News

  Reuters Egypt will hire SGS SA, a Geneva-based inspection service, to review wheat cargoes, a move that may ease trader concerns about the country’s frequently changing import standards. SGS will examine imported wheat at origin and arrival ports, Hamed Abdel-Dayem, a spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry, said by phone on Tuesday. Typically, the inspections have been carried out by ...

  Grangemouth / AFP A tanker carrying the first shipment of shale gas from the United States arrived on Tuesday in Britain, where there are currently no commercial fracking operations because of fierce public opposition. The ship arrived at Grangemouth, a sprawling energy complex on the River Forth near Edinburgh in Scotland, where the North Sea offshore oil and gas ...

  Bloomberg Russian wheat exports haven’t lived up to expectations so far this season as falling prices made some growers reluctant to sell grain to traders amid a halt in purchases by Egypt, the world’s largest buyer. Outbound shipments in the three months since the campaign started in July will probably amount to 9 million metric tons, down 8 percent ...

  Bloomberg Argentina is about to find itself in yet another legal dispute with disgruntled creditors. A group of European investors who own defaulted Argentine debt plan to sue the country in Germany as soon as next month after they were excluded from a settlement offer, said Jakob Heichele, a Munich-based attorney at a law firm that bears his name ...

  Bloomberg London’s housing market faces severe price declines if the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union triggers an extended period of economic weakness, according to UBS Group AG. A severe recession could halt the “unsustainable price growth fueled by ample liquidity and tight supply,” UBS said in a report accompanying its Global Real Estate Bubble Index. London is ...

  London / AFP Soft drinks giant A.G. Barr, maker of Scotland’s famous Irn-Bru fizzy drink, slammed the British government Tuesday over its proposed sugar tax against obesity, as it reported falling sales. Barr — whose brands include carbonated drink Tizer and Rubicon juices — said there had been a move towards sugar-free drinks in the face of “negative media ...

  Berlin / AFP German data protection authorities on Tuesday said they had blocked Facebook from collecting subscriber data from its subsidiary WhatsApp, citing privacy concerns. Facebook and WhatsApp promised in the wake of the Silicon Valley giant’s 2014 acquisition of the messaging app that they would not share data, Hamburg’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Johannes ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business According to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), FinTech companies in the GCC now account for 7% of all FinTech business in the Middle East and Africa region. Taking on the successful business models of the United States of America (USA), payment solutions account for approximately 40% of all FinTech business in ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature picked up another accolade on Tuesday, winning Best Family Friendly Day Out at the Time Out Dubai Kids Awards 2016. Isobel Abulhoul, OBE, CEO and Trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation and Director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, accepted the Award. ‘We could not be prouder of ...

  Sharjah/ Emirates Business The Arabic script is well-known in the world for its beauty and elegant intricacies. Arabic calligraphy, the artistic practice of handwriting based on the Arabic alphabet has been seen in important texts. The Sharjah Public Library (SPL) — a Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) subsidiary — recently organised a workshop focusing on the promotion of Arabic Calligraphy, ...