Close call: Dr Naomi Platt with her dog, Bonnie, near her home in Devon Photo: Stuart Clarke Am I the first person to be told that they have malaria and feel a sense of relief? Possibly. However, my diagnosis five weeks ago was given while I was working in a small rural hospital in Sierra Leone, where contact with the Ebola virus was a real possibility. I’d had […]
Medics at a field hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip. More than 120 Palestinians were killed in Rafah alone on Friday and Saturday. By BEN HUBBARD and FARES AKRAM August 2, 2014 RAFAH, Gaza Strip — It was clear from the bodies laid out in the parking lot of the maternity hospital here that it had assumed new duties: No longer a place that welcomed new life, it was now a makeshift […]
Israeli soldiers watching Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak on television at a coffee shop near the border with Gaza. By STEVEN ERLANGER and JODI RUDOREN August 2, 2014 JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said early Sunday morning that an officer thought to have been captured by Palestinian militants during a deadly clash Friday morning, which shattered a planned 72-hour cease-fire, was now considered to have been killed in battle. The announcement […]
Lila Faria, 19, at her home in Maplewood, N.J. Ms. Faria, a student at New York University, recently returned from a trip to the Middle East with the Taglit-Birthright Israel organization. By ELENA SCHNEIDER August 1, 2014 WASHINGTON — Lila Faria, 19, a student at New York University, heard the whine of a bomb siren for the first time last month in Jerusalem. Along with several dozen other Americans […]
By JODI RUDOREN and ISABEL KERSHNER August 1, 2014 JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants sprang from the ground and confronted Israeli soldiers Friday morning, as they have repeatedly in recent days. This time, Israeli officials said, one exploded a suicide belt while another unleashed machine-gun fire. This time, two Israeli soldiers were killed and the militants apparently escaped with a third. The attack, at the start of what was supposed to be […]
Frankly, my dear, it could have ended differently. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in ‘Gone with the Wind’ Photo: ALAMY This week it was revealed that the original script for Gone with the Wind – the classic romance starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable – had a different ending to the one seen in cinemas. At the climax of the completed film, Scarlett O’Hara is portrayed as a […]
NEW DELHI: The government is formulating a policy package aimed at infusing life into 26,489 MW of gas-starved power plants. The plan includes partially revisiting the gas pooling proposal, which the UPA government conceptualised but later turned wary about, given the huge subsidy cost it entailed.
As per the new plan, some 10,382 MW of administered price gas-based installed power capacity, running at a very low plant load factor (PLF) for want of the fuel right now, would get pooled gas — at a price higher than the APM gas price — with an assurance that the cost of power from these plants above a threshold of R5.50 per unit will be subsidised.
As for the balance gas-based capacity, sources said, some 7,000 MW bas
New Delhi: The government is likely to start selling its stake in public sector banks (PSBs) in November. It is also expected State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest lender, will tap the markets this year. Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu on Thursday said the government would seek a Cabinet nod for stake dilution in PSBs, adding the sale would be in tranches, based on banks’ requirement of funds. “It will be a combination of follow-on public offer (FPO) and, in some cases, it will be through qualified institutional placement. It may start around Diwali, most likely November,” he told reporters after a meeting with the heads of PSBs and other financial institutions. Asked whether large banks such as SBI and Punjab National Bank (PNB) would op
NEW DELHI: Petrol became cheaper by Rs 1.09 per litre in Delhi from Friday after state oil companies slashed the price of the fuel for the first time since mid-April because benchmark gasoline rates in the international market dropped.
Companies, however, raised the price of diesel by 56 paise in Delhi, helping to reduce the gap between pump and market rates by about Rs 1.50 per litre and increasing the prospects of deregulating the fuel soon.
If the trend continues, diesel pricing could be freed from state control in three months, government and industry officials said. Prices of diesel sold to bulk consumers such as the railways and state transport companies at market rates have been reduced, IOCsaid in a statement.
NEW DELHI: Outgoing Army chief General Bikram Singh on Thursday said that India has given a befitting reply to Pakistan after the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistani troops in 2013 along the Line of Control (LoC) even as he did not rule out the possibility of skirmishes on the western front in future.
Talking to reporters before demitting office, he admitted that face-offs between Indian and Chinese army soldiers take place while patrolling their ‘claimed areas’ along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) but they are dealt with in accordance with the existing mechanisms.
