We will cover cuts in Egypt aid: Saud

Source: The Saudi Gazette (Read full story)

The Kingdom said on Monday that Arab and Islamic countries will step in to help Egypt if Western nations cut aid packages to Cairo. “To those who have announced they are cutting their aid to Egypt, or threatening to do that, (we say that) Arab and Muslim nations are rich with resources, and will not hesitate to help Egypt,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. Prince Saud was speaking upon his return from France where he met President Francois Hollande to discuss the current situation in Egypt. Prince Saud said that the countries which slammed Egypt’s crackdown believed propaganda and assumed hostile positions toward the interests and the stability of Arab and Islamic nations.

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18 foreign oil firms qualified to bid for 20 blocks in Yemen

Source: The Peninsula Qatar (Read full story)

Yemen has allowed 18 international oil firms to bid for 20 onshore and offshore blocks in the sixth auction issued by the Oil Ministry, the state news agency Saba said yesterday. Saba quoted Ahmed Dares, Yemen’s oil minister, as saying that 45 foreign firms had presented applications to bid for the blocks, of which nine are onshore and 11 offshore. Of the 45, only 18 had qualified to bid. The auction aims to increase Yemen’s oil and gas output through foreign investment, Dares was quoted as saying.  The 18 firms include Hunt Oil and Gas, Norway’s DNO, Circle Oil, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec), Pakistan Oilfields and Dana Gas.  The list also includes France’s Total, the Austrian oil and gas group OMV, UAE-based Crescent Petroleum, and Pakistan Petroleum.

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Egyptians in Qatar concerned but divided over crackdown

Source: The Peninsula (Read full story)

Egyptian expatriates in Qatar, while obviously unhappy about what is happening back home, say they expect the situation to become clearer today as the Muslim Brotherhood has called for protests after Friday prayers all over the country. “We have to see how people react after Friday prayers today to Wednesday’s military action that saw hundreds of people killed and many others injured,” said an Egyptian, requesting anonymity. He said he didn’t anticipate further violence as both sides, the army and the Brotherhood, should now take defensive positions after Wednesday’s bloodbath.

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‘Al-Douri apologized to former premier for Iraqi Invasion’

Source: Kuwait Times (Read full story)

Kuwait’s former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah received an official apology from a senior Ba’ath Party figure for the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait on August 2, 1990, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported yesterday quoting an Iraqi lawmaker. Furthermore, MP Hassan Al-Alawi, himself a former Ba’athist who defected from the group before former President Saddam Hussein assumed power, claimed possession of ‘secrets regarding the Iraqi – Kuwaiti relationship’ which he said could lead to “catastrophic results” if exposed.

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Kuwait pulls cleric off TV for sectarian comments

Source: Kuwait Times (Read full story)

Kuwait’s government officials yesterday pulled a prominent cleric off television over previous comments they say stoked sectarian tensions and promoted an Al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria. Shafi Al-Ajmi’s show, “Following the Path of the Prophet,” premiered Monday on state television in Kuwait. Information Minister Salman Al-Homood said that the show had been cancelled and that an investigation had begun into determining those responsible for putting the cleric on the air.“The Ministry of Information does not approve of airing episodes for any individuals who instigates hatred and promotes such rhetoric,” Al-Homood told journalists.

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GCC inflation to stabilize to 3% in near term: Study

Source: Saudi Gazette (Read full story)

GCC inflation is forecast to stabilize at a moderate level around the three percent mark in the near term as higher increases in housing costs are offset by lower food price rises, QNB Group report said. “Overall, inflation in the GCC is likely to stabilize at around three percent,” QNB Group said. Strengthening non-oil growth and expanding populations will give prices, particularly rents, some upward impetus. “However, this is likely to be counterbalanced by falling global food prices, which will make food imports cheaper and hold back inflation. Additionally, oil prices are expected to be slightly lower in 2014, which tends to ease inflationary pressures in the GCC as it results in less oil revenue flowing into the economy, weakening demand.”

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Rising demand for renewable energy in Mena

Source: The Peninsula (Read full story)

Steady economic and population growth,associated with rapid urbanisation, has led to an increase in energy demand to meet rising electricity and desalinated water needs in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. The Mena Renewables Report published recently by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), estimates that investments worth $145.7bn will be needed for power generation from 2013 to 2017 in the Mena region. Of which, investments worth $63.1bn will be in the GCC, $21.4bn in Iran and approximately $53bn in the combined other countries of the region.

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