October, 2016

• 30 October

  OPEC splits prevent deal with producers to curb supply

  

    Bloomberg OPEC’s internal disagreements over how to implement oil-supply cuts agreed to last month prevented a deal to secure the cooperation of other major suppliers. More than 18 hours of talks over two days in Vienna yielded little more than a promise that the world’s largest oil producers would keep on talking. Discussions will continue in late November, just ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Iran Shipping Lines sees business back to normal by mid-2017

  

    Reuters Container shipping firm Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) expects to have regained by the middle of next year the business lost while Iran was subject to international sanctions, its chairman said. International sanctions were lifted in January following an agreement with world powers on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme. “Step by step the problems have been resolved ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Egypt closer to IMF loan with currency swap deal

  

    Bloomberg Egypt has reached a $2.7 billion currency swap agreement with China, moving closer to mustering the outside financing needed to win final approval of a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan. The agreement is being processed by the Chinese authorities, an Egyptian central bank official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official didn’t provide additional details ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Hyundai Engineering wins $727mn deal from Saudi Aramco

    Reuters Hyundai Engineering and Construction signed a contract to build a project for Saudi Aramco’s Uthmaniyah plant for 833.10 billion won ($727 million), the South Korean company said. Hyundai expects the contract to be completed by Nov. 26 2019, it said in a statement. Sources told Reuters on Thursday that Hyundai had won the deal after offering discounts to ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Angolan state oil company Sonangol mirrors nation’s troubles

    Luanda / AFP Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol rode the commodities boom that drove the country’s extraordinary growth after civil war ended in 2002, but today it symbolises a national economic crisis. The Luanda-based company has increasingly been in focus since Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of long-time President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was appointed CEO in June. ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Iraqi militiamen battle IS southwest of Mosul

  

    Qayyarah / AFP Iraqi paramilitary forces battled the IS group southwest of Mosul on Sunday, the second day of an operation to cut extremist supply lines between the city and neighbouring Syria. Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been advancing on Mosul from the north, east and south after the launch on October 17 of ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Turkey fires another 10,000 civil servants in post-coup purge

    Istanbul / AFP Turkish authorities have fired over 10,000 additional civil servants as the government presses a crackdown over the failed July coup, the official gazette said. A total of 10,131 government employees were removed, mainly from the education, justice and health ministries, according to announcements published late on Saturday. The government also announced the closure of 15 pro-Kurdish and ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  IS claims Hamburg teen murder

    Frankfurt / AFP The IS extremist group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in Hamburg on October 16 that left a teenager dead, IS-affiliated news agency Amaq reported. “A soldier of the IS stabbed two individuals in Hamburg city on the 16th of this month,” the release said, in response to “calls to target the citizens of coalition countries” that ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Central African militias gather as French troops leave

  

    Beirut / AFP French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian heads to the Central African Republic on Sunday to formally end Operation Sangaris, begun three years ago to halt mass killings there but which failed to disarm militias terrorising the population. The formal end to the French mission comes as a fresh wave of bloodshed shook the troubled nation, spearheaded ...

  Read More »
• 30 October

  Afghan military death rate rises in 2016

    Washington / AFP The death rate among Afghan security forces is surging far above last year’s levels, a US government watchdog said Sunday, and slew of social gains in the war-torn nation is also eroding. Afghan forces are nearing the end of their second year providing security across their war-torn country, after NATO moved into an advisory and training ...

  Read More »