If you’re feeling like a small pawn in a big game of corporate injustice, this brutally candid report from Bloomberg’s Businessweek is just what you need to get a grip on reality. “Thirty ways to wreck your career” may not sound like the most optimistic way to start your weekend, but a little honesty could be just the jolt your career needs. Ever the optimists, we at Kipp urge you to read these truths with an eye to taking responsibility for your own professional destiny. By avoiding each of these easy pitfalls, you can think of them as thirty ways NOT to wreck your career. Stop living in the past, Bloomberg urges, “Performance [today] is the true interview for the next level.” Have No Plan? Think the future will take care of itself? Think again. While it’s often easier to blame circumstances out of your control, realizing that you’re in the driver’s seat is the first step to achieving professional greatness.

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Giant asteroid ‘heading for Earth in 2182’

And if the previous story left you feeling like sole master of your personal destiny, then allow us to suggest a story that may help balance that perspective. “A giant asteroid called 1999 RQ36 may crash into Earth on September 24 2182, scientists believe,” according to this report from the Telegraph. Sure, science types are always debating the odds of an asteroid collision, but this one is making a name for itself. Experts contend the asteroid has a one-in-a-thousand chance of an impact. In the event of a collision, the asteroid would be expected to “cause widespread devastation and possible mass extinction,” the Telegraph reported. Great.

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When Photoshop goes bad: some of the best gaffes

The power to “fake it” got a big technological boost with the advent of Photoshop – a fact that has not gone unnoticed governments and corporations around the world. Kipp couldn’t help being amused to learn that Iran had utilized Photoshop’s techno magic to alter images of a multiple missile launch, to hide the fact that one of them failed to go off. And given the embattled state of BP, Kipp can almost forgive the oil giant for their admission that the company had “changed an image of its command centre overseeing the team tackling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to make staff look busier.” Check out this review of some the best Photoshop gaffes, and see how the program “has been used to commit some outrageous crimes against fact-based photography.”

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Are all leaks good?

When it comes to the ethics of leaking classified information, the connotations can run the gamut from good to evil – depending on your politics and your generation. Julian Assange, the editor of Wikileaks makes his living from leaks, so to speak, and has recently published a trove of classified papers on the war in Afghanistan. He emphasizes that he tries to minimize the damage caused by leaks, while maximizing any important impact that the documents may have. Critics say the goals are contradictory, but Assange suggests that ultimately, “true information does good.” Watch this video interview as Julian Assange has “Tea with the Economist.”

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul

He stands accused of being a symbol of decadence and decay – of spreading “western propaganda and superstition.” This is the way Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, describes the beloved psychic octopus, Paul – the now world-renowned invertebrate who became a global sensation after correctly predicting the outcome of all seven German World cup games. If you’ve ever wondered just how a clairvoyant sea creature might best be manipulated to become a tool in the hands of Iran’s enemies, don’t miss this story from the Telegraph.

The Department of Transport’s Geographic Information System (GIS) Section won Honourable Mentions in the ‘Public Presentation Category’ for its poster map entitled “Abu Dhabi Bus Route Map”, and in the ‘Effective Cartography Category’ for poster map entitled “Department of Transport – Abu Dhabi Highways”. The awards were announced during the Symposium, which was sponsored by American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

The GIS-T Symposium offers a unique chance for GIS professionals from government and private sector to network, share industry experiences and get updated on the latest technology and software in vogue in the transport industry worldwide.

Over 400 participants registered for the Symposium, which also attracted nearly 50 exhibitors from around the globe. Representatives from all US Departments of Transports and from several other countries took part.

The Symposium brought together top keynote speakers, besides hosting discussion forums, workshops, presentation and offered a unique opportunity for GIS representatives and officials to showcase their experiences and achievements.

“Having offered the best deal for the recently-held football event, we are now pleased to be offering our du TV subscribers the hotly-awaited Barclays Premier League through AD Sports, which enables football fans to enjoy all the matches, hassle-free, from the comfort of their own homes. This latest offering proves yet again that du is committed to providing top-class home entertainment and is focused on bringing top sporting events to the UAE’s viewers,” commented Farid Faraidooni, Chief Commercial Officer, du.

The AD SPORTS package – which begins airing from 14 August 2010 – includes full coverage of the event, during which 20 English football clubs play 38 games each, totalling 380 games in the season, all in superior High Definition (HD) format. Also, for the first time in the U.A.E, fans can follow the league closer than ever before with a dedicated 24/7 Premier League TV channel, broadcast and produced straight from the UK. The broadcasting rights for this premium sports event have been secured by the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), and the AD SPORTS TV package will comprise six TV channels. Coverage of the event includes pre and post-game analysis and live reporting from the stadium with Arabic and English commentary. Also featured in the package is a special set of 24/7 EPL programmes including Weekend Previews, Weekend Reviews, Official EPL news, ‘Goal Rush’, ‘Goal of the Week’, ‘Team of the Week’ and ‘Player of the Week’. The package will also include live coverage of the Formula 1 in high definition format (HD). The Barclays Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country’s primary football competition.

To subscribe to the AD SPORTS TV package, customers can visit our du shop, or alternatively visit www.du.ae/epl to book the package.

A total of 1,707 BMW and MINI cars were delivered to customers, and the flagship BMW 7 Series remained the top selling model in the capital with 506 cars sold, an increase of 95%, followed by the BMW X5 with 362 cars sold, an increase of 11%. Meanwhile the BMW X6 Sports Activity Coupé, a popular model in the Emirate, achieved sales of 348 cars, a growth of 5%. Each of these models, the BMW 7 Series, the BMW X6 and X5, remain the global market leaders in their respective segments.

During the first half of the year, Abu Dhabi Motors trebled its sales of Rolls-Royce vehicles in comparison to the same period in 2009, a growth of over 200%. This achievement is particularly attributed to the arrival of the new Rolls-Royce Ghost and sustained demand for unique Bespoke Phantom vehicles. Abu Dhabi Motors was also confirmed as selling the richest ‘Bespoke’ specifications in the world as well as being the second best selling dealership worldwide, signalling the demand for the brand in the UAE’s capital.

Also contributing to Abu Dhabi’s solid performance was the BMW 5 Series, with sales of 305 cars marking an increase of 158%. Launched in March earlier this year, the new BMW 5 Series combines sporting and elegant design, excellent comfort, the highest standard in efficiency in its class and sets the benchmark in driving dynamics and safety having recently achieved five stars in the Euro NCAP vehicle safety assessment programme. Abu Dhabi Motors is also the top-selling Importer of Alpina and AC Schnitzer cars and products in the Middle East.

The MINI brand performed exceptionally well in Abu Dhabi with a 13% increase in sales representing 59 cars sold. The MINI team at Abu Dhabi Motors is now preparing for the opening of new facilities at its existing Umm-Al-Nar Showroom which will include a dedicated MINI state of showroom this coming September.

