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Princess Luluwa Bint Abdelaziz died at the age of 80; Late Ramadan travels; Charitable work

Dubai provides the widest range of requests for trade and project risk insurance within the GCC markets, while Saudi Arabia provides underwriters with the largest volumes of political risk insurance (PRI) exposure, according to London-based insurer Aspen Insurance UK,

The sustained discrimination meted out to the Saudi Ismaili population concentrated in Najran province – frequently reported by opposition sources over recent years – has been chronicled in detail by the internationally respected advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Spanish sporting giant Real Madrid (RM)’s president Ramon Calderón has been in talks with Ajman Crown Prince Sheikh Ammar Bin Humaid Al-Nuaimi with the idea of training talented young Emirati footballers in Spain, as well as opening RM football schools in the UAE.

The senior Al-Thani leadership has been busy on the international front. Following a visit to Tehran by Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Qatar denied it had invited Iran to attend this year’s December Gulf Co-operation Council summit.

Falcon Petroleum Ltd, a company with Middle Eastern backing registered in Cyprus, has been awarded three blocks in Ethiopia’s Amhara Regional State. Ethiopian Minister of Mines and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu said the contract envisaged an exploration period of four years and a 25-year production period, and

Interest is growing in the Gulf about the potential impact of a new US administration on the region, and on the West’s long-running reliance on Middle East energy. In a first pre-election analysis, GSN examines the main camps, their advisors and general policy orientations. A second part of this analysis from Washington will follow in GSN 837, focusing on the implications of an Obama or McCain victory on what remain the key theatres of US foreign policy: Iraq, Iran and the GCC states.

In a deal said to be worth around $4bn, the government has agreed to award Royal Dutch Group a contract to capture and use flared gas in the southern region of Basra. This represents the first deal signed between the government’s South Oil Company, responsible for developing southern oil fields, and a western oil company since the US-led

Abu Dhabi’s recent attention-grabbing deals highlight the wealthiest emirate’s emergence as an increasingly highprofile force to be reckoned with – astride the world stage and within the United Arab Emirates, where a further round of shifts in the internal power balance are coming to light.

Following on plans to establish an investment fund with Indonesia (GSN 835/15), Qatar and Vietnam have announced a $1bn fund to invest in various sectors including agriculture. According to Vietnamese ambassador Phung The Long, Qatar Investment Authority will provide 90% of the fund’s equity. “We have exchanged

An Iraqi-led operation in Diyala province shows how Baghdad’s most intractable opponents are being squeezed. Operation Bashaer Al-Khair (Omens of Prosperity) kicked off three days earlier than anticipated in Diyala province, but otherwise came as no surprise. After other supposedly intractable security blackspots had been tackled this year – first Basra, then Baghdad’s Sadr City, then Mosul and

The US Department of Defence has approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of 12 AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters built by The Boeing Company, in a deal valued at up to $598m.

Obtaining details and confirmations remains as problematic as ever, but some sources are talking about upheavals in the Saudi military/security establishment linked to continuing dynastic struggles in the Kingdom. According to one version of events, as many as 150

Abu Dhabi’s recent attention-grabbing deals highlight the wealthiest emirate’s emergence as an increasingly high-profile force to be reckoned with – astride the world stage and within the United Arab Emirates, where a further round of shifts in the internal power balance are coming to light.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA)‘s participation in First Energy Bank (FEB), whose emergence is analysed above, is part of a rapidly multiplying network of links between Libya’s fast-changing economy and the established oil economies of the Gulf (GSN 832/12, 815/1). While Libya is still in the process of setting up institutions to take charge of its huge financial reserves