Kuwaiti authorities have donated 500 million dollars for the development of east Sudan provinces , the foreign minister of the Gulf state Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said Wednesday, His statement marked the opening ceremony of an international conference for donors and investors. "I am pleased to announce the donation of the State of Kuwait of 500 million dollars for East Sudan development," Middle-east-online.com quotes Sheikh Mohammad as saying. He added tha... Read more »

After the talks with Canadian maker Research in Motion the United Arab Emirates has said they won’t ban Blackerry services. Earlier it had threatened to suspend all services from 11 October.Now the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority is satisfied with services on the smart phones. It said they were compliant with state’s security needs. Fears were caused by the fact that the network was encrypted and data stored on servers abroad. Bbc.co.uk

Egyptian cities have been hit by daily power cuts during the past two weeks, causing protests and calls for the electricity minister to be fired. The government says the problem is the consequence of higher consumption and it is taking measures to restore the service. Egypt suffers with sweltering temperatures. Muslims enjoy the fasting month of Ramadan and due to blackouts they have to use candles and gas lamps breaking their Ramadan fast in near-darkness.... Read more »

According to Saudi officials, a deal to prevent a ban on the Blackberry services in Saudi Arabia is "in sight". Saudi Arabia was to ban the smartphone on Friday because the manufacturer Canadian RIM uses an encrypted message service that cannot be monitored. Several other countries such as India and the UAE have expressed national security concerns over the Blackberry system. It is believed a special server for the messenger system will be set up in Saudi A... Read more »

Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has ordered mobile operators to halt BlackBerry services starting August 6. "Saudi Telecom Co, Mobily and Zain Saudi Arabia was asked to stop immediately the BlackBerry service in the country starting Friday. The reason for suspension is reported to be “not meeting regulatory requirements”. But sources from Saudi Telecom said the ban was caused by security concerns. The Unite... Read more »

BP signed a major agreement with Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. on Monday to develop two offshore gas fields. This is the largest deal for the beleaguered energy giant since its notorious disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Egypt's petroleum ministry said in a statement that the deal would develop five trillion cubic metres of gas from the North Alexandria Deepwater concession and the Western Mediterranean concession. According to the ministry the fiel... Read more »

Abu Dhabi plans to launch an automotive industry zone. This fact may open up the prospect for the emirate to become a centre for vehicle assembly. Everything from building vehicles to maintenance and sales could take place within the cluster, across an 11 square km swathe of industrial land in Musaffah. Abu Dhabi investors own stakes in its investment links with global car makers such as the German car giant Daimler and the Italian sports car manufacturer F... Read more »

France Telecom have recently announced its plans to acquire five telecom deals in North Africa and the Middle East and are hoping to complete some of these by the end of the summer. This revelation has led to the meeting of the leading names in telecoms at the NGT MENA summit. France Telecom is set to spend as much $8.6 billion on MENA deals over the next 5 years as part of a ‘double revenue’ strategy to capitalize on emerging markets. This plan comes as a ... Read more »

The United Arab Emirates has closed down 40 international and local firms violating UN sanctions on Iran. These firms have been dealing with "dual-use and dangerous materials banned under UN resolutions and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty" middle-east-online.com quotes unnamed UAE official as saying. For years, Iran kept active trade ties with the one of seven emirates making up the UAE, Dubai, with the trade volume estimated at around 10 billion dolla... Read more »

Iraqi officials have said that the state-owned Iraqi Airways would be declared bankrupt and closed due to a damaging dispute with Kuwait over war repatriations. Kuwait Airways representatives say the Iraqi carrier owes it about $1.2bn for aircraft and plane parts taken during the war in 1990. Last month, at London's Gatwick Airport Kuwaiti lawyers tried have an Iraqi Airlines plane confiscated. It had just arrived at the UK following the first direct flight... Read more »