REUTERS Italy’s state railways company expects to sign a contract to build the first stretch of a high-speed rail line in Iran in February 2017, its chief executive said on Thursday. The contract for the roughly 100 km-stretch between Qom and Arak is worth about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), Ferrovie dello Stato <IPO-FERRO.MI> chief Renato Mazzoncini said at …

  WAM The British-based mining company Savannah Resources has announced that it has appointed two new directors to reflect a 1.7 million pound investments made by Al Marjan Limited. According to Mozambique News Agency, AIM, Savannah has rights to three blocks in the copper-rich Semail Ophiolite Belt in the Sultanate of Oman. Its strategy is centred on building a copper …

  BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq, pressured by lower-than-expected oil prices, will cut non-oil spending in its 2016 budget by 15 percent and take on several billion dollars in international debt, it said in a memo which the International Monetary Fund released on Thursday. OPEC’s second-largest producer, which relies on oil exports for nearly all its revenue, has sought donor support …