Asked if India had given a befitting reply after the January 8, 2013 beheading incident, he said, “It has been done. Please
Family members mourned on Thursday in Tel Aviv at the grave of Staff Sgt. Guy Algranati, 20, who was killed on Wednesday. By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK LANDLER July 31, 2014 NEW DELHI — A 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire in the Gaza conflict negotiated by the United States and the United Nations took effect Friday morning, a diplomatic bolt-from-the-blue that will suspend the bloody 24-day military campaign and set the stage for […]
ABU DHABI // Workers say a lack of proper rest areas on building sites leads them to take risks to escape the heat in their midday breaks. Last week an Asian worker was run over by a paving lorry as he napped on a site in Ras Al Khaimah. He was sleeping in front of the parked vehicle when the operator started it up and ran over […]
A cease-fire proposal by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt met most of Israel’s demands; Hamas immediately rejected it. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK July 30, 2014 CAIRO — Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting. Not this time. After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a […]
ABU DHABI // The internet needs more quality content in Arabic for the 141 million users who speak the language. Forty per cent of people in the Middle East have internet access, 87 per cent of them at home, and Arabic is the eighth most used language, according to Google figures. Half the population is under 25, the prime age group for internet use on phones and tablets, […]
Three young rebels, their AK47s propped against wooden stools in the afternoon heat, guard the entrance to the giant Ndassima goldmine carved deep into a forested hilltop in Central African Republic. Sat in a thatched shack at the edge of a muddy shantytown, the gunmen keep the peace – for a price – among hundreds of illegal miners who swarm over the steep sides of the glittering […]
DUBAI // Dubai has been ranked the world’s second-most expensive city in which to stay, and industry experts say tourists are travelling to nearby emirates to avoid the rising costs of hotels. In a list compiled by Bloomberg, Geneva was the most expensive city, and Kuwait and Zurich were third and fourth. The average cost of a room in Geneva is US$308 (Dh1,131), followed by Dubai at […]
(Reuters) – A Florida family scavenging for sunken treasure on a shipwreck has found the missing piece of a 300-year-old gold filigree necklace sacred to Spanish priests, officials said on Tuesday. Eric Schmitt, a professional salvager, was scavenging with his parents when he found the crumpled, square-shaped ornament on a leisure trip to hunt for artifacts in the wreckage of a convoy of 11 ships that […]
NEW DELHI: Under fire for sitting on foreign investment proposals for singlebrand retailing, the department of industrial policy and promotion has set a maximum time frame of 90 days to process all applications pending with it.
As many as 13 applications from foreign retailers, including Forever 21, Furla and Swarovski, to open single-brand company-owned stores in the country have been pending with the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) for several months.
“We will ensure zero pendency of applications at DIPP and strict compliance to the timeline from now on,” a department official said. DIPP, under the ministry of commerce and industry, is mandated with first-stage vetting
NEW DELHI: Gautam Adani plans to acquire power plants with a total capacity of 5,000 mw, but he will avoid aggressive bids to ensure good returns, a source close to the tycoon said a day after Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group outbid him to buy 1,800 mw hydro power capacity from Jaypee Group.
Gautam Adani is directly involved in evaluating offers and negotiations, something he left to company executives in the past, the source said. The company is in talks with several power sector players, including GMR, Lanco, Indiabulls, Avantha Power and Athena, the source said.
Another person in the Adani Group said there are many sellers in the market, offering projects with a combined capacity of nearly 50,000 mw.
 
Mumbai: State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited may go solo on its plans to build its second underground liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility in Mangalore.
The company which was planning to rope in Total SA of France, to build the cavern jointly, said Total is not interested at present and may join the company at a later stage.
“We see merit in the project and have decided to go ahead. We will commission the detailed feasibility report shortly and then call for tenders in the next four-six months,” said a senior HPCL official.
The cavern, will cost HPCL Rs 700 crore and will store 60,000 tonnes of LPG. HPCL and Total, through their equal joint venture, South Asi
Bangalore: Electronics production in the country’s Defence sector touched Rs. 13,800 crore during 2013-14 and is expected to grow over 15 per cent this year, said Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) President Subhash Goyal.
The production of strategic electronics stood at Rs. 12,000 crore in 2012-13 and has been growing steadily from Rs. 5,700 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 9,000 crore during 2010-11.
ELCINA has been holding the strategic electronics summit (SES) since 2010. This year it is being held in Bangalore on July 30 and 31.
The SES brings all stakeholders together on one platform to enable a better understanding of Defence requirements. The summit also aims to facilitate
DUBAI // Nearly 20 years ago a filmmaker and a musician tracked down a group of long-forgotten entertainers in Havana and turned them into global music and movie stars. Wim Wenders and Ry Cooder sparked a rebirth of traditional Cuban music with The Buena Vista Social Club. Now the filmmaker Ray Haddad and the British musician Jason Carter aim to do the same with the musical tradition […]
Gold hit its highest in nearly a week on Tuesday as violence flared in the Middle East and Ukraine, but gains were capped by uncertainty ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting and important U.S. data later this week. Israel’s military pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country should prepare for a long conflict in the Palestinian enclave, […]
A Palestinian displays a portrait of the deputy chief of the Hamas movement, Ismail Haniya, in the rubble of his home in Gaza. By BEN HUBBARD and JODI RUDOREN July 29, 2014 GAZA CITY — Israeli airstrikes flattened the four-story home of Hamas’s top political leader in the Gaza Strip and destroyed offices of the movement’s radio and television station early Tuesday, suggesting a slight operational shift as the battle entered its 22nd […]
