web analytics

ARY NEWS

Reuters

  • Saudi suspends Saudi Binladin Group over Makkah crane disaster

    It also ordered the Finance Ministry to review existing projects by the firm, a titan of the Arab business world.

    King Salman also ordered that the group’s board members and senior executives be barred from travel abroad after an investigation into last week’s incident showed the crane was not erected in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

    The disaster was embarrassing for the Saudi ruling family, which defines itself as guardian of Islam’s holiest places and has embarked on a series of enormous construction projects in Makkah aimed at expanding its pilgrimage sites.

    Saudi Binladin Group has long been regarded in the conservative Islamic kingdom as the government’s favorite contractor for important or sensitive work, including defense and security projects.

    Explaining the action, an official statement referred without elaborating to the responsibility and “shortcomings” of the company following an investigation into the crane crash that also injured 238 other people.

    The suspension, announced in a statement from the royal court, would remain in force until the investigation is complete and until all legal cases are settled, it said.

    The crane toppled over at Makkah’s Grand Mosque last Friday, less than two weeks before Hajj.

    The company, one of the largest contracting companies in the kingdom, had been carrying expansion work at the Grand Mosque. It was founded more than 80 years ago by the father of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and is run by Osama’s brother Bakr.

    Neither the company, nor the family, issued an immediate statement on the suspension. The company is believed to have attributed the collapse to a lightning strike breaking a cable that was used to secure the crane.

    A statement by a spokesman for the administration of the mosques in Makkah and Madina said the crane smashed into the part of the Grand Mosque where believers circle the Kaaba – the black-clad cube towards which the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims face to pray.

    “The state ‎wants to show to both the corporate and the Islamic world that they will address any wrongdoing and that they are on top of things,” said John Sfakianakis, regional director at Ashmore Group.

     

  • Pentagon official cites concern about business outlook for ULA

    Aerojet Rocketdyne, which makes rocket engines, submitted the cash bid to buy ULA, the sole provider of launch services for U.S. military and spy satellites, in early August, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

    Officials at Lockheed, Boeing, Aerojet and ULA have declined to comment on the bid, which caught many by surprise. Wall Street bankers and industry executives also question whether the reported price tag overstates the value of ULA, and may have been a tactic to open negotiations with Aerojet Rocketdyne.

    The U.S. Defense Department would undertake a detailed review if the deal proceeds, looking at any financial liabilities, potential impact to the supply chain, projected research funding levels and other issues, said the official, who asked not to be named since the offer has not been publicly announced.

    “The government would be very engaged in trying to understand that business case,” said the official, offering the Defense Department’s first public comments on the bid. The official said the Pentagon’s view was “more negative.”

    “We’re hoping that we’ve been too conservative,” the official said.

    The proposal was “unsettling,” the official said, given the U.S. government’s current dependence on ULA to launch U.S. spy and military satellites into orbit, and recent launch failures involving three other companies, including privately held Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which is cleared to start competing with ULA for big satellite launches.

    Any change in ownership and the resulting expected efforts to consolidate personnel, infrastructure and facilities, could jeopardize ULA’s flawless launch record, analysts said.

    ULA has held a monopoly on launches of large U.S. military and spy satellites since its creation in 2006, logging 99 consecutive successful launches, and it still has a large backlog for now.

    But the company’s revenues face mounting pressure in coming years, given a slowdown in orders from the U.S. government, its main customer; the advent of cheaper launches from SpaceX; and the Air Force’s plan to phase out $1 billion in annual launch support payments to ULA.

    Analysts forecast that ULA’s earnings are likely to drop to around $300 million a year from about $480 million as orders decline, reducing the payout to Lockheed and Boeing.

    The company is trying to reel in more commercial launches, but faces difficult competition in an overcrowded field that is “overdue” for consolidation, said David Wireman, managing director of consultancy AlixPartners.

