flames

SANA, Yemen — For nearly three months, Saudi Arabia, along with its allies, has been bombing Yemen, its southern neighbor, hoping to force the retreat of Shiite rebels who have seized major cities and to return the country’s president from the Saudi guest mansion where he lives to the presidential palace. So far, it has not worked. The rebels, known as the Houthis, have gained ground, more […]

U.N. Condemns Both Sides in Syria for Attacking Civilians

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE June 23, 2015 GENEVA — United Nations investigators condemned Syria’s government and armed opposition groups on Tuesday for deliberately targeting civilians with bombing and artillery attacks that were causing “unspeakable suffering.” “The government, with its superior firepower and control of the skies, inflicts the most damage in its indiscriminate attacks” on civilian-inhabited areas, aiming at targets like marketplaces and bakeries where people are likely to congregate, […]

S&P rings Dubai alarm bell once more

|By K Raveendran| The trigger for Dubai’s property crash of 2009 had come in the form of a Standard & Poor’s report that warned of a serious price correction in the wake of a highly unrealistic boom. Six years later, the rating agency has issued another ominous report on Dubai’s property market, although there are not even the faintest signs of a boom present now. The warning […]

UAE property market is prepared for the correction that's underway, says S&P report

UAE. While Standard & Poor’s expects somewhat of a correction in the UAE’s residential real estate market after three years of sharp price appreciation–it should be nothing on the order that led to the Dubai crisis in 2009. After reaching a peak in 2014, the property market in the United Arab Emirates is set to soften in 2015 and early 2016. The market is facing a turnaround […]

Iraqi Families Return to Fragile Stability in Tikrit After Liberation From ISIS

BAGHDAD — When Umm Ahmed returned to her Iraqi hometown, Tikrit, in recent days she found a city devastated by fighting with militants from the Islamic State: buildings burned, shops looted, schools shuttered and hospitals inoperable. Still, it was home, and it was good to be back. “Today, I am in the middle of Tikrit,” Umm Ahmed, 39, said last week, preferring to be identified by her […]

U.N. Report on Gaza Finds Evidence of War Crimes by Israel and by Palestinian Militants

JERUSALEM — A United Nations investigation found “serious violations of international humanitarian law” that “may amount to war crimes” by both Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during their bloody battle last summer, according to a report released on Monday in Geneva. The report, written by a two-member independent commission of inquiry and submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, said that “impunity prevails […]

Cables Released by WikiLeaks Reveal Saudis’ Checkbook Diplomacy

Saudi leaders, whose portraits are displayed at the stock exchange in Riyadh, have not confirmed the leak’s authenticity. By BEN HUBBARD June 20, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — It seems that everyone wants something from Saudi Arabia. Before becoming the president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi wanted visas to take his family on a religious pilgrimage. A Lebanese politician begged for cash to pay his bodyguards. Even the state news agency […]

Weighing The Week Ahead: What Does The Greek Crisis Mean For Financial Markets

Gaza Welcomes Break From Strife and Reopening of Border With Egypt

For an earnest young Christian named Ben Lowe, revelation came on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in Africa. A relentless warming of the lake was reducing the catch of fish, the people were going hungry — and he had learned of scientific evidence that climate change was to blame. For the Rev. Brian Sauder, who grew up attending a small Anabaptist church in rural Illinois, the moment […]