Saudi opening may be non-event with no licences awarded RIYADH, 11 hours, 30 minutes ago The opening of Saudi Arabia’s stock market to direct foreign investment on Monday may disappoint traders who have been hoping for large and immediate fund inflows, as the kingdom has yet to announce the award of any licences. Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority announced plans to open the market last July, and […]
ISTANBUL — A coalition of Kurdish militias and Arab rebels stormed into a strategic Syrian town on the Turkey border on Monday, seizing most of it from Islamic State fighters who had long used the area to smuggle supplies and fighters into their self-declared caliphate, according to Kurdish militia leaders and activists. The complete loss of the town, Tal Abyad, would deal a major blow to the […]
Global Health By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. A vaccine against leishmaniasis based on the saliva of sand flies has worked well in monkeys and may have potential to work in humans, according to a new study. Leishmanias, caused by a parasite injected by the bite of bloodsucking sand flies, infects about one million people a year, mostly in the Middle East and South America. It can cause […]
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says it believes a weekend airstrike in Libya killed an Islamist militant leader responsible for the deaths of dozens of Westerners in North Africa, though the Pentagon was still conducting an assessment and could not confirm that the attack had succeeded. The Libyan government said on Sunday night that Mokhtar Belmokhtar was killed in the strike. But Col. Steven H. Warren, a Pentagon […]
EFG-Hermes launches leasing subsidiary CAIRO, 11 hours, 6 minutes ago Egypt’s EFG-Hermes, one of the Middle East’s largest investment banks, said on Sunday it had launched a wholly-owned subsidiary, EFG Hermes Leasing, that would start operations immediately. The firm said in a statement that the subsidiary would provide leasing services to large corporates and small and medium enterprises across Egypt. The size of the portfolio of EFG-Hermes […]
By JODI RUDOREN June 14, 2015 JERUSALEM — In a pre-emptive strike against a forthcoming United Nations report on the war last year between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday issued a lengthy paper arguing that its troops adhered to international law and blaming the militants for most of the s civilian casualties in Gaza. Israel has refused to cooperate with the […]
Actors preparing for “1945,” a play produced by Al-Midan Theater after one inspired by the case of a convicted murderer generated protests. By DIAA HADID June 13, 2015 HAIFA, Israel — The play had been staged many times for Arabic-speaking audiences in Israel without controversy. But a performance with Hebrew subtitles for a wider audience was all it took to touch off a major furor. The play, “Parallel Time,” […]
After a federal court rejected attempts by cable and phone companies to stop net neutrality on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission’s plan for new Internet rules went into effect. Under the new rules, the FCC can assert extra authority over the Internet to establish equal access to Internet speeds and Web sites. Companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have claimed that the rules are beyond the FCC’s […]
INTERNATIONAL. This year Ipsos celebrates 20 years of the European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS) or as it is called now, The Ipsos Affluent Survey Europe. The Affluent European whom the survey tracks comes in all shapes and sizes, with a myriad of different wants and needs, yet, these individuals (the Top 13% of income earners) have one thing in common: they have significant disposable income and […]
Video | Orange’s Boss Meets With Netanyahu Stéphane Richard, the chief executive of Orange, the French telecom giant, tells Israel’s prime minister that he regrets the furor caused by his statements about doing business in the country. By JODI RUDOREN June 12, 2015 JERUSALEM — The chief executive of a French telecommunications company made an extraordinary personal pilgrimage on Friday to apologize to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, […]
Video | Explosion in Old City of Sana A Unesco world heritage site was damaged on Friday by a blast that witnesses said was caused by airstrikes in Yemen’s capital. By RICK GLADSTONE June 12, 2015 A protected 2,500-year-old cultural heritage site in Yemen’s capital, Sana, was obliterated in an explosion early Friday, and witnesses and news reports said the cause was a missile or bomb from a Saudi […]
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a graduation and commissioning ceremony at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., last month. By HELENE COOPER June 11, 2015 NAPLES, Italy — The United States is considering establishing a new network of American military bases in Iraq to aid in the fight against the Islamic State, senior military and administration officials said […]
