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AFP

  • Dubai property developers upbeat despite falling prices

    The Gulf emirate’s annual Cityscape property fair opened Tuesday with developers foreseeing price declines of about 15 percent this year, yet confident there would be no return to the days when huge projects were abandoned half finished.

    Scale models of new skyscrapers, sprawling villa compounds and leisure centres, including a new indoor ski slope, were rolled out by several companies.

    Analysts have signalled a slide in property values, which had recovered significantly in the past two years after shedding half of their value in the 2008 global financial crisis.

    Dubai had shaken world markets when it signalled that it might default on huge debts incurred after borrowing extensively to build those ambitious projects.

    Thanks to the robust trade, tourism and transport sectors, the economy has since steadied.

    “Residential prices have fallen maybe nine or 10 percent this year,” said Craig Plumb, Middle East and North Africa research director for Chicago-based investment management company Jones Lang LaSalle.

    “We expect prices to go down further over the rest of the year,” saying the decline has “more to do with what is going on globally. Things like (falling) oil prices and the global nervousness with the Chinese economy slowing.”

    “The Dubai residential market is very much affected by what’s going on in the rest of the world because a large number of people buying here are investors coming from overseas,” said Plumb.

    “There is a negative sentiment largely driven by oil prices… It pushed stock prices down and pushed sentiment against the residential market as well.”

    The city-state, one of seven that make up the United Arab Emirates, is the largest and one of very few markets in the region that has opened up to foreign free-hold ownership.

    Plumb said prices are likely to fall for 12 more months, while forecasting the drop for this year at 15 percent.

    London-based property consultancy Knight Frank has reportedly put the annual drop to June at over 12 percent.

    Cluttons, another London consultancy, expects villa prices to lose up to seven percent in the second half of the year after dropping five percent in the first six months.

    Signs of price softening had begun to show as a result of strict regulations introduced by UAE financial authorities to avoid a new bubble, including mortgage caps.

    In particular, they put a cap on mortgage financing at 75 percent for a first purchase and 60 percent for a second one. This priced out of the market those who could not make down payments of 25 percent or more.

    As a result, Plumb said, prices are not expected to nosedive as they did in the crisis.

    “We are seeing a much more stable market and that is a sign of better regulation.”

    Developers undeterred 

    Against that background, Cluttons said more than 40,000 units have been announced this year, with in excess of 20,000 to be delivered by 2017.

    Ziad Chaar, managing director of Dubai developer DAMAC Properties, said “with 53 billion dirham ($14 billion) recorded transactions in the first six months… we are sure that this market is a good market.”

    Chaar cited a growing population and healthy economic expansion, including a rising number of tourists and modern infrastructure, in addition to a stable exchange rate and political stability compared with a wider region in turmoil.

    “If we did not know that this market is strong, and that there is a very strong demand, we would not have launched these projects,” he said, pointing to scale models of various luxurious projects.

    One of the projects on display at Cityscape is Meydan One, which includes plans for the world’s highest residential tower, at 711 metres (2,333 feet) high.

    Dubai is already home to the world’s tallest building, Burj al-Khalifa, with stands at 829.8 metres.

    At foot of Meydan One, a 1.2-kilometre indoor ski slope is set to break Dubai’s own world record, Ski Dubai, which boasts a 400-metre slope.

    Dubai’s Nakheel Properties, developer of Palm Jumeirah and the World Islands, announced that it aims to bring 10,000 units on to the market in the Jebel Ali area.

    Savills, another British real estate consultancy, ranks the UAE as the world second-best country for residential investment, after only the United States.

    It said Dubai’s market has “matured” and that softening prices are expected to pick up again in mid-2016, as the country prepares to host the Expo 2020 trade fair.

  • Author fans controversy as Bond returns in book form

    “Trigger Mortis” is the first Bond novel released since the death of British writer Fleming 51 years ago to be set in the “tradition and timeline” of the original series, according to publisher Orion.

    It begins two weeks after Bond’s defeat of arch-criminal “Goldfinger”, immortalised in the Oscar-winning 1964 film of the same name.

    “It was always my intention to go back to the true Bond,” said the 60-year-old British author.

    “My aim was to make this the most authentic James Bond novel anyone could have written.”

    Gang leader Pussy Galore, who set the benchmark for the so-called “Bond Girls”, the spy’s series of glamorous love interests and sidekicks, makes a return in the novel.

    Bond also comes up against Korean supervillain Jason Sin and his plot to sabotage a US rocket launch.

