Egypt’s Mubarak seeks to stay in Red Sea retreat
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Hosni Mubarak has asked Egypt's ruling generals to keep him in Sharm El-Sheikh despite an order to leave, army sources said, a further sign of the deposed president's…
Gazans’ hopes fading for end to siege post-Mubarak
CAIRO: Nearly three months after celebrations of the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak resonated in Gaza, residents of the Strip are becoming less optimistic that the news could…
Oil slips on US jobless claims, demand concerns
LONDON: Oil prices reversed gains on Thursday after a smaller-than-expected decline in US jobless claims dampened hopes for growth in the world's top oil consumer, offsetting sharp dollar falls. The…
Markets seen consolidating; Egypt eyes Mobinil
DUBAI/CAIRO: Trading in Gulf Arab markets appears immune at times from turmoil in the wider region, judging from new highs reached this week. Upbeat first quarter earnings from companies in…
Disease hits wheat crops in Africa, Mideast
PARIS: Aggressive new strains of wheat rust disease have decimated up to 40 percent of harvests in some regions of north Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus,…
Egypt economy to surpass Saudi Arabia by 2050, HSBC predicts
CAIRO: Egypt’s economy will be the largest market in the Middle East by 2050, surpassing Saudi Arabia and emerging as the 19th largest economy in the world, according to a…
Democracy or finance?
By Robert Skidelsky LONDON: “Shorting” is a tactic well known among the financial cognoscenti. It means betting against an asset with borrowed money in the expectation of making a profit when…
The bear of Bretton Woods
By Barry Eichengreen BERKELEY: This is the season for international monetary conferences. In March, national leaders assembled in Nanjing, China, to speechify on exchange and interest rates. And, in early April,…
Muslims #1 victims in terrorist attacks
By Hussein Abdallah DOHA: Late last month, Yemeni officials claimed that Al-Qaeda-affiliated gunmen allegedly took control of a munitions factory in southern Yemen and then booby-trapped the facility after looting it.…
Helping Muslim youth realize their ambitions in the UK
By Jonathan Freeman LONDON: The last decade has seen growing concern around the issues facing young Muslims living in lower socio-economic areas of Britain, exacerbated by the tensions arising from the…