UAE. Invesco today released its third annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study[1], an in-depth report on the complex investment behaviour of sovereign wealth funds, conducted amongst more than 50 individual sovereign investors across the globe representing $7.09 trillion2 of assets, including Middle East based sovereign wealth funds. This year’s study took place against a backdrop of an extreme fall in the price of oil and provides […]
UAE. Economic Insight: Middle East Q2 2015 is produced by Cebr, ICAEW’s partner and economic forecaster. Commissioned by ICAEW, the report provides a snapshot of the region’s economic performance. The report undertakes a quarterly review of the Middle East, focusing on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait), as well as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon […]
ISTANBUL — Late into the night on Sunday on the shattered streets of Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish city devastated last year by battles with militants affiliated with the Islamic State, residents celebrated the outcome of the recent Turkish parliamentary election results, honking horns, cheering and firing their guns. The election, in which the Kurdish party surpassed a threshold for the first time to enter Parliament, was the […]
WASHINGTON — In a major shift of focus in the battle against the Islamic State, the Obama administration is planning to establish a new military base in Anbar Province and send 400 American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi. Although a final decision by the White House has yet to be announced, the plan follows months of behind-the-scenes debate about how prominently […]
WASHINGTON — President Obama has authorized the deployment of up to 450 more American troops to Iraq to train and assist the Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State, the White House announced on Wednesday, signaling a major shift of focus in the fight against the Sunni militant group. The United States forces will use Al Taqqadum, an Iraqi base near the town of Habbaniya in eastern Anbar […]
Video | U.S. General Affirms Support for Israel Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accepted an award from his Israeli counterpart and emphasized the American military’s strong relationship with Israel. By HELENE COOPER June 9, 2015 TEL AVIV — The Obama administration on Tuesday ramped up efforts to ease Israel’s opposition to a possible nuclear deal with Iran, as the top American military leader […]
|TAP Special| The atmosphere at the IATA conference in Miami was surcharged with tension, with the animosity between Western and Middle Eastern carriers quickly dominating the proceedings. An interview by Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, in which he threatened retaliation against Western “protectionism”only aggravated tensions. The issue isn’t on the agenda at the annual meeting IATA, but it was virtually inevitable that it would come up […]
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM June 9, 2015 CAIRO — Islamic State militants staged attacks near Baghdad and the Libyan city of Surt on Tuesday, underscoring the group’s persistent strength on both fronts despite a monthslong American-led air campaign against it in Syria and Iraq. In Libya, the Islamic State captured a critical power plant along the coastal road westward from its stronghold in Surt toward Misurata, a commercial center […]
Renovations have started at a 9.5-acre compound in the West Bank that started as a church-run hospital in the 1950s and later became a hostel for travelers. By JODI RUDOREN June 9, 2015 NEAR EL AROUB REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — The old stone compound set amid Palestinian farmland between the cities of Bethlehem and Hebron has a relatively new fence. The compound, with eight buildings spread over 9.5 […]
UAE. The European football market grew to total $28.9 billion in 2013/14. Revenue growth across all of the ‘big five’ European leagues (Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, Premier League and Serie A), saw the combined revenues of the ‘big five’ leagues pass the $15 billion mark ($15.3bn), according to the 24th Annual Review of Football Finance from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte. Dan Jones, Partner in […]
By ADAM LIPTAK June 8, 2015 WASHINGTON — Against the backdrop of generations of conflict in the Middle East and the longstanding tensions between Congress and presidents on the conduct of foreign policy there, the Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law that allowed American parents of children born in Jerusalem to obtain passports saying the children were born in Israel. The vote was 6 to 3, with […]
In an image taken from a video on a militant website, the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, addressed followers last year in Mosul, Iraq. New insights yielded by a seized trove of materials in Syria include how he operates and tries to avoid being tracked by coalition forces. By ERIC SCHMITT June 8, 2015 WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have extracted valuable information about the Islamic State’s leadership structure, financial […]