    A congressional ban on use of Russian-built RD-180 rocket engines for military and spy satellite launches has further complicated the company’s outlook.

    ULA this year announced plans to develop a new U.S.-powered rocket that could better compete with SpaceX, but that effort will require about $1 billion in investment.

    ULA hopes to use a new engine being developed by Blue Origin, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, but is also continuing to work with Aerojet Rocketdyne, which is working on a separate engine called AR-1.

    Lockheed and Boeing are funding the development effort on a quarter-by-quarter basis, reflecting their own concerns about ULA’s future business outlook and whether U.S. lawmakers will allow ULA to use more of its existing stock of Russian engines.

    Aerojet officials argue that it would be cheaper to integrate its new AR-1 engine into ULA’s existing Atlas 5 rocket than building a new rocket and engine, but space experts caution that such integration efforts can also be difficult and costly.

    “This is truly rocket science,” the defense official said.

  • China appears to be working on third airstrip on disputed South China Sea islets: expert

    The photographs taken for Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank on Sept. 8 show construction on Mischief Reef, one of seven artificial islands China has created in the Spratly archipelago.

    The images show a retaining wall around an area 3,000 meters (3,280 yards) long, matching similar work by China on two other reefs in the Spratlys, Subi and Fiery Cross, said Greg Poling, director of CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).

    Poling said the work “more likely than not indicates preparations for a runway” on the reef.

    Satellite photographs from late June showed China had almost finished a 3,000-meter airstrip on Fiery Cross.

    Poling said other satellite photos from last week showed work was advancing at Subi Reef, where “clearly, what we have seen is going to be a 3,000-meter airstrip and we have seen some more work on what is clearly going to be some port facilities for ships.”

    Asked about Mischief Reef on Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei repeated China’s claim to “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly islands and its right to establish military facilities there.

    Security experts say 3,000-meter airstrips would be long enough to accommodate most Chinese military aircraft, giving Beijing greater reach into the heart of maritime Southeast Asia, where it has competing claims with several countries.

    News of the advancing work comes ahead of a visit to Washington next week by Chinese President Xi Jinping. U.S. worries about China’s increasingly assertive territorial claims are expected to be high on the agenda.

    A spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department, Commander Bill Urban, declined to comment specifically on Poling’s assessment, but repeated U.S. calls for a halt to land reclamation, construction and militarization of South China Sea outposts to “ease tensions and create space for diplomatic solutions.”

    “China’s stated intentions with its program, and continued construction, will not reduce tensions or lead to a meaningful diplomatic solution,” he added.

    A new airstrip at Mischief Reef would be particularly worrying for the Philippines, a rival claimant in the South China Sea. It would allow China to mount “more or less constant” patrols over Reed Bank, where the Philippines has long explored for oil and gas, Poling said.

    Three airstrips, once completed, would allow China to threaten all air traffic over the features it has reclaimed in the South China Sea, he said, adding that it would be especially worrying if China were to install advanced air defenses.

    The Philippine government had no immediate comment.

    China stepped up creation of artificial islands in the South China Sea last year, drawing strong criticism from Washington.

  • Palestinians, Israeli police clash near al-Aqsa mosque for third day

    Masked Palestinians hurled flares at the security forces, who said they were trying to secure the plaza outside Islam’s third holiest shrine to stop what they said was a Palestinian attempt to disrupt visits to the compound on Jewish New Year.

    Israeli border police officers detain a Palestinian protester in Jerusalem’s Old City, September 15, 2015.

    The United States and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon both voiced concern about the violence at the site, revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount.

    King Abdullah from neighboring Jordan said the Israeli actions were provocative and could imperil ties between the countries, state media reported in Tuesday and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel’s actions.

    Israeli border police officers run during clashes with Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Old City, September 15, 2015.

    Jordan’s Hashemite dynasty derives part of its legitimacy from its traditional custodianship of the holy site. “If this continues to happen … Jordan will have no choice but to take action,” King Abdullah, whose father King Hussein signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, was quoted as saying.