Commenting on the half-year success, Arno Husselmann, General Manager, Abu Dhabi Motors said: “Our tremendous sales growth over the first six months of this year that has made us the highest volume seller for BMW Group products in the region is largely attributed to the company’s quality offerings and the dedication of our staff during a busy period which saw the arrival of six new BMW models in our showrooms. We are looking forward to the next six months with the initial opening of Phase 1 of our new facilities and we expect to conclude 2010 with the strongest sales performance in the company’s twenty-year history.

In addition to the new MINI facilities, BMW’s global used car programme named BMW Premium Selection, will also welcome new state of the art facilities at the existing Umm-Al-Nar Showroom. These expansion plans are part of a multi-million dollar investment strategy by Abu Dhabi’s leading retailer of premium automobiles and coincides with the recent opening of brand new facilities in Al Ain, including a new showroom, service and parts centre.

As part of this investment strategy, substantial focus has also been placed on the training, development and recruitment of staff to ensure Abu Dhabi Motors maintains its leading position as BMW Group Middle East’s number one retailer as well as its position of the Importer with the highest Customer Satisfaction ratings.

The contracts will see the Al-Futtaim group company’s Elevators’ Division supply 79 elevators and 12 escalators for major real estate projects including the Nation Towers and the Investment Council Headquarters in Abu Dhabi and the Al Hikma Tower project in Dubai.

The announcement follows recent research reports that the UAE construction industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of around 20 percent from 2010-2013.

Dawood Ozair, Managing Director – Al-Futtaim Engineering said real estate construction activity is picking up across the UAE after a slow 2009. “We are delighted to be partners in some of the biggest and prestigious real estate projects in the country. The three projects further endorse Al-Futtaim Engineering’s core competencies as one of leading vertical transportation solution provider in the UAE,” he said.

The 64-floor Nation Towers project in Abu Dhabi will be supplied and installed with 45 Hitachi elevator units and eight escalators.This mixed-use project includes a 350-room 5-star hotel, serviced apartments, loft apartments, office space and an up-market niche retail destination with a total built up area of 300,000 square metres. The project which was awarded by Arabtec and National Projects & Construction (NPC) is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

The 29-level Investment Council HQ Tower project was awarded by Al-Futtaim Carillion. Al-Futtaim Engineering will supply 22 Hitachi elevators and four escalators which feature the Destination Control Selection technology for added convenience. The destination control feature allows guests to select the floor on an LCD terminal on the landings. The system then directs them to the most suitable elevator, thereby reducing waiting and travel times.

The contract was awarded in April and completion is scheduled for mid 2011.

Al-Futtaim Engineering will also supply 12-high-speed elevators with destination control technology for the 61-floor Al Hikma Tower project in Dubai. The contract which was awarded by China State Construction was won in April this year and completion is expected in October 2011.

Syed Shamsul Haq, General Manager – Elevators division – Al-Futtaim Engineering said: “These prestigious contracts demonstrate strong confidence in Al-Futtaim Engineering’s reputation for quality products and excellent project management capabilities. Our expertise, years of experience and support from our principals, will enable our project teams to meet the highest levels of delivery standards.”

In just three months since its launch, Sukar.com already boasts 100,000 online members, each one benefitting from exclusive and early access to premier brands at uniquely appealing prices. As consumers’ confidence grows in online shopping and more high-end shoppers looking online for their favored, high-end products, Sukar.com has been responding to increasing consumer demand across the Gulf.

This is particularly the case for members from Saudi Arabia, who make up 47 per cent of Sukar.com clientele, followed by the UAE, which yields 31 per cent of its shoppers. It also attracts membership from Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, where the many attractions of online shopping are increasingly being felt.

Designers, brand owners and distributors have also benefited from Sukar.com’s business model in a number of ways allowing them to reach a substantial amount of suave, sophisticated shoppers and drive more sales for their brands.

Discerning shoppers, seeking to browse or buy premium products, will find no better place that Sukar.com’s exclusive online community. With a heavy focus on fashion and lifestyle products, the site offers GCC customers a gilded platform for their favorite brands while enjoying the comfort of free delivery.

In a digital environment that depends on trust and reputation, Sukar.com has already made its mark: 100,000 members cannot be wrong.

The state-owned firm said Hyundai will build low sulphur fuel oil, fuel gas and gas oil pipelines from Mina al-Ahmadi refinery to Subbiya and Doha power stations. The project, worth 404 million dinars, will be completed by April 2013.

Petrofac will build fuel gas and gas oil pipelines plus a pumping station from the same refinery to al-Zour and Shuaiba power stations for 116 million dinars. It is slated for completion on July 2012.

(Reporting by Diana Elias; Editing by Amran Abocar)

Its net profit was 202 million dirhams ($55.01 million) for the three months to June 30, based on Reuters calculations, down from 434.9 million dirhams.

Mashreq reported a first-half net profit of 453 million dirhams in a statement on Thursday.

“We see signs of recovery and are optimistic of early economic turnaround,” said Chief Executive Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair.

Mashreq shares are flat this year. It released its results after trading on the Dubai bourse.

Mashreq is on a shortlist for a banking licence in Libya, one of three regional banks in the running which will give foreign lenders a 49 percent stake in a new bank. Libya is expected to award the licence in coming weeks.

The UAE banking sector is heavily exposed to indebted state conglomerate Dubai World, with estimates of potential exposure ranging up to $15 billion, the majority believed to be held by Dubai banks, including Mashreq.

(Reporting by Dinesh Nair; writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Jason Neely)

An advance copy of the financial results obtained by Reuters showed that while first-half revenue rose by 13.85 percent to 313.2 million dinars ($441.4 mln), a 20 percent rise in operating costs, including fuel, hurt firm’s the bottom line.

RJ posted 4.6 million dinars of profits in the second quarter after a 11.8 million dinar loss in the first. The company did not provide any further details.

The state airliner bounced back to net profit of 28.6 million dinars in 2009, helped by lower fuel costs and a reduction in operational costs, after a 24.7 million dinar loss in 2008.

Jordan sold 71 percent of RJ to international and local investors in an initial public offering (IPO) at the end of 2007, making RJ the first Arab state carrier to be privatised.

Foreign investors, including the Beirut-based investment firm controlled by the Mikati family, which acquired a 19.5 percent shareholding, now own at least 40 percent of the carrier’s total 84.3 million dinars capital.

Local investors, including the government, which still retains a 29 percent stake, have a majority shareholding that exceeds 51 percent to ensure the carrier maintains its right to fly under bilateral accords.

(Writing by Suleiman al-Khalidi; editing by Karen Foster)

Damage to the massive crude carrier’s hull suggested a collision, although the nature of the incident early on Wednesday was under investigation.

“What we know is some collision happened. We don’t know what it was,” said Captain Mousa Mourad, a general manager at the UAE port of Fujairah.

“It’s possible that it could be a submarine collision, or that it could be a sea mine,” he said.

A Reuters reporter taken to see the damaged supertanker, the M.Star, said there was a very large, square dent and puncture marks on one side of the hull. Photographs also showed a lifeboat missing and smashed windows and doors.

Divers from a Dubai-based marine repair firm were despatched to inspect the crude carrier, which was moored off Fujairah.

