The Floating Cinema drops anchor on the Grand Union Canal at King’s Cross, London Photo: HYDAR DEWACHI ‘It’s really captured people’s imagination,” enthuse producer Anna Ramsay and curator Laura Harford as they sit on the deck of the Floating Cinema, their 60ft wide-beam canal boat fitted out as a mini-Odeon. “I think it’s because it’s something so unusual, not at all what they expect to see on a […]
A revival of international bond issues from the Gulf is set to draw heavy demand from local and foreign investors, despite the latest geopolitical upheavals in the Middle East and the approach of higher U.S. interest rates. Gulf bond issuance has dried up since early July, because of a traditional summer lull in local investor activity as well as global market instability due to the crisis in […]
INTERNATIONAL. U.S. special operations forces made a failed attempt to rescue journalist James Foley and other Americans held hostage by Islamic extremists in Syria earlier this summer, the White House said in a statement. The secret mission was authorized by President Barack Obama after the administration’s national security team concluded that the hostages “were in danger with each passing day,” said Lisa Monaco, Obama’s assistant for homeland […]
By George Acs: For two consecutive summers back in 1981 and 1982, I found myself in Jackson Hole. Although both times were in August, I don’t recall having run across any Federal Reserve types at the time. However, if they were there, they certainly weren’t staying in the same campground, but I’m guessing that their table was set much the same as mine, when big decisions in […]
By IMD: By IMD Professor Arturo Bris In the summer of 2008, the US financial sector suffered one of the most damaging events in its history. The volatile stock market, induced by the subprime market, led to the default of Lehman Brothers, and subsequently to a massive global crisis. We are now in a post-crisis period. Yet, looking back to between 1945 and 2008, we see that […]
If you wanted to make a quick buck in property, Dubai would have been the place to do it in the last couple of years. And the desert of superlatives is still going strong despite a partial slowdown. According to CBRE Group , apartment prices increased by a more modest 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2014, bringing gains over the last year to 21 percent. […]
People watched as rescue workers searched for victims under the rubble of a house in Rafah that witnesses said was destroyed on Thursday in an Israeli airstrike that killed three senior Hamas military commanders. By JODI RUDOREN and FARES AKRAM August 21, 2014 JERUSALEM — Israeli airstrikes killed three senior commanders of the armed wing of Hamas early Thursday in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, Israeli and Palestinian officials […]
The Indian Army is making incremental, but confused, progress in upgrading its depreciated artillery profile that has languished gravely since the import of Bofors howitzers in the late 1980s. It recently completed trials for two 155mm/52 caliber howitzer systems and is readying its report on the try-outs in Rajasthan last summer and in Sikkim in… This content is for Monthly, Annual, Free Trial and Basic members only. […]
London home sellers cut asking prices by the most in more than six years this month, adding to signs that the property market in the U.K. capital is coming off the boil. London values fell 5.9 percent from the previous month to an average 552,783 pounds ($922,300), the biggest drop since December 2007, property website Rightmove Plc said today. Nationally, prices declined 2.9 percent, a record for […]
A computer generated image shows the stadium to be built in Al-Khor for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Qatar since it started preparations to host the World Cup football in 2022. Ever since the wealthy Gulf state won the rights to host the tournament in 2010, it has been the subject of bribery allegations while at the same […]
Egyptian security forces intentionally killed hundreds of protesters following the military’s ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, Human Rights Watch, or HRW, said on Tuesday, urging a United Nations’ probe into what it described as “crimes against humanity”. In a 188-page report based on a year-long investigation, the New York-based advocacy group said systematic and widespread killing of at least 1,150 Morsi supporters by security forces at […]
By KAREEM FAHIM August 11, 2014 CAIRO — Security officials have refused to allow two senior staff members from the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch to enter Egypt, where the two were due to release the findings of the group’s yearlong investigation into mass killings of protesters carried out by Egyptian government forces last summer. The group’s executive director, Kenneth Roth, and the director of the Middle […]
Hotels and high-end retailers in Dubai are optimistic that they can ride out the Russian tour operator crisis and possibly even benefit from it. Rotana, which operates 15 hotels in the emirate and has a global sales office in Russia, is hopeful that the decline in Russian tourists because of the closure of some leading tour operators in the country would be offset by more tourists from […]
NEW DELHI: The government will bring a Bill, amending the Central Electricity Act, in winter session of Parliament to improve the tariff policy and regulations in the power sector. The power ministry is working out different tariff structure for different times of the day for easy availability of power for maximum hours in electricity deficit areas. It will soon consult states over the issue as the tariff matter comes under the states’ domain.