    Palestinians fear that the increasing visits by Jewish groups to the site, captured by Israeli forces when they seized east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in a 1967 war, are eroding Muslim religious control there.

    Palestinian Presidency spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeinah said Abbas and King Abdullah had discussed the events by phone. “(Israel’s) religious war will drag the region into endless fighting,” Abu Rdeinah said in a statement.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold an emergency ministerial meeting late on Tuesday, called after an Israeli motorist died in a crash police said was caused by suspected stone-throwing.

    Muslim women shouts slogans as they protest in front of Israeli border police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City, September 15, 2015.

    STONE-THROWING

    Twenty-six Palestinians were injured on Tuesday, none of them seriously, the Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency unit, Amin Abu Ghazaleh, said.

    Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said five officers were lightly wounded and two Palestinians were arrested.

    Some stone throwing spread to other areas of the Old City, police and a witness said, with no injuries reported.

    Jewish ultra-nationalists have been pushing the Israeli government to allow Jewish prayer on the compound outside al-Aqsa, which stands above Judaism’s Western Wall.

    Such worship, certain to stir Muslim anger, has been banned on the plaza by Israel since 1967 and Netanyahu has said he would not allow any change to the religious status quo.

    Muslim women shouts slogans as they protest in front of Israeli border police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City, September 15, 2015.

    Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian youths last erupted outside al-Aqsa in late July, on the annual Jewish day of mourning for Jerusalem’s two destroyed Biblical temples and in October as Muslim anger mounted at the presence of Jewish worshippers at the site over Jewish holidays.

    In 2000 Ariel Sharon, then Israel’s opposition leader, visited the compound. That enraged Palestinians and sparked an uprising, or Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. It continued for five years and left about 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis dead.

    Palestinian women supporting Hamas take part in a rally to protest against an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, in Gaza City September 15, 2015.

    Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, as the capital of a state they aspire to establish in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

    Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its indivisible and eternal capital, a claim not recognized internationally. Peace talks between the sides collapsed in 2014.

  • England announces squads for Pakistan series

    Left-armer Ansari, 23, is the third spinner in the 16-man team alongside Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.

    Moeen could be used as an opening batsman with captain Alistair Cook, although uncapped Alex Hales has also been included, despite failing to impress in the one-day international series against Australia.

    There was no place, however, for opener Adam Lyth or Gary Ballance, both deemed to have failed during the Ashes test series against Australia that England won 3-2.

    Batsman James Taylor won a test spot after some impressive performances in the one-day international series against the Australians.

    “Zafar Ansari’s potential excites us and he will provide strong competition for Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali in the Test squad after enjoying an excellent domestic season with both bat and ball for Surrey,” national selector James Whitaker said in a England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) statement.

    “Alex Hales has scored heavily for Nottinghamshire in first-class cricket this season, has shown he can play match-winning innings for England in white-ball cricket and fully deserves an opportunity to compete for a place at the top of the order in our Test side.”

    Ansari, who has a degree in politics and sociology from Cambridge University, played down his chances of breaking into the playing eleven.

    “It’s going to be hard,” he told Sky Sports News. “There are a lot of guys there who have been playing well.

    “If the opportunity comes, then great, but if not I’m gonna run on with the drinks with as much energy as possible!”

    The first test starts on Oct. 13 in Abu Dhabi, followed by matches in Dubai (Oct. 22) and Sharjah (Nov. 1).

    A four-match ODI series and three Twenty20 matches follow.

    Left-arm spinner Stephen Parry of Lancashire has been recalled to the Twenty20 squad, which also features Sussex paceman Chris Jordan, now fully recovered from the side injury which ruled him out of international contention mid-way through the season.

    Ben Stokes has been rested for the limited overs matches.

    “Ben has been an outstanding performer for England this summer and this decision reflects a desire to manage his workload across a busy winter period in all three formats of the game,” Whitaker said.

