Gaza flotilla victims’ kin vow legal battle against Israel

  Istanbul / AFP The families of Turkish activists killed in a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship say they will not drop their legal cases despite a deal between Turkey and the Tel Aviv. Nine Turks died when Israeli marines stormed the “Mavi Marmara”, which was part of an aid flotilla to break a naval blockade of the ...

Read More »

Girls’ school burnt down in northern Afghanistan

  Mazar-i-Sharif / AFP Armed men have burned down a girls’ school in northern Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday, with police blaming the Taliban for the assault as the militants expand their foothold across the country. The attackers burst into the school in northern Jawzjan province on Friday night, beat up the security guards and set the building on fire, a ...

Read More »

Saudi, Mideast vie for China teapot crude imports

  Reuters Top global oil exporter Saudi Arabia is looking at new ways to sell crude to China, offering more cargoes at spot prices and more lenient payment terms after losing ground in the world’s fastest-growing oil import market to Angola, Russia and others. Independent refiners, known as teapots, have shaken up China’s oil industry this year, accounting for most ...

Read More »

OPEC meets non-OPEC nations for oil talks

  VIENNA / Reuters Officials from OPEC and non-member oil producing countries met on Saturday aiming to build support for an OPEC plan to reduce output one day after OPEC members were unable to agree on how to implement the deal. Arriving for the meeting with OPEC’s High Level Committee of exporters, only the representative of non-OPEC Azerbaijan made comments ...

Read More »

Israel sees higher chance of gas export to Europe via Greece

  Bloomberg Senior officials from Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Israel agreed to advance talks on a pipeline from Israel to Europe after an EU-sponsored study showed the project would be “very feasible,” Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview. The study showed the pipeline, which would traverse Cyprus and Greece before reaching Italy, would cost about 5 billion ...

Read More »

Egyptian Palm Hills expects deal on mega-project

  CAIRO / Reuters Egyptian property company Palm Hills expects to sign a revenue-sharing deal with the government this year to develop what would be the country’s second-largest real estate project, one of its co-chief executives said. The country’s property sector has boomed in recent years as the population grew to more than 91 million, with demand driven higher by ...

Read More »

‘Nothing’s simple’, Belgium says as it inks EU-Canada deal

  Brussels / AFP Belgium on Saturday officially signed the landmark EU-Canada trade accord after a drama that saw Belgian regions threaten to torpedo years of negotiations. “Nothing is simple in Belgium but few things are impossible,” tweeted Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders after signing the pact on behalf of his country. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malstrom, who negotiated the ...

Read More »

VW labour boss to block investment without production accord

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s worker representatives will block investment decisions unless the German carmaker’s management commits to production programs that secure jobs, top labor leader Bernd Osterloh said in an interview. The hard-line stance sets up tense negotiations in the coming weeks over the so-called Future Pact. The labor agreement at Volkswagen’s namesake brand is aimed at cutting costs to ...

Read More »

Apple, Electrolux lift UK prices in Brexit X’mas pinch

  Bloomberg The Brexit squeeze on UK consumers tightened as Apple Inc. and Electrolux AB responded to the falling pound by charging more for their products in Britain. Apple quietly raised the cost of some of its machines including the “Mac Pro” by 20 percent overnight, while Sweden’s Electrolux said it’s boosting the prices of its home appliances by 10 ...

Read More »

Exxon may face historic reserves reduction

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. warned it may be facing the biggest reserves revision in its history as production sank to a seven-year low and profit slid amid a prolonged slump in energy markets. About 3.6 billion barrels of reserves in the Canadian oil sands and the equivalent of another 1 billion barrels of oil in other North American fields may ...

Read More »
Send this to a friend