NYC to charge $300 for film permits
For the first time ever, television and film productions that come from all over the world to shoot in the city will have to pay for the City Hall permits…
Tribeca film fest is 'the Alex Gibney festival'
Jane Rosenthal, the co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, has taken to calling this year's edition "the Alex Gibney festival." Gibney, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker of "Taxi the Dark Side,"…
Going private in Kuwait
KUWAIT: On April 15 Kuwait's parliament approved the first draft of a privatization bill that could lead to the sale of a substantial proportion of state-held assets to the private…
An 'Obama Plan' for the Mideast is a good idea
WASHINGTON, DC: The Washington Post reported last week that the Obama administration is considering abandoning its support for indirect Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in favor of direct negotiations based on a plan…
Islamic finance resists equity shift, may stunt growth
KUALA LUMPUR: When Kuwait Finance House Malaysia helped develop a $1.3 billion real estate project in the country in 2005 as a partner in the deal, Islamic equity property ventures…
Planting the seeds of Africa’s growth
WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA: After decades of bad news, at least three major trends are turning Africa’s way: agricultural policies, rural demography, and farm productivity all promise improved opportunities for farm…
Metanoia: A frightening glimpse of Egypt's psychiatric hospitals
Nermine Hammam’s exhibition, Metanoia, currently showing at the Townhouse Gallery is a first of its kind. For three months, Hammam gained unprecedented access to Egyptian psychiatric hospitals and photographed their…
Oil slides below $84 on forecast US stock gain
SINGAPORE: Oil fell for a second day on Tuesday to trade below $84 as forecasts for repeated increases in US inventories rekindled concerns of oversupply, while Greek debt woes also…
Another failed British experiment
FLORENCE: British politics has always been something of an experimental laboratory for the industrialized world. In the 1970’s, Britain was where the preeminent postwar model of how to manage the…
Iraq's West Qurna to hit 120,000 bpd in 2012
KUWAIT: Production at Iraq's West Qurna phase two oilfield will hit 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2012, a senior executive from Norway's Statoil said on Tuesday. Statoil along with…