World Cup in brief June 24, 2014 Spain plane struck by lightning SPAIN suffered another shock following their first-round elimination when the plane carrying the squad home was hit by lightning yesterday. The Iberia flight to Madrid was struck shortly before landing and nobody was hurt. Spain, who arrived in Brazil as one of the favourites having won their last three major [...]
HSBC to pull out of Libya after 55 years in the country July 6, 2014 HSBC is set to close its representative office in Tripoli, Libya, which manages investments for the bank in the North African country, according to The Telegraph. The bank opened the office in 2006, after nearly 50 years of operations in the state. The Tripoli branch was most recently closed in 2011, during a civil war [...]
Three rules the West must remember when responding to the crisis in Iraq June 16, 2014 Like everyone in Washington who worked on Iraq for the past decade and hoped the nightmare had ended, my immediate reaction to the stunning recent reports was simple: “Oh my God, no.” For the news is as bad as it could be. A small, but hardened fighting force of 800 members of the Islamic State [...]
BNP near $8bn bill for breaking US sanctions June 23, 2014 FRENCH bank BNP Paribas is understood to be close to a settlement with American regulators over allegations it broke sanctions against countries including Iran and Sudan. The bill is now expected to come in at more than $8bn (£4.7bn), less than the $10bn recently feared but still far in excess of the $1.1bn the bank had [...]
Oil firms begin to pull out staff from Iraq bases June 18, 2014 OIL GIANTS ExxonMobil and BP have both begun evacuating staff from their operations in stricken Iraq, after intense fighting continued in the country yesterday. Royal Dutch Shell said it would monitor the situation and remove staff if security deteriorated. Both Exxon and BP have taken expatriate staff from fields in the south of the country, [...]
BNP Paribas share prise rises as bank pledges to retain shareholder payout July 1, 2014 BNP Paribas is keeping its payout to shareholders, despite its $8.97bn (£5.2bn) fine for breaking US sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan. The giant French bank pledged to maintain its €1.50 per share dividend for 2014, pleasing investors – its share price shot up 3.6 per cent yesterday. However, its €51.33 share price is still well [...]
Iraq chaos is a wake-up call for the world over its oil needs June 16, 2014 WE ARE not running out of oil, far from it. The International Energy Agency is predicting that supply will shoot up from 89m barrels per day (bpd) in 2012 to 101m bpd by 2035. If it is right – and it bases much of that growth on the return of Iraq to global markets, an [...]
Iraq chaos is a wake-up call for the world over its oil needs June 16, 2014 WE ARE not running out of oil, far from it. The International Energy Agency is predicting that supply will shoot up from 89m barrels per day (bpd) in 2012 to 101m bpd by 2035. If it is right – and it bases much of that growth on the return of Iraq to global markets, an [...]
The sanction spiral: Russia and Europe may fall into recession July 21, 2014 A trade “tit-for-tat” would hit both sides extremely hard EVEN before the tragic Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine last Thursday (allegedly the work of Moscow-backed separatists), Russia was already reeling from the US’s tightening of the screws. The country’s Micex stock index tumbled 2.3 per cent to 1,440.63 last week after news that financial [...]
Letters to the Editor – 16/06 – Stuck in the past, Best of Twitter June 16, 2014 Stuck in the past [Re: As Obama says all options are open in Iraq, is Western intervention now necessary? Friday] Britain seems reluctant to advocate intervention because of its recent history. But it’s potentially dangerous to see this current crisis through the lens of the 2003 war. Many are using outdated reference points. For example, [...]