    The ECB also announced that former England captain Paul Collingwood and former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene have been appointed to the England management team as consultants.

    While Collingwood will work with the limited overs squad in the UAE and during next year’s World Twenty20, Jayawardene will act as the batting consultant to the test squad.

    Test squad: Alastair Cook (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Mark Wood

    ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, James Taylor, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

    T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Stephen Parry, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

  • Mercedes eyes driverless limousine service

    Germany’s oldest carmaker is considering setting up large fleets of autonomous cars to cater to a new customer base which is less attracted to vehicle ownership but still interested in using premium transportation services like limousines.

    “This is a concrete development goal of ours,” Zetsche told Reuters on the sidelines of a Mercedes-Benz event on the eve of the Frankfurt auto show.

    Daimler already has car2go, its own car-sharing service which allows subscribers to locate and rent a nearby vehicle from a fleet of Daimler-owned vehicles using a smartphone.

    “It would be even more convenient if the car came to you autonomously,” Zetsche said.

    “And it would be extremely practical if the car2go appeared without needing to be prompted, once my appointment in the calendar had come to an end.”

    In addition to building and selling cars, there is money to be made from the software to run a self-driving vehicle, as well as services associated with autonomous driving, such as mapping, car-sharing and car recharging services.

    In August Daimler, BMW and Audi bought high-definition mapping service HERE. A year earlier Daimler bought MyTaxi, an app that allows customers to hail a cab, track its progress and pay for the ride using a smartphone.

    Zetsche said that the combination of car rental services and autonomous vehicles opens up new business opportunities.

    “I think you don’t need too much imagination to see that by combining these strengths, attractive business models are possible in future,” Zetsche said.

    Mercedes has already developed a prototype autonomous car, but self-driving cars are not expected to hit showrooms until 2025, as regulators grapple with questions of liability.

    Consultants at Boston Consulting Group said the falling cost of technology means that taxi services with autonomous vehicles could be up to 35 percent cheaper than conventional cabs.

    Daimler’s expansion plans in car sharing are being closely watched by rival BMW, which operates the DriveNow car-sharing service, and by Uber which has said it will expand into 100 Chinese cities over the next year.

    The market penetration of vehicles with autonomous features is expected to reach 13 percent by 2025, representing a market of roughly $42 billion, Boston Consulting Group said.

    In August 2013, Mercedes-Benz developed an S-class limousine which drove between Mannheim and Pforzheim without driver input.

  • "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston tackles Hollywood blacklist in biopic Trumbo

    “Trumbo”, which had its world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, follows his journey from a life as one of the world’s best paid screenwriters to being decried as a traitor, jailed and forced to write classics like “Roman Holiday” in secret.

    While the rabid fear that drove Hollywood studios to blacklist suspected communists may have passed, Cranston said Trumbo’s story still holds lessons in the debate about how to balance security with freedom. He said the issue of oversight of the U.S. National Security Agency is just one example.

    “The message in “Trumbo” does have a tremendous relevance. It is a cautionary tale. At least that’s the way I saw it. It’s an attack on the first amendment,” he said in an interview.

    The film started life in 2008 when “Trumbo” screenwriter John McNamara was looking for work at the end of a Hollywood writers’ strike. A friend spotted a biography of Trumbo on his bookshelf and suggested the story would make a great movie.

    McNamara agreed, but argued no studio would want to make a period piece about a hero who was a communist. His friend helped convince him the story was simply too compelling, spurring him to spend years developing the project.

    “It is the rarest of things, a true story with a happy ending,” said McNamara. “That was the reason I wanted to write the movie.”

    After years of being forced to work under fake names, writing everything from low-budget horror movies to the Academy Award-winning script for “The Brave One”, Trumbo helped to break the blacklist.

