BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabar Ali Al Luaibi is reshuffling senior officials in a bid to revitalise a ministry that wants to improve the OPEC nation’s ability to boost oil production, an Iraqi oil official said. Deputy minister of upstream operations, Fayadh Al Nema, will become deputy minister for refining operations, replacing Dhiaa Al Mousawi who is ...

  Bloomberg Egypt may seek to raise as much as $6 billion from international bond sales through 2017, though the first issuance may be delayed due to market “volatility” after the election of Donald Trump, Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy said. The government is still weighing whether to tap markets next week, El-Garhy said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in ...

  Bloomberg As the oil market anxiously awaits OPEC’s decision next week, some of the countries hardest hit by the biggest price crash in a generation may have found a lifeline outside of the group. India, the world’s fastest growing crude consumer whose appetite for fossil fuels is forecast to surge in the next two decades, will likely decide next ...

Yamoussoukro / AFP Plucked out of poverty, 1,000 children in Ivory Coast are being given a unique chance to learn golf, and 10-year-old Jessica likes the idea. “I love golf and my dream is to become an international golfer and work for the World Bank,” says the girl, who comes from the poor and often dangerous Dioulabougou district of Yamoussoukro, ...

  Jinyuan / AFP When he dons his flowing robes and vivid makeup, Wu Yunhong is transformed from a labourer who toils on Chinese mountains under a beating sun into an evil general commanding an army of warriors. Wu was raised in the Jinyuan Opera Company, co-founded by his grandfather in 1984. He started performing when he was only eight ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Egypt’s stock index slipped from a multi-year peak on Thursday while shares in the Gulf were mixed with Saudi Arabia’s market swinging in volatile, heavy trade but ending the week on a firm footing. Cairo’s index of the 30 most actively traded shares dropped 1.7 percent to 11,353 points, falling from a strong technical barrier at ...

  London / AFP European stock markets mostly rose on Thursday but London faltered in a subdued trade with Wall Street closed for Thanksgiving. “The usual Thanksgiving calm has descended across markets, as European investors reconcile themselves to a day of low volumes and quiet trading,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading firm IG. In foreign exchange, ...

  Bloomberg The biggest version of Airbus Group SE’s A350 wide-body jet made its first flight on Thursday, swelling the twin-engine model’s capacity and casting further doubt on the future of four-turbine planes including the Boeing Co. 747 and the European manufacturer’s own A380. The A350-1000, which departed Airbus’s base in Toulouse, France, at 10:42 a.m. local time, seats 366 ...

  Berlin / AFP Pilots at German flagship carrier Lufthansa stayed away from work for a second straight day on Thursday, forcing the airline to scrap 912 flights and grounding 115,000 more passengers. The airline had already scrapped nearly 900 flights that affected 100,000 passengers on Wednesday after pilots staged a walkout in a row over pay and working conditions. ...

  New York / AP The 50 busiest airports in the US collected more than $183 million last year from travellers using taxis, shuttle buses or other forms of ground transportation, according to Associated Press calculations from data obtained through dozens of public records requests. Fees ranged widely from airport to airport. They were only paid — directly or indirectly ...