    Horowitz was selected by the estate of Fleming. Niece Lucie Fleming said the newcomer had “written a James Bond book that could have come from Ian’s typewriter.”

    Indeed, the novel includes previously unpublished material, featuring a car race, written by Fleming for an unfilmed television series.

    But the release was overshadowed in recent weeks by comments Horowitz made about previous books in the series, current Bond actor Daniel Craig and the possibility of black actor Idris Elba taking on the role.

    He criticised Jeffery Deaver’s 2011 “Carte Blanche”, which featured a 32-year-old Bond as an Afghanistan War veteran, saying the “contemporary setting was wrong”.

    The author called actor Craig “weak” and said that the most recent film “Skyfall” was riddled with errors.

    “Skyfall is my least favourite,” he told the Mail on Sunday.

    “The villain wins. The villain sets out to kill M (head of the Secret Intelligence Service). The film finishes with the villain killing M. So why have I watched it?,” he asked.

    He said Elba, best known for his onscreen portrayal of Nelson Mandela, was “a bit too rough” and “probably a bit too ‘street’ for Bond,” but stressed it was nothing to do with the colour of his skin.

    Despite the controversies, the reviews were mostly complimentary.

    “Horowitz seems to me to have captured the spirit of Fleming more successfully than his recent illustrious predecessors in the Bond-sequel game,” said Jake Kerridge from Daily Telegraph.

    The Bond stories are among the top-selling series of fictional books, selling over 100 million copies worldwide.

  • Typo almost deprived Imad Wasim of his contract

    The 26-year-old, who famously hit a six in the final over to help Pakistan win the second Twenty20 against Sri Lanka in Colombo last month, was surprisingly omitted from the list of 28 players awarded contracts on Saturday.

    Pakistan’s chief selector Haroon Rasheed said Wasim’s name was erroneously missed out.

    “Owing to a typographic oversight, Wasim’s name was omitted from the list of centrally contracted players. He was in the selection committee’s list in category ‘D’. But while submitting the names for approval, his name was erroneously omitted from the list. The error stands corrected now.”

    Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said Wasim’s name is approved.

    “Wasim has been added to the list of 27 who have been offered central contract for the year 2015-16, following PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan’s approval on chief selector Haroon Rashid’s request,” PCB said in a statement.

    PCB has increased monthly salaries, win bonuses and match fees across all categories after a deadlock between the players and the central contract committee delayed the announcement for two months.

    The contracts will be from July to December.

    The final list of central contract players:

    Category ‘A’: Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan.

    Category ‘B’: Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Junaid Khan, Rahat Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah.

    Category ‘C’: Anwar Ali, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaan Masood, Umar Akmal.

    Category ‘D’: Babar Azam, Sami Aslam, Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Amin, Zulfiqar Babar, Imad Wasim.

  • Top UN official urges 'global response' to migration crisis

    “We should have a European response as part of a global response,” UN Special Representative for Migration and Development Peter Sutherland told reporters in Geneva, hinting at the need for an international conference “where every country is held up to the spotlight and asked what they are doing.”

    Europe is dealing with hundreds of thousands of migrants — many of them refugees fleeing violence in places like Syria — pouring across the Mediterranean and taking a land route up through the continent.

    Syria’s neighbours are meanwhile struggling to host more than four million refugees from the war-ravaged country.

    Sutherland insisted geographical proximity to a crisis should not determine who takes in refugees, pointing out that during the Vietnam War, refugees were welcomed into countries around the globe.

    The same, he said, was true following the Hungarian revolution in 1956, when an international conference was held to help distribute the some 200,000 people who fled the Soviet crackdown.

    “I believe that we, in the United Nations have to drive… a much more proactive response by the international community,” he said.

    “We have to find a method, perhaps as we did in 1956 in the conference that took place then, to get specific commitments from every state in regard to taking refugees and financially contributing to dealing with the crisis which we now face,” he added.

    He also insisted that there needs to be a system to evaluate who constitutes a refugee that is consistent across all nations, noting that currently different countries are using different criteria.

    In the current crisis, the assessment of a person’s right to refugee status should be made before they cross the Mediterranean to Europe, he suggested.

    Sutherland also stressed that sending aid money to help Syrians at home or in the region should not be seen as a substitute to taking in a fair share of refugees.

    “Buying your way out of this is not satisfactory,” he said, pointing out that a number of the wealthy Gulf states had been very generous in their contributions, but had taken in very few refugees.

    The same, he said, is true of the United States and Britain.

