QATAR. International food prices have been declining in recent months, reflecting record harvests and weak global demand. Declining food prices have in turn contributed to lower inflation in the Eurozone, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). This trend, coupled with a weak Eurozone recovery and mixed economic data in the US, suggests that the risk of global deflation remains high. As such, we expect […]
SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia set out draft proposals on foreign-shareholder limits as one of the world’s most restricted stock markets prepares to open its doors for the first time to investors outside the region. The Capital Market Authority may cap foreign ownership of a single stock to 49 percent, it said in plans posted on the Riyadh-based regulator’s website today. It may also set a 5 percent […]
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 […]
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 The Wall Street Journal lists the top 10 companies by market value that might interest foreign investors once the market is opened up for direct […]
DUBAI—Saudi Arabia’s regulator on Thursday issued a set of draft rules for foreigners ahead of the long-awaited opening of its $580 billion stock market to international investors next year. The Capital Markets Authority said a qualified foreign investor must be a bank, brokerage, fund manager or insurance company with at least $5 billion in assets under management, a requirement aimed at attracting more stable and experienced institutional […]
Tim Vine: king of the one-liners Photo: Geoof Pugh/The Telegraph ‘What makes a one-liner work?” Tim Vine was asked on BBC News last week. “Er . . .” blinked the 47-year-old comedian. “It can only be one line and it has to be funny.” Thus are trade secrets preserved, and we are left to figure out for ourselves why Mr Vine’s latest effort won the prize for the funniest joke […]
India aims to sign the contract for the world’s biggest order of fighter jets in about two decades with Dassault Aviation SA (AM) by the end of the year, two Indian air force officials familiar with the matter said today. Negotiations on technology transfer and maintenance for 126 Rafale aircraft have been completed, the officials said in New Delhi, asking not to be identified as the […]
Most of the rest of the world is horrified that so much British ice cream is made up of vegetable fat and air Photo: REX FEATURES The Ice Cream War was one of Scotland’s most notorious criminal cases. It involved two rival Glasgow families using ice cream vans to sell drugs and stolen goods in the Eighties. The vicious turf war culminated in arson and murder. Now, a […]
Saudi Arabia set out draft proposals on foreign-shareholder limits as one of the world’s most restricted stock markets prepares to open its doors for the first time to investors outside the region. The Capital Market Authority may cap foreign ownership of a single stock to 49 percent, it said in plans posted on the Riyadh-based regulator’s website today. It may also set a 5 percent limit for […]
Switzerland’s Bank Sarasin mis-sold $200 million of investment products to Kuwait’s prominent Khorafi family, a court at Dubai’s financial centre found on Thursday in a ruling that could set a precedent for similar disputes in the region. The Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC) Court of First Instance ordered Sarasin to pay compensation in what may be one of the biggest awards in the 10-year history of the […]
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. […]
Dubai’s next big one is the Apple store. Neil Churchill of EDGAR has the story. US-based tech giant Apple will open its biggest store in the world at Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, EDGAR can exclusively reveal. After regional media picked up on UAE-based job advertisements by the Californian company, we have insider knowledge that the Majid Al Futtaim owned mall will become home to Apple’s first flagship in the Middle East. Our […]
Letter From Europe Britons, including Anglican clergy members worried about the plight of beleaguered Iraqi Christians, accuse Prime Minister David Cameron of incoherence. By ALAN COWELL August 21, 2014 LONDON — For a century and more, Iraq has been the graveyard of Western dreams, often literally, from the defeat of British colonial forces in the First Battle of Kut in 1916 to the bloodshed that flowed from the American-led […]
Here’s one of the usual everyday life frustrations if you live in Saudi Arabia: You want to eat cereal. You open the fridge and realize you’re out of milk. You get dressed, get in your car and drive to the supermarket. Then the moment your reach the supermarket, they close for prayer. The kingdom is the only Muslim country in the world where all businesses must be […]
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 […]
By RAVI SOMAIYA and CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY August 20, 2014 Islamic extremist fighters forced a freelance reporter, James Foley, to read propaganda celebrating their cause, and then beheaded him in a Middle Eastern desert. Another American journalist is next, they warned. In Iran, Jason Rezaian, a reporter for The Washington Post, was snatched by men waving an arrest warrant in late July. He has not been heard from since. In Afghanistan, Matthew […]
New Delhi: In an extempore address on his first visit to the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi threw up four out-of-the-box suggestions to rejuvenate the functioning of India’s best-funded technology research organisation. Lauding DRDO’s successes, Modi linked its technologists to the sages of ancient India, who isolated themselves from the world to produce intellectual masterpieces. Urging close contact […]
James Foley described himself as ‘a war protester’ who retrained as a journalist (EPA) • Latest developments following beheading of James Foley ‘I had made the gruelling journey by car, but Jim Foley, ever resourceful, arrived by Chinook helicopter. The destination was Sirte, the Libyan city where, in October 2011, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his troops were making a last stand. Foley had caught a lift with […]
People walk near The Gate building at the financial and business district Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) in Dubai. Reuters Dubai’s financial hub is growing up. Since it was established a decade ago, the Dubai International Financial Centre has become the number one choice in the Middle East for many of the world’s leading banks, law firms, asset managers and insurers from where to conduct their regional […]
Topaz website For proof that a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats look no further than Dubai’s Topaz Energy and Marine. In the dark days following the global recession it scrapped a planned $500 million London IPO in 2011 that valued the company between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion. Since then regional economies and capital markets have recovered strongly. Fast forward to Wednesday and Standard Chartered Private […]
Mumbai: Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has allowed insurance companies to invest in onshore rupee bonds issued by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank. IFC had sent a representation to Irda to permit insurers to invest in onshore rupee bonds to be issued by it…. This content is for Monthly, Annual, Free Trial and Basic members only. […]
Op-Ed Contributor By MICHAEL SINGH August 19, 2014 WASHINGTON — President Obama surprised many recently when he diagnosed the crisis gripping Iraq as partly an economic one, noting that Iraqi Sunnis were “detached from the global economy” and thus frustrated in achieving their aspirations. While Iraq’s chaos has many sources, the president is nevertheless on to something; and it’s not just Iraqi Sunnis, but the entire Middle East that […]
Militant Group Says It Killed American Journalist in Syria James Foley, in a photo from the website FreeJamesFoley.org, in Aleppo, Syria, in November 2012, the month he disappeared. By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI August 19, 2014 The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria posted a video on Tuesday that it said showed the beheading of James Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago, according to […]
August 19, 2014 Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY After St. Louis county police officers in full battle gear trained sniper rifles on peaceful protesters in the suburb of Ferguson last week, and then proceeded to douse the streets in tear gas and round up journalists, a Russia analyst named Mark Adomanis observed that images of a crackdown on dissent in the United States would make life easier […]