Speculation over what might have happened to the ship has included a rogue wave, an aborted hijacking, an internal blast of some kind or a collision with a submarine.

“It could also have been the bull nose end of a jetty at one of the loading ports where the tanker may have come into contact,” said John Dalby, chief executive of maritime security company MRM.

The incident took place near the Strait of Hormuz, gateway to the oil-producing Gulf, bordered by Iran and several hundred kilometres north of where Somali pirates have hijacked supertankers over the past two years, including a South Korean tanker bound for the United States in April.

No oil leaked from the supertanker and the Strait remains open, with normal traffic flows, port officials said.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd , owner of the world’s second largest oil tanker fleet, said on Thursday it had hired a Dubai-based specialist on military attacks to help investigate damage to the 333-metre (1,100-foot) supertanker laden with oil for Japan.

Warships from the U.S. Navy and other nations patrol the region, but were not near the supertanker at the time of the incident early on Wednesday, a spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain told Reuters.

U.S. nuclear submarines have been in two collisions in the busy Strait of Hormuz since 2007, one involving a Japanese supertanker and the other a U.S. warship.

BLAST REPORTED

Mitsui O.S.K.’s general manager of tanker safety, Masahiko Hibino, said the crew reported hearing an “explosion” but the company could not definitively say there had been an attack on the ship. Nor could it rule out the possibility of an internal explosion.

A company spokesman said Mitsui was aware of a Lloyd’s List report speculating the damage may have been caused by a grenade attack, but was unable to say whether this was true.

Mitsui also rejected suggestions from officials in the UAE, Oman and Iran on Wednesday the ship may have hit a rogue wave.

The 31-strong crew, including one man injured in the incident, remain on board and are expected to set course for Japan once inspections and repairs are completed in about a week.

The tanker, bound for Chiba, near Tokyo, is carrying around 2.3 million barrels of Qatar Land and Abu Dhabi Lower Zakum crudes, industry sources say.

(Additional reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky and Amran Abocar in Dubai; Jonathan Saul in London; Writing by Jason Neely; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Alison Williams)

The ministry will hold a workshop in Istanbul on Aug. 1-2 to discuss details of the gas bidding round and contract terms with interested bidders.

Baghdad had said it will invite all 45 international companies, who were prequalified in the two oil auctions last year, to bid to develop three gas fields and the auction was to have taken place on Sep. 1.

“It’s unlikely it will be at that time (Sep 1), to allow more time for… the companies,” oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters.

“I think there will be an extension for the period… It could be by the end of October or start of November, until now the date has not been agreed upon.”

The fields on offer are Akkas in the western desert, Siba in the southern hub of Basra and Mansuriyah in eastern Iraq.

Kyle McEneaney, head of Ergo’s Middle East practice, an Iraq-focused research firm, said despite interest in Iraq’s gas reserves, there was some uncertainty regarding the auction.

“Discussions in Istanbul should help Iraq to calibrate the contract terms and set a new auction date; if these things happen, there will be more concrete interest. If not, expect more delays,” he said.

“The delay in forming a government has given investors in many sectors pause. Progress on this front will be positive generally for interest in gas projects; of course, it will be even more positive if the terms established in Istanbul are not roundly rejected in Baghdad.”

Iraq has no new government since a March election produced no outright winner.

Two of the gas fields to be tendered — the 2.1 trillion cubic feet Akkas field, and Mansuriyah with estimated reserves of 3.3 trillion cubic feet of gas — were unsuccessfully put on the auction block last year.

The third field — Siba — had initially been included in Iraq’s second oilfield auction in December but was taken out of the list of reservoirs on offer because the ministry decided it was small enough for Iraq to develop on its own.

Iraq has said companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Total and South Korea’s KOGAS were favoured because of their experience.

In May, Italy’s Edison said it was planning to take part in the gas auction. Edison and partners including Malaysia’s Petronas, China National Petroleum Corp, Korea Gas and Turkish Petroleum Corp were the sole bidders for Akkas last year.

Thamir Ghadhban, the top energy adviser of incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the contracts for the gas fields would be service agreements similar to those given in the oil auctions but the terms have yet to be finalised.

“One of the modules, is that they (companies) invest and they produce and operate and they get paid for their cost and remuneration,” he said.

“The idea is that we have to be fair, we have to provide a fair contract so there is enough turnout because gas does not have same turnout as oil,” he said.

Iraq signed a series of deals after two auctions last year, which could boost crude production capacity to Saudi Arabia’s levels of 12 million barrels per day from 2.5 million bpd now.

Iraq, starved of power after years of war, sanctions and economic decline, hopes opening its gas sector to foreign investment and sealing a gas capture deal with Shell will boost its power capacity — seven years after the U.S.-led invasion the national grid only supplies a few hours of power each day.

“The demand for electricity is intensifying in every sense of the word,” McEneaney said. “This puts a lot of pressure Iraq to be more flexible in the terms it grants for gas deals if this will mean getting more gas online, sooner, to its power plants.”

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by William Hardy and Anthony Barker)

“After the crisis there were worries about working environments,” Dalia Kenawy, a senior product manager at National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) told the paper. “As UAE nationals’ job security is much higher than others, this was one of the reasons why there has been more of an emphasis on lending to UAE nationals.”

Jamal Alvi, the head of consumer risk management at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, which has a majority Emirati customer base, said “It’s a safer segment as most Emiratis are employed by the government and have good job security and regular salary increases.”

And although Emiratis have historically banked with local lenders international banks are expected to step up efforts to compete.

And you can see why. The paper quotes Datamonitor figures that show 22.1 percent of expatriates in the country were unable to meet loan or credit card payments at some point over the past year (June 2009 – June 2010) compared with 19.7 percent of nationals. Hardly a ringing endorsement of lending to either group, if you ask Kipp.

“The number of Emiratis is not going to grow,” she said. “This is due to the fact that the mortality and birth rates in the UAE are equal, and while population increase is encouraged, it won’t happen unless birth rates rise.” She wants a complete reconsideration of the UAE law regarding pregnant women and maternity leave.

Until 2007, the law in the UAE granted a woman two months’ fully paid leave, two months of half salary leave, and two months’ unpaid leave. Then the current law emerged. It allows a woman 45 days paid maternity leave and then 18 hours per month for lactating purposes.

“When the law came out, no women’s organisations were consulted; in addition, it has been modified so maternity leave is reduced,” said Dr Amal. “Considering that 53 per cent of the federal organisation’s workforce is women, it doesn’t seem right.”

And she’s correct – it isn’t right. But not simply because changing the law might help increase the Emirati population (though I concede this is one of the areas in which the FNC must take an interest) but because it would be better for society as a whole to be more generous to new mothers; better for the women, better for the children, and quite possibly better for business too.

Writing as someone who has known a few pregnant women working in the UAE, I know what the outcome of the current maternity law is. The women leave to have their babies, telling their employer that they will return after 45 days. When the days are up and her salary has been paid, the woman announces she has changed her mind and will not be returning. And why would she? A new born baby needs more than six and a half weeks with its mother.