    Sutherland called for a much fairer distribution of the refugee burden within Europe, pointing out that only five European countries have taken 72 percent of all refugees, while others take “virtually none”.

    “History will judge this as a defining moment for Europe, a Europe that proclaimed itself to be created on the principle of values,” he said.

  • Murray ousted by Anderson, Federer advances at US Open

    South African 15th seed Kevin Anderson stunned British third seed Murray 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/0) to end his run of 18 consecutive major quarter-finals since the 2010 US Open.

    “That’s something that is disappointing to lose because of that. That’s many years’ work that’s gone into building that sort of consistency. To lose that is tough,” said Murray.

    “Also to lose a match like that, that was over four hours, tough after a couple of tough matches earlier in the tournament as well, it’s a hard one to lose, for sure.”

    Anderson reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final after seven prior fourth-round defeats.

    “It was the match of my life,” Anderson said. “This is a great accomplishment for me.”

    Anderson, who won his third career title two weeks ago at Winston-Salem, is the first South African in New York’s last-eight since Wayne Ferreira in 1992.

    “I’m just so excited to be through,” said Anderson. “Beating a guy like Andy, I really feel like I’ve taken a step forward. It’s amazing. I feel like it’s a great accomplishment.”

    Anderson, 1-5 in prior matches against Murray, fired 25 aces in ending an 0-15 career hoodoo against top-10 opponents to book a last-eight date with Swiss fifth seed Stan Wawrinka.

    Reigning French Open champion Wawrinka defeated US left-hander Donald Young 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

    The Swiss dropped his first set of the tournament but reached an eighth quarter-final in his past nine Grand Slams, denying 68th-ranked Young his first Slam quarter-final.

    With New York City FC and former England midfielder Frank Lampard watching from the player’s box, Murray fell behind two sets and a break, roared back, but ultimately could not win the tension-packed encounter at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

    Murray, the 2012 champion, had 49 winners and 20 unforced errors, but did not make a forehand winner until the last game of the second set. Anderson blasted 81 winners to 57 unforced errors.

    Swiss second seed Federer, seeking his sixth US Open title, dispatched US 13th seed John Isner 7-6 (7/0), 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 to reach a quarter-final against French 12th seed Richard Gasquet, who ousted Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

    “Of course Roger will be the favorite of the match but I will have nothing to lose,” said Gasquet, who is 2-14 lifetime against the Swiss star.

    Federer, trying to become at 34 the oldest US Open champion since Ken Rosewall in 1970, stretched his US Open win streak over Americans to 12 since losing to Andre Agassi in 2001.

    Isner had held in 110 consecutive US Open service games since broken by Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round in 2013, but Federer ended that streak on match point to close out the victory in two hours and 39 minutes.

    “John has one of the best serves in the game,” Federer said. “You have just got to hang around and win your service games.”

    Federer also inflicted the first shutout tie-break loss upon Isner.

    “I served very well, picked up his second serves,” Federer said. “You’ve got to get a little lucky.”

    Wawrinka answers challenge

    Wawrinka, 30, was upset by Young in a fifth-set tie-breaker at the 2011 US Open, but took the first set on a backhand return winner in the third game.

    Young, 26, won the second set as the Swiss struggled with the forehand, Wawrinka smashing his racquet to the cement at one stage in frustration.

    “Sometimes you don’t control yourself. You need to put the pressure out,” Wawrinka said. “I played really well after.”

    “The set was so quick. I wasn’t there mentally. Calmed down a little bit. I began to be more aggressive, started moving my feet better.”

    In a matchup of 29-year-old past US Open semi-finalists, Gasquet overcame a poor start to reach his second US Open quarter-final. He reached the 2013 US Open semi-finals.

    “I started really bad. I was not confident on the court,” Gasquet said. “The second set was better. I played more aggressive. The fourth set was incredible. It’s a great victory for me to be in the quarter-finals.”

  • You give music a bad name: Bon Jovi China gigs cancelled

    Bon Jovi was scheduled to play two dates — in Beijing and  Shanghai — but ticket sales were abruptly halted with no reason given and the performances scrapped, according to local blogs.

    The ticket sellers Damai.cn confirmed that they had stopped selling tickets at the behest of the concert organisers, but were not told why.

    “The concert is likely to be cancelled, we are still waiting for confirmation,” a customer service agent for Damai, who declined to give her name, told AFP. “We do not know the specific reasons.”

    Jon Bon Jovi recently recorded a video of him singing in Mandarin ahead of his planned concerts.

