Arab News

DUBAI: Financial markets around the world tumbled on Monday as investors took fright at the growing economic risks from the global coronavirus outbreak and the prospect of a prolonged decline in oil prices. On Wall Street, the world’s biggest financial market, leading shares fell by 7 percent on opening, wiping billions of dollars off investments, after the big markets in Asia

DUBAI: Global energy markets are heading into uncharted territory, experts warned, as the instant effect of the apparent end of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia on limiting crude output began to be felt amid ongoing coronavirus concerns. Prices for Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude — the two leading benchmarks on global oil markets — fell by the biggest daily

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health announced on Monday evening five new cases infected with coronavirus, increasing the total number in the Kingdom to 20. Three of the five cases – a man and two women from Saudi Arabia – were already in quarantine after returning from Iran and Iraq. They were transferred to a hospital in the Eastern Province. 

Carnage is the only word springing to mind when looking at the sea of red on Monday’s Asian and European market open. Equities are down — the yield of the 30-year treasury dropped below 1 percent for the first time in history. The worst affected commodity was oil: DTI temporarily undershot the $30 per barrel mark and Brent dropped a whopping 30 percent from $45.27 on Friday’s close to $31.60 in early Asian trading. This is the biggest drop in price in history for Brent. WTI has not seen a decline of this magnitude since the Gulf War. By mid-morning in Europe, Brent had recovered to $36.2 per barrel and WTI was again above $30 at $32.4 per barrel.

JEDDAH: It is said a friend in need is a friend indeed. Hasan Mohammed Majrabi, 48, a teacher at Al-Rokobah Elementary School in the southern governorate of Samitta, Jazan, proved to be a true friend by donating one of his kidneys to an old friend’s ailing son.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia suspended travel for citizens and residents to 14 countries on Monday, and announced new cases in the east of the country.  The countries on the list are UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Oman, Italy, South Korea, France, Germany, Turkey and Spain.

CAIRO: The global spread of the deadly coronavirus has delayed travel plans for thousands of Egyptians. Long, and at times unruly, queues have formed outside the public health laboratories in Cairo for tests for the virus. Among those waiting to see if they are free of COVID-19 infection was 30-year-old Mahmoud, who needs to get to Saudi Arabia where he is due to start a new

ANKARA: Crisis talks on the Syrian refugee emergency began on Monday in Brussels between senior officials from the EU and Turkey, including Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

ABU DHABI: On the morning of March 2, a child died after a rickety boat carrying displaced Syrians capsized near the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea. Within hours, the dead child had become another statistic in the international refugee crisis figures as geopolitical competition between Turkey and Syria, backed by ally Russia, began to hot up.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament has decided to close MPs’ offices and postpone parliamentary meetings for one week amid the spread of coronavirus in the country, said Health Minister Hamad Hassan, with 41 confirmed cases. A Health Ministry source said: “The new cases in Lebanon, including three children, were the result of contact with those who were already infected in the

DUBAI: Russia has developed a promising new treatment for the coronavirus COVID-19 which it could soon trial in partnership with Saudi Arabian health experts. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund which has collaborated with the Kingdom on many investment projects, is set to unveil the new drug, Avifavir, at a virtual press conference

DUBAI: The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s ambitious sovereign wealth fund, is seeking to use the extra $40 billion it was recently granted from government reserves to benefit the Kingdom and its citizens when the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is over.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is welcoming the return of aircraft and passengers amid strict precautionary measures to counter the spread of coronavirus. The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) on Sunday opened 11 of the Kingdom’s 28 airports in a step toward restoring normality to everyday activities. All flights and means of travel between Saudi cities ground to a halt on

LONDON: Arab News has published the recording of an interview with a Nissan lawyer after he denied saying that a bailout of Lebanon by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was linked to the extradition of fugitive tycoon Carlos Ghosn. The former Nissan chairman fled to Beirut in December from Japan, where he faced charges of financial wrongdoing. In a story published in Arab

DUBAI: Germany’s Bundesliga is back. Spain’s La Liga, Serie A in Italy and the English Premier League, and maybe even the Champions League, are set to follow soon. This means the likes of Mohamed Salah, Riyad Mahrez and others will once again be on our screens chasing some of the game’s top prizes. As football takes tentative steps back toward normality, we take a look at some

Under the extreme strain of pandemic lockdowns, the tectonic plates of the global economy are shifting. It is impossible to say where those pressures will erupt, or what the landscape will look like when they end. But it is hard to see how there can be any return to the old order.

RIYADH: Restaurants and coffee shops in Saudi Arabia have reopened their dine-in sections to customers after more than two months of closure as a part of the lockdown imposed by the government to limit the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The reopening comes as a part of the second phase of a government plan, announced on May 26, to resume economic activity and

CAIRO: Egyptian government officials are getting the public ready for life after lockdown and coexisting with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), after new regulations were announced to stop the further spread of the virus. One of the regulations is for people to wear face masks when they leave home. The decision particularly focuses on those who work in or visit markets,

CHICAGO: Violence by protesters angered at the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25 spread across America resulting in major damage to businesses including arson and violence that killed at least two people and injured many police officers in dozens of American cities.

But while some parents have lingering worries about their children’s health, for youngsters it is a different story.
Eight-year-old Sara Issam, of Makkah, told Arab News that she was excited to finally visit a nearby mini-market with her elder brother as she used to do every Eid. “I had to wear a face mask and be careful where I put my hands, but I was happy to buy all those sweets using my Eidiyah (money gifted to children in Eid),” she told Arab News.

DUBAI: For a carrier that prides itself on the “five-star airline rating” granted by the ranking site Skytrax, Qatar Airways has surprised the global airline industry during the coronavirus crisis by flying headlong into a PR disaster. At a time when almost every airline in the world was reeling from a travel slowdown and financial hemorrhage, Qatar’s state-owned flag carrier

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil on Friday claimed the unenviable position of having the second-highest coronavirus death toll worldwide behind the United States, where several states have posted record daily case totals, signaling the crisis is far from over. US and European stocks ended the week on an upswing after a rout sparked by the US data and fresh evidence of the economic

ANKARA: Turkey must restore its economic credibility if it hopes to secure needed foreign funding and return to growth, said President Tayyip Erdogan’s former economy czar who recently broke away and founded his own party. Ali Babacan, a 53-year-old former deputy prime minister, resigned from Erdogan’s AK Party last July over “deep differences” about the direction of the party

NEW DELHI: US video streaming company Netflix is in talks with Viacom18, part of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries’ media unit Network18, about a multi-year partnership to obtain content, three sources told Reuters, in a move that would expand a relationship between the two sides. Under the partnership, Network18 affiliates — which include its joint venture with

TOKYO: Next year’s Olympics will be safe despite the coronavirus pandemic, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has said, pledging a “120-percent effort” to ensure the first-ever postponed Games can go ahead.Koike — who announced Friday she would stand for re-election next month — said the city was committed to holding the event as a “symbol of human triumph” over the virus, but