Property sales in the Gulf Arab state rose to 596.87 million dinars ($2.07 billion) from 280.8 million dinars in the second quarter last year, the data showed.

“Activity through most of 2009 was unusually weak. But at their current levels, sales volumes are well above the average of 608 (transactions) per month seen during the pre-crisis era between 2003 and 2008,” National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said in a research note this week.

Residential property deals, which represent the biggest proportion of total real estate transactions, went up 144.5 percent in the quarter to 349.2 million dinars.

Property sales, especially for residential units, have been falling since state-restricted private firms were barred by the government from residential real estate deals last year.

Investment property sales rose 127 percent to 229.8 million dinars, while commercial property sales were down 41 percent in the second quarter of 2010 to 18 million, compared to the year earlier period.

Commercial property in Kuwait typically refers to apartment buildings meant for leasing, mainly to foreigners.

(Reporting by Kuwait newsroom; Editing by Dinesh Nair)

“What we know is some collision happened. We don’t know what it was,” Captain Mousa Mourad told a news conference.

Japanese shipper Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd said it had hired a specialist on military attacks to help investigate unexplained damage to its vessel the M. Star.

It was damaged early Wednesday while travelling from Qatar with a cargo of crude for Japan.

A photograph of the damage released on Thursday showed a big dent in the side of the tanker.

(Reporting by Amena Bakr; Editing by Jason Neely)

The municipality is urging the public not to use the tea if they have it at home and if anyone sees it for sale they are urged to inform the municipality immediately, says the paper. Apparently it has a direct effect on the heart and arteries thanks to an ingredient named Sibutramine, an appetite suppressant used in Europe as a treatment for obesity. But the latest research has cast doubt over whether the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks.

The weight-loss industry has always been big business. Just this week it was revealed that Weight Watchers, the worldwide calorie counting program (an empire boasting some $1.4 billion in sales last year) is readying itself for a big push into China. It seems an awful lot of people are spending an awful lot of money trying to shift the pounds, and some are even desperate enough to try questionable products like this “Paiyouji Plus.”

Kipp thinks, why not just go to the gym? The slimming effects will be the same, but instead of being bad for you, it will help strengthen the arteries, the bones, the heart and other muscles, and it’ll make you more alert and feel better. They seem like far better side effects to us.

What do you think? Would you drink this tea if it helped you lose weight? And how much would you pay to keep fat at bay?

The balance sheet obtained by Reuters also showed second-quarter net profits fell to 7.628 million dinars from 12.57 million dinars posted a year earlier.

Net income in the first half of the year was 34.5 million dinars against 37.272 million dinars in the same period last year, the statement showed.

The Islamic lender’s total assets rose to 2.34 billion dinars ($3.3 billion) at the end of June 2010 from 2.183 billion dinars at the end of last year, with more depositors seeking a safe haven in Islamic banks perceived as less affected by the financial crisis. ($1 = 0.709 dinar)
(Writing by Suleiman al-Khalidi, editing by Will Waterman)

The refinery, the largest in Oman, has capacity of 116,000 barrels per day (bpd), which would be increased to 190,000 bpd.

“We see the upgrade completion taking place some time in 2013,” the financial ministry official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Oman has been investing heavily in its oil sector to increase output and has managed to turn around declining production.

The refinery expansion will increase feedstock to Omani industries, as well as contributing to the availability of refined fuels for export to international markets.

Oman is a small oil producer, with output of around 850,000 bpd, but its crude is used to price around 12 million bpd of exports to Asia from some of the largest exporters in the world in the Gulf.

(Reporting by Saleh Al-Shaibany, Writing by Martina Fuchs, Editing by Barbara Lewis)

The supertanker, named M. Star, was diverted to a UAE port on Wednesday. Authorities in Abu Dhabi launched an inquiry into the incident after officials initially said the damage was caused by a quake-related wave.

The incident had for a time stirred fears of an attack in the Strait, the route for 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil and gateway to the oil-producing Gulf, where Al Qaeda has threatened to attack shipping.

In Tokyo, Masahiko Hibino, Mitsui O.S.K.’s general manager of tanker safety, said reports of a wave caused by an earthquake were difficult to believe. “There were some media reports saying that strong waves that come with earthquakes may have damaged the vessel…but the doors that were broken were not wet, so that kind of thing is hard to believe,” he told a news conference.

Photographs of the damage provided by the shipping company showed shattered glass and fittings from corridors and other areas below decks and twisted panelling ripped from walls.

INVESTIGATION TO BEGIN
The company will begin an investigation on Thursday. A Dubai-based military specialist had been engaged to lead the inquiry, the company said, but it offered no details. U.S. Navy personnel and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) were also involved.

Hibino also said the company could not definitively say there had been an external attack, nor could it rule out the possibility of an internal explosion on the ship. But he added that there was nothing on the ship to cause such an explosion. A Mitsui spokesman said the company was aware of a Lloyd’s List report suggesting the damage had been caused by a grenade attack, but was unable to say whether this was true.

In the Emirates, the general manager at Fujairah port said: An investigation is being launched by high authorities in Abu Dhabi and other specialists to determine the exact cause of the incident.

“The ship’s captain said he didn’t see any other ships around the vessel when the incident occurred because it was too dark.”

The ship, he said, would remain in the port for about a week pending completion of the investigation and minor repairs to upper accommodation decks. One member of the 31-strong crew had suffered slight injuries to his arm. He said the strait remained open, with normal traffic flows.

The coastguard in nearby Oman cited “a tremor” as the cause of the incident. An official from the Omani transport ministry said it was “business as usual” in the Strait of Hormuz.
A seismologist in Iran said an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.4 had struck the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas.

But Hibino said: “Visibility was not bad, and the wind was calm, according to the crew’s report.” “Calm means there were no waves,” he added. He said the crew heard the sound of an explosion, which had then been followed by light. Japan’s Transport Ministry said on Wednesday there was an “explosion” at around 00:30 a.m. local time and cited the possibility of an attack on the ship, but port officials said there was no evidence.

The tanker, bound for Chiba, near Tokyo, is carrying around 2.3 million barrels of Qatar Land and Abu Dhabi Lower Zakum crudes, industry sources say.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Ron Popeski

The Kharafi Group company said in a statement to the bourse its “executive management is not informed about this”. It did not elaborate.

Americana’s shares were down 1.27 percent by 0702 GMT on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Diana Elias; Editing by Jason Neely)

The bank made a second-quarter net profit of 3.5 million rials ($9.09 million), Reuters calculated based on the bank’s previous financial statements. This compares to 5.47 million rials the lender posted in the second quarter of 2009.

The results fell short of analysts’ average forecast of 5.6 million rials in a Reuters poll.

OIB reported a profit of 9.23 million rials in the first six months of the year. First quarter net profit was 5.66 million riyals.

Banks throughout the Gulf have taken a hit in recent quarters due to a rise in provisions against bad debts, which have dampened profits and slowed credit growth.

OIB did not release a detailed financial statement.

Shares of Oman International Bank are down 3 percent this year.