Besides, the government has decided to promote domestic power companies to help increase solar power generation in the country. Announcing these decisions in Rajya Sabha, power minister Piyush Goyal said the government will allow only 100% indigenous domestic companies to participate in the
MUMBAI: The Adani Group and Indian Oil Corporation are in talks to build a Rs 30,000-crore joint venture refinery at Mundra, which would give Gautam Adani an entry into the oil sector while the state-run company would get land port facilities for the proposed export-focused unit.
The proposed 30-million-tonne refinery at Mundra will make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s native state, Gujarat, a bigger energy hub. It already has refineries of Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Indian Oil, apart from two LNG terminals and the country’s biggest city-gas distribution network.
Industry sources said Gautam Adani has held initial talks with top executives at IOC and offered around 3,500-4,000 acres of land for th
The village of Kerwas, or Yalaza in Turkish, located near the town of Lice in Turkey’s southeast. Ayla Albayrak for The Wall Street Journal A sleepy little village in Turkey’s southeast has an ambitious project for the country’s estimated 15 million Kurds: to build the country’s first Kurdish-language primary school and set a model for modern Kurdish village life. In a country where Kurdish-language public education remains […]
NEW DELHI: The power ministry plans to create a fund to provide long-term finances to hydropower developers, and aims to play an active role in resolving state level sues that are blocking such projects.
“Hydropower did not get the desired attention as concerned ministries and departments were working in silos, and problems with states and central authorities could be resolved.
However, the new government is working in tandem as a team and we are hopeful to resolve pending issues to give conducive environment to hydropower sector,” power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.
He said one of his first projects Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated was the
China is poised to allow more private companies to directly import oil, a move that will have only a marginal impact on crude markets but may have a disproportionate impact on fuel oil prices. The vast majority of China’s crude imports come via the two state giants, PetroChina and Sinopec , which account for about 90 percent of the imports of the world’s second-largest oil user. Last […]
Photo: STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA As they head for their holidays, senior Conservatives are beginning to worry that they are failing to benefit fully from Britain’s economic recovery. Recent months have seen a succession of good news stories, with growth well established, living standards no longer falling and predictions of future performance regularly upgraded. Yet the Tories seem unable to overturn Labour’s narrow lead. The table below illustrates what […]
The government is proposing a major overhaul of its foreign direct investment (FDI) policy as part of the Narendra Modi-led administration’s plan to woo overseas investors and improve ease of doing business in India, which ranks at a lowly 134 out of 189 global economies in this respect, according to the World Bank.
The government is looking to adopt the international practice of linking policy with industrial codes to ensure foreign investors won’t have to wade through complicated press notes or circulars to decipher the policy for a sector.
“Discussions are on. There is merit in seeding the industrial codes with the FDI policy,” said a government official aware of the deliberations. The mov
|TAP Special| Dubai stands to gain from a changing shopping profile of Singapore as strengthening exchange rate, rising labour costs and sales tax are putting foreign shoppers at a disadvantage in the island city state. Reports already suggest a marked drop in tourist arrivals, particularly from China. Dubai retailer Al-Futtaim has closed its stores for brands including Shana and Vince Camuto in Singapore, and is closing Mango […]
Challenges such as large current account and fiscal deficits remain, but three years after the Arab Spring uprisings, the tide is turning in favour of the economies of North Africa, says London-based Capital Economics. A gradual return to political stability in Egypt and Tunisia should support activity there, while exports are likely to pick up on the back of the modest recovery in the global economy, its […]
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 […]
Iran holds the world’s fourth largest proved crude oil reserves and the world’s second largest natural gas reserves, according to a report produced by US Energy Information Administration. Despite the country’s abundant reserves, Iran’s oil production has substantially declined over the past few years, and natural gas production growth has slowed. International sanctions have profoundly affected Iran’s energy sector. Sanctions have prompted a number of cancellations or […]