    The practice was widely seen to have ended in 1960, when director Otto Preminger revealed Trumbo wrote the screenplay “Exodus” and Kirk Douglas made public Trumbo’s work on “Spartacus”.

    “Trumbo” director Jay Roach, who has made comedies like “Meet the Parents” as well as political stories like HBO’s “Game Change”, said the combination of Trumbo’s skill, character and unique experience drew him to the project.

    “I just thought ‘I can’t believe this story hasn’t been told already.’ It’s such a powerful story,” Roach said.

  • Russian watchdog says Google violating competition law

    The FAS anti-monopoly body said Google had violated the law by pre-installing certain applications on mobile devices and could face penalties totaling up to 15 percent of its 2014 revenue in this part of the Russian market.

    FAS declined to specify the revenue in question, saying it was a trade secret, but said it would decide on the exact value of the fine after Sept. 28. It added Google must then pay and change its ways, or risk more fines if violations continue.

    Google Russia said it would analyze the decision and declined further comment until then.

    Shares in Yandex, which rivals Google as Russia’s biggest internet search engine, rose as much as 9 percent before stabilizing around 7 percent higher.

    Yandex, which filed a complaint against Google with FAS in February, welcomed the decision.

    “We believe the FAS decision will serve to restore competition on the market,” the company said.

    It added the complaint included the practice of bundling applications from the Google Mobile Services with the Google Play store, requiring pre-installation of the Google search engine as the default one, and giving Google application icons preferential placement on the screen of mobile devices.

    “In addition, the investigation confirmed the existence of agreements on prohibition of pre-installation of competitors’ apps,” Yandex said.

    Yandex is ahead of Google in Russia but has seen competition stiffen in mobile phones as consumers have adopted Android-based handsets that come pre-loaded with Google products that compete directly with Yandex applications.

    Google’s total 2014 revenue stood at $66 billion. The company’s website does not provide a separate revenue figure for Russia, or the exact segment involved in the case.

    Analysts at App Annie say Russia was Google’s No.4 market in the world in the second quarter of 2015 in terms of Google Play downloads.

    The European Union is conducting its own anti-trust case against Google.

  • Australia to get new PM as Abbott loses out to rival Turnbull

    Turnbull, a multi-millionaire former banker and tech entrepreneur, won a secret party room vote by 54 to 44, Liberal Party whip Scott Buchholz told reporters after the meeting in Canberra.

    Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was elected deputy leader of the party which, with junior coalition partner the National Party, won a landslide election in 2013.

    Since then, the popularity of the government and Abbott in particular has suffered from a series of perceived policy missteps, destabilising infighting and leaks.

    The opposition Labor Party has consistently led opinion polls, while Turnbull has been consistently viewed as preferred prime minister.

     

  • Cyber insurance to triple to $7.5 bln by 2020: report

    Insurers and reinsurers are charging high prices for cyber cover and putting a ceiling on potential losses, deterring companies from buying cyber polices, consultancy PwC said in the report.

    Some insurers have kept out of the market, wary of the risks involved.

    “If the industry takes too long, there is a risk that a disruptor could move in and corner the market by aggressively cutting prices or offering much more favourable terms,” PwC said.

    Millennials – people in their 20s and 30s – are more likely to trust brands such as Google or Apple than conventional insurers, Paul Delbridge, insurance partner at PwC, told Reuters.

    “I can see Google being very creative,” Delbridge said.

    Technology companies may also be better equipped than insurers to price cyber risk, he added.

    Most of the $2.5 billion written in cyber insurance last year was in the United States, where requirements to notify data breaches have focused attention on cyber protection.

    But the European Union is expected to follow suit, contributing strongly to growth in cyber insurance, Delbridge said.

    A separate report last week from German insurer Allianz said the cyber insurance market could grow to $20 billion by 2025.

    “There is a general trend towards tougher data protection regimes, backed with the threat of significant fines in the event of a breach,” said Nigel Pearson, responsible for cyber at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.