(Reporting by Rachna Uppal; Editing by Dinesh Nair)

Term buyers have yet to be notified about supply allocations for Qatar Marine crude for September, sources at buyers said, though they expect full volumes to be supplied.

Qatar has been supplying full volumes of both grades for over a year and full volumes for September are expected by the market.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on output curbs in 2008 to support falling oil prices, which dropped from a high of nearly $150 a barrel in July 2008 to below $33 in December the same year.

With U.S. crude oil trading mostly between $70 and $80 per barrel, OPEC members have said they are happy and that there is little incentive to adhere to output targets.

Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, the main exporter of OPEC-member the United Arab Emirates, deepened curbs for its Murban and Lower Zakum crudes, but eased cuts on its Umm Shaif and Upper Zakum grades, in its allocations for September supplies.

(Reporting by James Topham and Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Michael Watson)

“We’re coming up with something more global,” says Boutros Boutros, the divisional senior vice president of corporate communications at Emirates (phew, what a title!). “When you grow like Emirates has done, your communications strategy needs to grow in parallel.”

In plain English: Emirates wants a new slogan so has hired a new ad agency. (Sometimes, I wish they’d just say that, instead of trying to impress with marketing jargon.)

Slogans are, in my opinion, one of the biggest annoyances of the modern age. Not so much their existence, but more the value and weight placed on them by desperate corporations trying to stake out a little brand territory, and by the agencies paid a fortune to come up with them. Because, when it comes down to it, these are the only two groups of people who could care less about a company’s slogan.

“Keep Discovering.” Apparently, that’s been the Emirates slogan for years. Who knew? I didn’t have a clue. And if you’re sitting there smugly saying you did know, how about this for a test: What are the slogans of Etihad, British Airways, or Virgin Atlantic? If you’re in the ad industry, or airline industry, you may have an advantage, but I’m betting the rest of us have no idea.

Like I say, the only people who know the slogan and who care are the agency and the client. But what annoys me is the cash Emirates will shoe out to have its new slogan created. It will be thousands and thousands of dollars. Serious bucks. And what will they get in return? “The magic of Emirates.” “Emirates: Connecting the World.” “One airline, one world.” “Me and my Emirates.” (Some of these were created with the help of online slogan generators. Try it, it’s fun.)

“Today, the school announced the campus was a big failure, and it is closing,” Schlussel said. “So sad, too bad,” she lamented.

Less generous observers are branding MSU’s brief Dubai experiment a “failure,” but at the same time competing university branches in Dubai are flourishing. Michigan’s dismal showing contrasts starkly with the track records of branch campuses of other Western universities in Dubai — many of which are expanding course offerings to meet rising demand.

As Michigan struggled to attract a few hundred students — the school numbered a student body of just 85, far less than the 400 students expected — competitor branches attracted so much interest that they are now constructing new facilities to accommodate student bodies nearly fifty times that number.

Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University is set to begin construction on a new campus facility, as the school looks to expanded course offerings, including new PhD programs. The expansions are expected to accommodate a student body three times the size of its current enrollment — up to 4,500 students. Other success stories include the Dubai branch of Australia’s University of Wollongong, which last semester enrolled an estimated 2,500 students, the school’s largest student body to date. And London’s Middlesex University branch continues to thrive, announcing it would award its 1,000th degree in 2010.

According to the strategic plan laid out by the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, all employees handling food in the industry must be trained in hygiene by the end of 2012. According to reports, so far about 40 percent have undergone training (17,000 employees).

But here’s the kicker: Of those who have undergone training, 60 percent have failed the exams. That means that in total so far, only 11 percent of all Abu Dhabi’s food workers have passed the food safety exams.

The National says that earlier, the authority had blamed language barriers for the problem, but this week it says the absence of a culture of hygiene and food safety in restaurants and food outlets was also a major cause.

“Unfortunately a lot of people think going into the kitchen and dealing with food does not need any science and anyone can do it,” said Mohammed al Reyaysa, the authority’s spokesman. “This is an old way of thinking and it is changing after the requirements and regulations being implemented.”

Kipp is worried. Very worried. Do these Abu Dhabi figures represent the situation across the whole UAE? And how can it be that after training there is such a high failure rate for the exams?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that passing the test is not a requirement – they should make it a condition of employment, and we’re sure the pass rate might improve. In fact, it should be made a condition of employment regardless of the low pass rate, to help protect the customer. Lack of basic hygiene really can kill people in the food business.

Having said all this, Kipp is still off out for dinner tonight. What about you?

The ship’s owners reported an explosion onboard and said it may have been caused by an attack but a port official who spoke to the crew said there was no evidence.

No oil leaked from the supertanker, named M Star, although some members of the 31-strong crew were injured, said a general manager at the UAE port of Fujairah where the ship was due to arrive at 5 p.m. (1300 GMT).

“The cause of the incident was a freak wave and there is damage in the upper accommodation decks of the ship and a few injured people on board,” he told Reuters.

“The ship is not being tugged and there is no damage to the engine.”

He said the ship would be checked and should be able to resume its journey to Japan.

Oman’s coastguard cited “a tremor” as the cause of the incident, while an official from the Omani transport ministry said it was “business as usual” in the Strait of Hormuz.

A seismologist in nearby Iran said an earthquake with a magnitude of about 3.4 happened in Bandar Abbas.

Captains of other ships near the incident also mentioned the earthquake, Attollah Sadr, head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation, was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.

Earlier, Japan’s transport ministry said an “explosion” had occurred at around 00:30 a.m. local time.

“A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (ship owner Mitsui O.S.K.) believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack,” Japan’s ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain issued a statement saying the cause of the explosion and extent of damage was unknown.

“Initial damage assessment from the ship’s owner, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd, Japan, is that one life boat was blown off the ship and there is some damage to the starboard hatches,” it said.

On board were 16 Filipino and 15 Indian crew members.

The tanker, bound for Chiba, near Tokyo, is carrying around 2.3 million barrels of Qatar Land and Abu Dhabi Lower Zakum crudes, industry sources said.

Any impact on the Asian spot crude market would be negligible and the tanker would have taken three weeks to arrive in Japan, traders said.

“This (event) won’t stop the flow of crude, so there will be no impact on what is able to be bought,” a Tokyo-based crude trader said.

Around 17 million barrels per day of oil flow via the Strait of Hormuz, and Middle East crude accounts for 90 percent of Japan’s total imports.

(Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa, Osamu Tsukimori and James Topham in Tokyo and Alejandro Barbojosa and Luke Pachymuthu in Singapore, Raissa Kasolowsky, Amran Abocar and Amena Bakr in Dubai and Frederik Richter in Bahrain; Writing by Barbara Lewis; Editing by Jason Neely)

Investment Dar, which owns half of British carmaker Aston Martin, said in a statement to the bourse that the court approved a request by the central bank to extend a deadline for providing it with the report by four months starting July 10.

Dar, which has been trying to restructure about 1 billion dinars ($3.48 billion) of debt, applied in March for support under a government facility set up for troubled companies as part of a debt restructuring.