    Some speculated the shows may have been cancelled because of Bon Jovi’s inclusion of imagery of the Dalai Lama in shows with one blogger writing, “seems somebody spent a bit too much time with the saffron robe crowd,” referring to the colour of Tibetan monk robes.

    The band featured images of the Dalai Lama in a video that played with several concerts — including in Washington — in 2010, according to reports at the time.

    Maroon 5 cancelled its China concert in July after authorities refused permission because a band member had met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

    Chinese officials have been especially sensitive about live concerts since Bjork chanted “Tibet” during her song “Declare Independence” in 2008.

    Authorities censor content they deem to be politically sensitive or obscene, while international music acts are required to submit set lists for major concerts in advance.

    Last year, the suggestive lyrics of “Honky Tonk Women” were apparently too much for China’s cultural authorities as the Rolling Stones said the chart-topping song was “vetoed” for their show.

  • Tahirul Qadri: from preacher to politico and back again

    Weeks of sit-in protests by supporters of Qadri and opposition politician Imran Khan reached a climax in early September 2014 as protesters clashed with police and stormed the state broadcaster.

    For a few hours it looked as if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government might fall, but the crisis abated and eventually the protesters went home.

    Qadri, a mercurial figure who also brought Islamabad to a standstill with mass protests in early 2013, wanted Sharif to resign and demanded sweeping changes to the country’s political and welfare system.

    The protests fizzled out and Qadri left Pakistan for medical treatment. Earlier this year he quietly returned, this time to lead not rumbustious street protests but a 10-day prayer vigil during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

    ‘Exercise in discipline’ 

    Thousands of his followers of all ages gathered in two vast compounds in the eastern city of Lahore to pray, fast, sleep and eat together.

    The 64-year-old began leading the annual vigil in Lahore three decades ago and it formed the basis of his Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) political movement, founded in 1989.

    He describes the event as “an exercise to discipline the followers for a revolution to run the country in the lines of the system introduced by the holy Prophet Mohammed 14 centuries ago”.

    But when AFP interviewed him at the event in Lahore,Qadri refused to answer questions about his 2013 and 2014 protests and what the future might hold for him politically.

    When the protests were going on, some — including members of Sharif’s ruling PML-N party — accused him of being a puppet, working on behalf of the powerful military to try to destabilise the elected civilian government in a bid to increase the generals’ influence.

    Qadri would not address the allegation directly but condemned his critics in general terms.

    “There have always been opponents. There were opponents of the prophets. The opponents always propagate negatively and I can’t come to their level to answer their propaganda,” he told AFP.

    His reticence now stands in stark contrast to the vehemence with which he lambasted the government last year in daily speeches to his followers outside parliament from the top of a shipping container that served as a podium.

    Military rumours 

    Despite his denials, the rumours of army backing linger around a man whose only spell as an lawmaker came during the rule of military strongman General Pervez Musharraf.

    “Qadri always wanted to get a top political office in the country with the support of the powers who themselves stay behind the curtain,” said Tahir Ashrafi, another cleric and chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, a representative body of the country’s religious scholars.

    Senior political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais said Qadri’s ability to summon large, disruptive street crowds at short notice had made him an attractive ally for murky forces — even if he did not necessarily share their agenda.

    “He has his ambitions but he is used by the secret forces without him being known,” Rais told AFP.

    “He decides about his political movements himself but gets political and other allies when he starts it.”

    Last year’s protests may not have brought down Sharif’s government but they were seen by many observers as weakening it and boosting the military’s influence, particularly in the policy areas it has traditionally dominated — defence and foreign affairs.

    Qadri’s supporters still have confidence he will lead the country to a bright new future and say they are ready for the next round of their struggle, whenever it comes.

    “We still stand for our mission and will stand for it until the end. The revolution doesn’t come with one, two or five sit-ins,” said Shams-ur-Rehman Mehsud, 19, a follower from South Waziristan tribal district on the Afghan border.

    And while Qadri may be guarded in discussing what his future tactics might be, he is no less fervent than before when rousing his followers.

    “We won’t forgive the blood of martyrs of our struggle to bring revolution in this country,” he said in one of his Ramadan addresses.

    “Be ready and preparing for the next round of struggle when I will call you again.”  – AFP

  • Eurozone growth revised up to 0.4% in second quarter: Eurostat

    Last month, the EU’s Eurostat agency said the eurozone grew by just 0.3 percent in the April to June period.

