Kabul / AFP Two Americans including a civilian were killed on Wednesday when a gunman opened fire near a NATO base in Kabul on Wednesday, the military coalition said, with Afghan officials calling it an “insider attack”. No insurgent group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which highlights growing insecurity in Afghanistan as the Taliban step up their ...

  Tehran / AFP Iran said on Wednesday it would accept no US “interference” after Washington demanded the release of a dual national and his 80-year-old father given 10 year sentences for espionage. The State Department demanded the immediate release of Siamak and Baqher Namazi, both Iranian-American dual nationals, after their sentences were announced on Tuesday. But foreign ministry spokesman ...

  Bloomberg Many nations are willing to join OPEC in cutting production to secure a continued improvement in oil prices, said Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih. The minister didn’t name any countries in his speech at the Oil & Money conference in London Wednesday, saying only that negotiations will continue until the scheduled Nov. 30 meeting ...

  LONDON / Reuters OPEC should be able to reach a deal next month to limit oil production without too much disagreement about individual countries’ output levels, the producer group’s secretary-general said on Tuesday. Mohammed Barkindo also told journalists on the sidelines of the Oil & Money conference that Russia, which is not in OPEC, was not backtracking on its ...

  RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) has combined its chemicals and polymers businesses and will spin off its steel unit as part of its restructuring efforts to counter the depressed oil market and weak product prices. Chief Executive Yousef Abdullah al-Benyan was speaking after the firm, one of the world’s largest petrochemicals groups, on Wednesday reported a ...

  Bloomberg Middle Eastern TV giant BeIN Media Group, owned by Al Jazeera, has signed a multi-year deal with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution securing content from the Hollywood major. Starting this year, under the deal, BeIN will have access to such hit series as Arrow, Gotham and Originals and will also get the exclusive second pay window rights to ...

  CAIRO / Reuters A draft of a new investment law will be sent to the Egyptian cabinet next month, Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid said in a talk show on the local television channel CBC late on Tuesday. The new law will focus on the diversification of incentives and guarantees for investors, Khorshid said. It has been in the works ...

  Reuters Egypt is unlikely to see a jump in inflation from measures to ease a foreign-exchange shortage because import prices already reflect the black market rate, a senior International Monetary Fund official said. Egyptian officials are widely expected to devalue the pound and cut energy subsidies to secure a $12 billion IMF loan, needed to fund an economic overhaul ...

  AFP Chinese growth stabilised in the third quarter, data showed on Wednesday, as ample credit and hot property markets propped up the world’s second-largest economy. But while the forecast-beating reading was in line with state targets, it came as experts warned that authorities have relied too much on easy credit, which has in turn increased financial risks. The economy ...

  Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA Chairman Carlos Ghosn is set to add that title at Mitsubishi Motors Corp., according to people with knowledge of the matter, putting him on track to become the first executive to head three different automakers at the same time. Nissan is acquiring a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors, which sought a ...