In December, it said it had reached a deal with 80 percent of its creditors. The government facility would help it get the consent of the rest of the creditors on its restructuring plan.

Kuwaiti investment companies were hard hit by the global financial crisis. Dar defaulted on a $100 million Islamic debt issue last year — the first major, public Islamic instrument in the region to do so — and has said it may sell some assets to meet its obligations.

(Reporting by Diana Elias; Editing by Firouz Sedarat)

ABC said in a statement profit attributable to shareholders in the quarter ended June 30 was $34 million, compared to $22 million in the year-earlier quarter.

(Reporting by Frederik Richter; Editing by Firouz Sedarat)

“Initial damage assessment from the ship’s owner, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd, Japan, is that one life boat was blown off the ship and there is some damage to the starboard hatches,” the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said in a statement.

“The cause of the explosion and extent of damage is currently unknown,” it added.

The bank said in a statement posted on the Kuwaiti stock exchange that profit attributable to shareholders in the quarter ended June 30 was $70.2 million, compared with $57.6 million in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts at SICO Investment Bank expected the bank to post a net profit of $73.7 million.

(Reporting by Frederik Richter; Editing by Dinesh Nair)

Gulf News reports the findings of property consultants CB Richard Ellis, who found that residential lease rates showed minial movement over the quarter but have eased by as much as 33 percent over the same period in 2009.

The company said that areas such as Barsha, Bur Dubai, Shaikh Zayed Road, Marina, Greens and Jumeirah Lakes Towers saw rents ease as new supply came into the market. Apparently the highest drop in the freehold category has been in JLT and the Greens, which saw lease rates easing by 40 and 36 percent respectively. Among non-freehold locations, Barsha witnessed the biggest drop in lease rates with a decline for 44 percent from the market peak.

Meanwhile the latest figures from Jones Lang Lasalle say that prices in Abu Dhabi continued to fall in Q2. Average rents of a prime two bed apartment dropped 6 percent, with average rents of around AED 153,000. The year on year decline is around 16 percent.

“Forthcoming over–supply in the upper segment of the market is expected to result in a continued decline in average rentals,” said the JLL report. “Lower and mid-market segments will remain expensive relative to affordability due to an overall shortage of supply in these segments.”

“The boat was hit by a tremor …we have no information of an attack,” an official at the Omani coastguard told Reuters.

An official at Iran’s International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering told Reuters: “A minor earthquake of 3.4 magnitude happened in Bandar Abbas”.

Oman had not closed its side of the strait of Hormuz and it was “business as usual”, an official from the Omani ministry of transport said.

(Reporting by Saleh al-Shaibany, Raissa Kasolowsky in Dubai and Robin Pomeroy in Tehran; Editing by Jason Neely)

South Korea’s Daelim Industrial won two contracts to build a gasoline unit and a hydrocracker. South Korea’s SK Engineering won a contract to build a crude unit.

Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas won a contract to build coking unit.

India’s Punj Lloyd also won a deal to build some offsite infrastructure and pipelines while Egypt’s Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (ENPPI) would build a tank farm, the sources said.

(Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Editing by Barbara Lewis)

The cause of the Airblue crash was not immediately clear, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. He said the plane had left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for a two-hour scheduled flight to Islamabad and was trying to land during difficult weather. Airblue is private service based in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city

“The plane was about to land at the Islamabad airport when it lost contact with the control tower, and later we learned that the plane had crashed,” George said, adding that the model of the plane was Airbus 321 and the flight number was ED202.

Guards with the forestry service said they had found some wreckage and seen at least five dead bodies, Imtiaz Inayat Ali, an official with Islamabad’s Capital Development Authority, was quoted by an Associated Press report as saying.

The same official was quoted by a Reuters report doubling the figure of confirmed dead.

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said at least five wounded passengers had been rescued.

“Dead bodies are lying all around and very few might have survived in the accident,” Bin Yameen, a senior police official of Islamabad, told Reuters. “Bodies are being lifted through helicopters.”

Bin Yameen said a woman was alive at the scene and crying for help.

“It was raining. I saw the plane flying very low from the window of my office,” witness Khadim Hussain said.

The crash site is low on the Margalla Hills facing Islamabad, about 300 meters (yards) up the side of the hills. Smoke was visible from the tonier districts of the city, and crowds of onlookers lined the streets pointing and watching the smoke rise from the green hills.

Pakistani news channels showed what appeared to be wreckage of the plane as a helicopter hovered above the heavily forested hills to assess the situation. Fire was visible and smoke was blowing up from the scene. The army said it was sending special troops to the area to help out along with helicopters.

At the Islamabad airport, hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarmed ticket counters desperately seeking information. A large cluster of people also surrounded the list of passengers on the flight, which was posted near the Airblue ticket counter.

“Nobody is guiding anyone. People are running from one counter to another,” said Arshad Mahmood, whose brother, Maulana Nawab Ulhasan, a prayer leader in a town near Islamabad, was on the flight.

“I’m praying for his survival, but I think there is little hope,” Mahmood said.

Arshad Ali said his cousin, Raza Ali, was supposed to be on the flight but missed it in Karachi on his way from Canada.

“We are happy he missed the flight, but things here are in shambles at the airport,” Ali said. “For God’s sake, take care of the worried people, the relatives of those who were on the unfortunate plane. They have no information and are just running here and there.” Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan’s ARY news channel that he was on a family outing in the hills when he saw the plane looking unsteady in the air. “The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down,” he said, adding that he heard the crash.

Officials at first thought it was a small plane, but later revised that. George said 146 passengers were on the flight along with six crew members.

Airbus confirmed one of its planes was involved in the Airblue crash.

“We regret to confirm there has been an accident with an Airbus aircraft and we will provide more information when we have more confirmed data available,” said Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath.

Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the Airblue, said an investigation would be launched, but that for now the focus was to find survivors. The plane was no more than eight years old, and it had no known technical issues, Ahmed said. He added that to his knowledge, the pilots had not sent any emergency signals.

Airblue flies within Pakistan as well as internationally to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom.

The only previous recorded accident for Airblue, a carrier that began flying in 2004, was a tailstrike in May 2008 at Quetta airport by one of the airline’s Airbus 321 jets.

There were no casualties and damage was minimal, according to the US-based Aviation Safety Network.

The Airbus 320 family of medium-range jets, which includes the 321 model that crashed Wednesday, is one of the most popular in the world, with about 4,000 jets delivered since deliveries began in 1988.

Twenty-one of the aircraft have been lost in accidents since then, according to the Aviation Safety Network’s database. The deadliest was a 2007 crash at landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil’s TAM airline, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.

The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board.

In August 1989, another PIA Fokker, with 54 people onboard, went down in northern Pakistan on a domestic flight. The plane’s wreckage was never found.

In September 1992, a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a mountain in Nepal, killing all 167 people on board.

Investigators found the plane was flying 1,500 feet lower than it reported as it approached the Katmandu airport.

— With reports from AP & Reuters

–Arabnews

Separate sources said the tanker was carrying around 2.3 million barrels of crude.