    Eurostat also updated the first quarter growth figure from 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, boosted by high-growth Ireland which was not included earlier estimates, a Eurostat official said.

    The fresh data comes amid growing concerns for the global economy, hit by a slowdown in powerhouse China that has spooked financial markets.

    The revised data still demonstrates that the eurozone economy suffered a slowdown in the first half of 2015, despite a massive European Central Bank stimulus programme to boost the fragile recovery after the debt crisis.

    Eurostat said that all members of the eurozone expanded in the second quarter, except France, the bloc’s second biggest economy after Germany, which posted zero growth.

    Export champion Germany grew at the eurozone average, by 0.4 percent.

    Greece managed 0.9 growth in the period that was deeply marked by a political crisis dividing leftist-led Athens with its eurozone creditors.

  • Dozens of beachgoers pay respects to drowned Aylan Kurdi in touching tribute

    The sculpture measuring a few metres (yards) in length depicts three-year-old Aylan Kurdi in the same position and with red and blue clothing like he wore when his lifeless body was found last week.

    Aylan’s body was photographed lying face down in the sand near Bodrum, one of Turkey’s prime tourist resorts, in a bleak image that rapidly went viral on social media.

    The sand sculpture is located a short distance from where an Israeli strike killed four Gazan children as they played football during last year’s 50-day Gaza war.

    “When I saw this statue representing Aylan Kurdi, the child drowned while fleeing Syria, I felt a deep sadness and great emotion,” said resident Arwa Arbijan.

    “It reminded me of the children of the Bakr family who were killed on the Gaza beach during the last war,” she told AFP.

    Last year on July 16, cousins Ahed Atef Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, both aged 10, nine-year-old Mohamed Ramez Bakr and 11-year-old Ismail Mohamed Bakr were playing on the beach in Gaza City when they were hit in two separate Israeli air strikes.

    At the other end of the Mediterranean, dozens of people paid tribute to Aylan on a Rabat beach on Monday by re-enacting the heart-wrenching scene of how his body was found washed ashore.

    Around 30 people took part, some wearing the same combination of clothes, and lay rooted face-down in the sand for about 20 minutes.

    “As an artist, my duty is to react and to come here with my colleagues to say that a small gesture can be worth a lot,” said Moroccan actress Latifa Ahrar, one of the organisers.

    “We are here to say that the Mediterranean should remain a space for sharing and exchanges, not a barrier for those who are victims of dictatorships, civil wars and terrorism,” said journalist Rachid el-Belghiti.

  • Britain to take 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years

    “We are proposing the UK should resettle up to 20,000 refugees over the life of this parliament,” Cameron said in a speech in the House of Commons.

    “In doing so we will continue to show the world that this is a country of extraordinary compassion always standing up for our values and helping those in need.”

    Britain will continue to take refugees from the camps and from elsewhere in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, he said.

    “This provides refugees with a more direct and safe route to the UK, rather than risking the hazardous journey to Europe,” Cameron said.

    Vulnerable refugees such as orphans will be given priority, according to the prime minister, who has come under mounting pressure after the image of a dead Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach sparked a groundswell of public sympathy.

    The refugees will be funded for the first year of their stay, with the money coming from Britain’s foreign aid budget.

    More than 40 local authorities in Britain have said they are willing to offer sanctuary to Syrian refugees following a request from Labour leadership contender Yvette Cooper.

    “The whole country has been deeply moved by the heart-breaking images we have seen over the past few days,” the Prime Minister added.

    But he cautioned that Britain must “use our head and our heart” to address “the causes of the problem as well as the consequences” and pledged to “help to stabilise countries where the refugees are coming from”.

    He said he would “seek a solution to the crisis in Syria, push for the formation of a new unity government in Libya and bust the criminal gangs.”

    Charity Oxfam welcomed Cameron’s announcement, calling it an important first step.

    “It will give much-needed respite to people fleeing horrors most of us can only imagine,” said Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s chief executive.

    “This is a good step forward, but its far from job done.”

    Britain has accepted 216 Syrian refugees over the past year and granted asylum to almost 5,000 Syrians since the conflict there broke out in 2011 — far fewer than countries like France, Germany and Sweden.

    Britain opted out of a quota system for asylum seekers within the European Union despite growing calls in the EU for fairer distribution.

    More than four million Syrians have fled the war.

    Cameron said Britain had been working to “tackle the threat (of IS) at source” with British aircraft carrying out nearly 300 airstrikes over Iraq and conducting airborne surveillance missions over Syria.