China calls for more judicial co-op with Egypt
A senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday called for greater judicial cooperation between China and Egypt, Xinhua reported.
The Chinese news agency said that Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remark while meeting with Mokbel Shaker, chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council of Egypt.
Zhou said the two countries had developed stable relations over the past 50 years with frequent high-level visits and sound cooperation. Shaker’s visit, Zhou continued, would help promote judicial cooperation between the two countries.
Shaker said he hoped the justice organs from both nations would expand exchange and cooperation.
According to Xinhua, Zhou briefed the guests on the construction of China s legal system, and invited Shaker and his delegation to offer their experience in legal and judicial fields.
On his part, Shaker said Egypt respected China s sovereignty, and opposed any external interference into China s affairs, in reference to the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.
The Egyptian delegation is visiting at the invitation of the Supreme People s Court of China. – Agencies
EFG-Hermes to pay LE 1 dividend
Investment bank EFG-Hermes said it would pay a cash dividend of LE 1 per share, Reuters reported
The news agency said that a general assembly meeting of EFG-Hermes shareholders on Thursday approved the dividend, which would apply to those holding shares by close of trade on May 20, a company statement said.
The dividend will be paid from May 22, according to a company statement.
Fault stops oil production off Libyan coast
TRIPOLI: Production has been suspended at an oil platform run by energy firm Total off the Libyan coast after a mechanical fault occurred on Thursday, the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) said.
This incident has led to the halting of all production from all the platform s wells, which are estimated to produce 45,000 barrels per day (bpd), NOC chairman Shokri Mohamed Ghanem told AFP.
He gave no details of the nature of the fault or whether it had led to any kind of oil spill.
We are working to repair the breakdown and restart production but the suspension will last weeks, he added.
Officials from Total-Libya were not immediately available for comment on the incident, which took place in the Al-Jurf field.
The platform operates around a dozen wells in the C137 bloc around 100 km off the Libyan coast and works in around 90 m of water.
Total announced in 2003 it would start operations in Al-Jurf in conjunction with NOC.
The French oil firm also runs operations in the Mabruk field in the Sirte basin, producing 18,000 bpd, and the Al-Sharara field in the Murzuq basin, producing 185,000 bpd.
OPEC member Libya is Africa s number two oil producer with an output of 1.8 million bpd and is thought to have reserves totaling 43 billion barrels, Ghanem has said.
The country aims to double its output to three million bpd by 2010. -AFP
Fitch says pressure on global bank ratings Intensifies in Q108
Fitch Ratings said the ongoing illiquid and volatile conditions in global financial markets are continuing to put pressure on bank ratings.
In Q108, the negative shift in the ratio of Positive to Negative Outlooks continued, while the number of negative rating actions taken during the quarter remained at a comparatively high level, Fitch said in a statement sent to the media.
According to the latest Fitch quarterly series of Global Bank Rating Trends reports, the operating environment for banks in 2008 is likely to remain challenging and further pockets of negative rating actions are possible.
Some of the major US banks have been hit particularly hard, said Alison Le Bras, managing director in Fitch s Financial Institutions Group. Although measures by the US Federal Reserve have improved short-term funding, several of the major US commercial and investment banks now have Negative Outlooks or Watches.
Abu Dhabi boom drives profits
Sorouh Real Estate and Aldar Properties, the two biggest property developers in Abu Dhabi, said first-quarter profit about tripled on higher sales, Reuters reported.
Net income in the first quarter ending March 31 at Sorouh – the smaller of the two by market value – surged to 361 million dirhams ($98.31 million) from 114 million dirhams of the same period last year, the news agency quoted a company statement released Thursday.
Revenue more than doubled to 624 million dirhams from 280 million dirhams, the company said.
Aldar Properties, in a statement late on Wednesday, posted an almost tripling in first-quarter profit on land and property sales.
Net income at the second-largest UAE property developer by market value surged to 1.37 billion dirhams, from 450.67 million dirhams, the company said. It is the sales of land and property that drove net profit, Shafqat Malik, chief financial officer told Reuters.
According to Reuters, shares of Sorouh are up 13.2 percent this year, compared with a 5.4 percent decline in Aldar. -Agencies
Islamic finance could have prevented subprime crisis
The global economic crisis sparked by the US subprime mortgage meltdown would not have occurred if Islamic principles were applied in international financial markets, an Islamic scholar said.
Arab News quoted Mohamed Mahmoud Awan, a scholar Malaysia-based International Center for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) saying that the mortgage crisis was unthinkable under Islamic principles regarding debt.
Risky mortgages and a slow down in the US real estate market have caused a global credit turmoil, as massive US losses led to a squeeze on international credit markets, and subsequent fall in global equity markets.
“A crisis such as the mortgage one would technically be unthinkable in the Islamic capital markets sector because it would be against sharia principles to sell a debt against a debt.
The subprime mortgage crisis had seen trillions of dollars traded without the backing of assets, he said.
“If such transactions followed the Islamic finance model it would have easily prevented the current economic crisis.
Awan said that it was time for Islamic banking industry to present solutions to the global economic community in the wake of the crisis.