There was no leakage of oil from the tanker, which had 16 Filipino and 15 Indian crew members on board. It was sailing under its own power towards Fujairah port in the United Arab Emirates to check the damage, Japan’s transport ministry said in a statement.

Soros Fund Management will buy the stake in Asia’s oldest stock exchange from Dubai Financial, part of sovereign fund Dubai Holding, the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters.

The Financial Times first reported the news.

“Dubai Financial has been looking to sell its about 4 percent stake for quite some time now,” said one source. “The talks with Soros are now in almost final stages and a formal transaction is expected shortly.”

In May, Canadian fund manager Urbana Corp bought 331,000 shares of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the owner of India’s Sensex stock index, at 370 rupees per share, raising its stake to 2.6 percent in the unlisted Indian exchange.

Dubai Financial may also sell shares of the Bombay Stock Exchange to Soros for roughly 370 rupees apiece, valuing the 4 percent stake at $35-$40 million, the sources said.

Singapore state investor Temasek said in May it would buy a 5 percent stake in BSE’s rival National Stock Exchange of India from NYSE Euronext.

Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse and Singapore Exchange each hold 5 percent stakes in the BSE, which in recent years has contemplated an initial public offering.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

Areva is planning a 3 billion-euro ($3.87 billion) share offering and aims to sell the shares to strategic overseas partners.

“(Areva’s stake sale) will be open to those partners who are ready to enter and who we have worked with for a long time,” Lagarde told RTL radio, referring to Mitsubishi Heavy and investors from Kuwait and Qatar.

Areva has plans to raise about 10 billion euros by 2012 to fund its expansion and research and development into a new generation of nuclear power plants.

Qatar and Kuwait’s sovereign funds have also expressed an interest.

(Reporting by Laure Bretton; Writing by Sophie Taylor; Editing by James Regan)

The telecom group, in which France Telecom owns a 51 percent stake, said revenue at its integrated mobile, internet and fixed-line business was unchanged at 196 million dinars ($276 million).

The firm, Egypt’s fourth largest developer by market value, sells mostly high-end residential and commercial property on the outskirts of Cairo.

“We are planning to develop this land as an extension to Allegria,” Chief Executive Officer Maher Maksoud said by email.

The one-month auction for the land, one of Egypt’s largest since 2007, began in late June.

Five other companies, including property developer Palm Hills Developments, also picked up auction documents from the state New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), which is responsible for developing satellite cities around Cairo.

Only SODIC submitted its application, Al-Mal newspaper reported on Tuesday. It did not say when the auction results would be announced, and NUCA officials were not immediately available for comment.

Palm Hills declined to say whether it had bid.

SODIC plans to deliver about 300 homes in the upscale Allegria project by the end of 2010 and 600 homes in 2011.

Maksoud said the height allowance in the Sheikh Zayed plot being auctioned had been lowered to 9 meters from 15 meters, without giving details.

Analysts and local media have framed the auction as a barometer of the strength of Egypt’s real estate sector and the buying power of its main developers.

Strong local demand and being insulated from international credit markets have helped Egypt’s property sector come through the global financial crisis better than many other countries.

But an undersized mortgage market and other hurdles have tempered the ability of many Egyptians to afford homes in the luxury developments which have mushroomed in Cairo’s rapidly growing suburbs.

SODIC’s shares were trading 11.1 percent higher at 1020 GMT, with the main index up 1.2 percent.

(Reporting by Dina Zayed; Editing by Patrick Werr and Jon Loades-Carter)

The state-owned airline’s flights to the southern capital Juba, will start on August 6, the company said on Tuesday, adding to its 26 flights a week to Khartoum.

“Expanding in Africa comes in line with a strategy to offer more services and investments in this continent, one of the fastest growing markets in the world,” Hussein Massoud, chairman and chief executive officer of the Egyptair holding company, said in an emailed statement.

Egyptair, a member of the Star Alliance network, has also recently started flights to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Abuja in Nigeria.

“We have ambitious expansion plans and we will continue to seek new destinations in Africa and increase the frequency of flights,” said Captain Alaa Ashour, chairman of the airline.

Egypt has been looking to improve ties with south Sudan ahead of a planned 2011 referendum that would determine whether the largely Christian and animist south can secede from the Muslim north.

The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa’s longest civil war — a decades-long conflict between north and south Sudan in which an estimated 2 million people were killed and 4 million forced to flee their homes.

Egypt said in July it would give the government of south Sudan a non-refundable grant of $300 million for water and electricity projects as it seeks to build goodwill among Nile Basin countries, the source of almost all its water.

The figure was down 29 percent decline from the same period a year ago and up 6.7 percent on the first quarter of 2010. Mobinil, which leads the competitive Egyptian market by users, added just 26,000 subscriptions in the quarter, making a total of 26.148 million at the end of June, while its main rival, Vodafone’s Egypt unit, closed the gap, adding 1.2 million to 25.79 million.

Mobinil Chief Executive Officer Hassan Kabbani said regulatory and competitive pressures and delays to a new national numbering plan affected growth. “We still expect those adverse conditions to continue in the foreseeable future,” Kabbani said in the earnings release.

Mobinil had earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of 1.099 billion pounds on revenue of 2.53 billion pounds.

Mobinil, the trade name of the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (ECMS), paid $130 million to major shareholder Orascom Telecom for Internet service provider LinkDotNet in the quarter.

The price tag was agreed as part of a deal announced in April that ended a long feud with its other main shareholder France Telecom.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp, editing by Will Waterman)

The issue arose at Dubai World’s all-creditor meeting on July 22, creating another hurdle as the group seeks to push through restructuring proposals.

At stake are Dubai’s shortfall guarantees to plug any gap left after asset sales to fund the conglomerate’s plan to repay $14.4 billion in bank debt.

Depending on which options lenders choose in the second tranche of Dubai’s debt plan, the government’s shortfall guarantee could cover up to $4 billion.

“If it’s under Dubai law, many will find it difficult to participate,” said a banker at an international lender, who asked not to be identified.

He added that bankers at the meeting said they would be more comfortable having guarantees fall under established UK laws.

The indebted conglomerate put its plan, already approved by its core creditor group, to the rest of its lenders last week. It indicated it was ready to use a special tribunal to force any rebel lenders back into line if they balk at the terms. Skittish after Dubai made clear it was not responsible for Dubai World’s debt in the wake of its shock debt delay announcement last year, bankers said worries about how any shortfall promises would be enforced were high.

Lenders have until Sept. 9 to reach a decision about the restructuring proposal, sources said. But the banker said that the issue was important enough that some lenders could risk a delay of the process in order to get a resolution.

“There’s no comfort right now from having a Dubai guarantee, especially among international banks,” said a Gulf-based banker who also attended the meeting.

“When enforceability becomes suspect, banks become resistant,” he said.

The government operates under Dubai law and will not allow itself to be brought under any other jurisdiction — a position outlined by Dubai World representatives at the meeting, sources in attendance said.

A Dubai government spokeswoman declined comment.

Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, set up a special tribunal to be the final arbiter in disputes over Dubai World. The restructuring plan comes under its auspices.

The shortfall guarantee, however, depends on the government’s word that it will pay.

In the aftermath of its debt debacle, Dubai will be loathe to risk the reputational damage from reneging on its guarantees.

But banks have a shortage of confidence and want some guarantee on enforceability — and somewhere other than Dubai’s untested court system.

“Under Dubai laws, the government can change the laws on a whim,” said the Gulf-based banker. “English laws aren’t going to change.

The core group of Dubai World lenders has agreed to reschedule repayment of loans due in the next few years into a five- to eight-year package paid at between 1 and 3.5 percent.

The seven-member coordinating committee of banks comprises HSBC Lloyds , Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, and local lenders Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank .

(Reporting by Shaheen Pasha; Editing by Michael Shields)

Riyad raised provisions for loan losses by 105.4 percent to 196.2 million riyals ($52.3 million) during the second quarter while SABB booked 504 million riyals for the same purpose, more than 60 percent above the year-earlier period, stock exchange data showed on Tuesday.

HSBC holds a 40 percent stake in SABB.

During the first quarter, Riyad booked loan provisions worth 194 million riyals while SABB’s stood at 176.5 million riyals.

Riyad saw its net profit fall 16.5 percent in the second-quarter while SABB’s fell 34 percent.

Saudi lenders had a difficult year in 2009 with profitability eroded by a doubling of provisions for non-performing loans to almost 11 billion riyals as a rising number of Saudi and regional firms ran into financial problems.

Several Saudi banks continued to see lower profits during the first half as credit growth struggled to recover after a lending spree over the 2004-2008 period that was buoyed by a surge in the kingdom’s oil receipts.

The growth of Saudi bank credit, especially to the private sector, was flat throughout much of 2009 due to the global slump and after defaults by local family firms.

Shares in SABB are up 2.5 percent this year while Riyad is up 7.8 percent. The banking stocks index has gained 7.1 percent this year, against a 2.5 percent rise in the all-share index.

(Reporting by Souhail Karam; editing by Jason Neely)

Employees left the company’s floor in the Bahrain Financial Harbour office towers in Manama after the doors were closed with official seals from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce reading “Closed due to commercial law violations”.

“It’s a small thing, we’ll sort it out in one or two days,” one employee told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear why the offices were closed and whether the closure was temporary or permanent. The cell phones listed on the company’s website were switched off.

Officials at the Central Bank of Bahrain and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce could also not be reached for comment.

GII is a small investment company raising money from retail investors for real estate and private equity projects mostly in the Gulf Arab region. Its homepage does not provide any information on how much money it manages.

One of the firms it started is a local chain of the U.S. franchise Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurants.

GII does not have a central bank licence and is not allowed to invest third-party investor money, according to its entry in Bahrain’s commercial registry.

Bahraini investment houses raked in the money during a five-year long regional property boom by earning fees on property and private equity projects, a market that collapsed late in 2008.

They have since posted steep losses and are struggling to develop new business lines to compensate for the freeze in regional investment markets.

(Reporting by Frederik Richter; editing by Firouz Sedarat)

So while the furor surrounding Ferrari’s actions at the German Grand Prix on Sunday don’t surprise me, I can’t find room to agree with them. For those who missed it, Ferrari provoked the wrath of many of the sport’s fans and the ire of the event stewards when they appeared to order one of their drivers, Filipe Massa, to let team mate Fernando Alonso past to grab first place. Alonso, with more world championship points, stands the better chance of grabbing the world championship crown for the team. The move earned the team an immediate $100,000 fine from the race stewards, and has been referred to the sport’s governing body, the World Motorsports Council.

But as Ferrari point out, all they did was make Massa aware of the situation over the radio, and the driver chose to make a decision that was better for the team than himself. It’s something so many of us have to do in our professional lives – make a sacrifice which is better for our team than for ourselves.

For me, the most prominent memory of such an incident came early in my career. In my first “proper” job I worked at a major PR agency. I was a small part of the pitch process for a major account – a company turning over millions. We worked tirelessly on a knock out presentation – there were brainstorms galore, clever creative twists and some really solid strategy. But a day before the pitch, my Account Director, who was running the pitch, announced she’d had a brain wave.

And the National reports that the declines, seen since the height of the global economic crisis last year, might not be over – analysts are warning that the industry could face a further reduction in advertising revenue.

According to the figures from MediaSource, since the start of 2009, 171 Gulf-based magazines and 11 newspapers have either suspended or discontinued publication, with the UAE being hit the hardest.

“The vast majority of magazine closures have been UAE-based titles, while newspaper closures have occurred in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. A small number of these titles have switched from print to solely publishing online but the vast majority have just closed down altogether,” said Ben Smalley, the managing director of MediaSource.

According to the National, titles that have closed down or been suspended include: Retail News Middle East, Viva Girl and Arabian Property (published by ITP); Insider, Media Week and IQ magazines (published by ENG Media); and the Emirates Business 24/7 newspaper, which the government-owned publisher Dubai Media Incorporated relaunched as an online-only title. Kipp reported the woes of various publishers only a few weeks ago.

“Pre-credit crunch, UAE publishers couldn’t launch magazines fast enough to absorb the amount of advertising that was coming their way. A new title was being launched practically every other day,” said Smalley. “It didn’t seem to matter whether there was reader-demand for the titles and often scant regard for editorial quality – magazines were being launched just to soak up advertising. But, as soon as the advertising dried up, these were the first to fold.”

Many analysts make the point that this isn’t just a temporary downturn in the market – it’s a permanent change in the industry.

As Jayant Bhargava, a principal at the consultancy Booz & Company told the National: “It’s not just the recession, it’s the shift to digital. As the internet penetration [in the Middle East] keeps growing, you’re going to see more advertising revenue shift from print to digital.”

The content of the documents, which has been sifted prior to publication by the Guardian, the New York Times, and Der Spiegel, is varied. Among revelations is the existence of Taskforce 373, a specialist unit out hunting Taliban leaders, and the US military’s conviction that Pakistan is helping the insurgents.

But aside from the scale of the leaks, the real surprise for many was the lack of genuine shocks. As a National editorial says, most of this we knew, or suspected already.

Given the lack of shocking or unexpected content, Kipp finds itself asking: Is there a genuine justification for publishing this in the public domain? It’s not as if most people need to be told that the Afghanistan war is a mess, or that the US is trying to kill Taliban leaders, nor even that civilians are being killed – the media has done an admirable job of documenting the horrific mistakes and misjudgments that have plagued the war.

In publishing this information down to the tiniest detail, aren’t we making things more difficult for soldiers on the ground, young men and women who are, whatever else, ultimately trying to secure peace and freedom for the people of Afghanistan? Do they deserve to have their safety further compromised for the sake of our right to know, for instance, that the most effective Taliban strategy at the moment seems to be roadside bombing?

There’s a difference between exposing corporate misdeeds and political corruption, and undermining an active military operation. What do you think? Has WikiLeaks acted in the public interest? Or has it made a hard situation even more difficult?