Amman / Tribune News Service Jordan has signed an agreement to build its “first coal-fuelled power plant”, the Energy Ministry said. “This is the first power plant in Jordan that runs on coal,” said Energy Minister Ibrahim Saif, adding that around 70 per cent of electricity globally is produced by coal. The plant will run on coal and petroleum ...

  BEIRUT / Reuters Iran has filed a formal complaint with the International Court of Justice to recover nearly $2 billion in assets frozen in the United States, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that the assets must be turned over to American families of people killed in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. ...

  AMMAN / Tribune News Service In less than two years, a team of archaeologists has amassed records for 90,000 Middle Eastern sites in an online database. The Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project documents archaeological sites and assesses the threats to them in 10 countries, said project Director Robert Bewley from the University of ...

  Jeddah / Tribune News Service Saudi Arabia is a key partner in international development and among the world’s top donors as the provision of external assistance and donations are major aspects of its foreign policy. In a speech delivered at the Human Rights Council by Faisal bin Trad, Saudi ambassador to the UN, in Geneva, said that the Kingdom ...

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen seems to be coming around to what her one-time rival, Lawrence Summers, has been arguing for a while: Some of the forces holding down interest rates may be long-lasting and secular. That’s reflected in a marked downgrade in rate projections released by policy makers after their meeting on Wednesday. Six of 17 now ...

  Bloomberg The world’s most prominent oil forecaster, the International Energy Agency, anticipates near-equilibrium between supply and demand in global crude markets next year. If OPEC members can’t resolve some massive output disruptions, that will turn into a significant shortfall. World oil production in 2017 will very nearly match consumption, ending several years of oversupply, the Paris-based IEA forecast on ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer proposed to legislators spending caps that are designed to shrink a near-record budget deficit and restore investor confidence in Latin America’s largest economy. The proposal would amend the constitution, essentially freezing current government expenditures in inflation-adjusted terms through 2036, though there would be the possibility of adjustments after the first 10 years, according ...

  Bloomberg Mexico’s retail market is getting a jolt as Chile-based retail giant SACI Falabella reaches northward to grab a piece of an expanding consumer market. South America’s largest department store chain, which sells everything from power tools to women’s clothes and treadmills, is making headway in Mexico as consumption drives a better-than-expected expansion in the country. The company is ...

  Bloomberg Jaguar Land Rover opened a factory in Brazil as part of efforts to increase local sourcing of components and reduce the impact of currency fluctuations on its profits. The plant is the company’s first wholly owned facility outside its home market of the U.K. and will produce the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque sport utility vehicles for ...

  Bloomberg California has overtaken France as the world’s sixth-largest economy, fueled by strong growth and the U.S. dollar’s gains against foreign currencies, state data show. The most-populous U.S. state, with a gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion, has also eclipsed recession-plagued Brazil. “This is the result of both good growth in California and exchange-rate movements of the U.S. dollar ...