Zain Saudi floats capital restructuring plan
RIYADH: Zain Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's third mobile operator, offered shareholders to cut its capital by almost half to cover accumulated losses, and later launch a rights issue to raise…
Foreign banks eye Kuwait’s $104 bln plan: report
KUWAIT: Foreign banks operating in Kuwait want to participate with local lenders in financing a 30 billion dinar ($104.1 billion) development plan aimed at boosting its private sector, state agency…
Ex-Chevron head appointed to Aramco board
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's king has appointed the Chevron Corp.'s former chairman as a board member of Saudi Aramco, the country's state-run oil giant. David O'Reilly's appointment, reported by the Saudi…
Mubarak accepts invite for Mideast talks
CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak accepted an invitation to attend the start of direct peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Washington next month, a newspaper reported on Saturday. "President…
Five years on, Hamas aims to make Gaza settlements bloom
AL-MUHARARA: Dozens of coffee shops and tiny eateries have popped up along this stretch of Gaza's southern coastline which was once a popular swimming beach for the Jewish settlers of…
Kuwait monitors pro-Iran sleeping cells: report
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait is closely monitoring "sleeping terror cells" that would resort to violence if Iran came under a military strike, a newspaper quoted a security source as saying on…
Islamist insurgents step up campaign against WFP in Somalia
MOGADISHU: Hard-line Islamist insurgents in Somalia have intensified their campaign to stop humanitarian supplies being distributed by the World Food Program (WFP) by issuing tough warnings against people who work…
Independent Teachers’ Syndicate to put education minister on ‘mock’ trial
CAIRO: The Independent Teachers' Syndicate is set to organize the first mock public trial of its kind to put Minister of Education Ahmed Zaki Badr in the hot seat, on…
Pakistan evacuates thousands in flooded south
KARACHI: Pakistani authorities Sunday evacuated tens of thousands from flood-threatened areas in the south but insisted that the 2.5 million people of Hyderabad were safe from the nation's worst-ever inundation.…
Israeli media reflect public mistrust in fresh peace talks
JERUSALEM: The Israeli press on Sunday greeted the announcement of renewed direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with a wave of skepticism born of the sides' repeated failures to reach agreement in…