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In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, succession looms

Saeed — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:49:50 +0000

They are a desert king and a military officer-turned-president. Drive through their capitals and their images glow from billboards and painted walls, old men with their eyes fixed everywhere, even as whispers grow about who will rise to replace them.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are in their 80s, durable U.S. allies whose governments have crushed political dissent at home while playing leading roles across the Middle East. But these days, talk of succession reverberates as Washington, as well as Riyadh and Cairo, plans to navigate an era without two of the region’s dominant personalities.

Lashkar money trail led to Dawood

Saeed — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:46:02 +0000

Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, the 65-year-old Saudi Arabia-based chief financier of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), was in touch with underworld gangster and designated global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. Bahaziq, also known as Abu Abd al-Aziz, approached Dawood in the late 1990s to fund the LeT. Sources in the Intelligence Bureau said Dawood acceded to Bahaziq’s demands and also promised him foot soldiers for the LeT in India.

Prices of rice and pulses likely to go up in UAE

Saeed — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:34:39 +0000

Prices of rice and pulses - two staple food items - are expected to jump in the local markets in the next few weeks due to a ban on exports by India and Pakistan.

“As such the prices of essentials are already high, we anticipate a shortage in supply in the local markets due to restrictions by India on rice and Pakistan on pulses,” Ashraf Ali, executive director of Emke Group, which operates the largest chain of hypermarkets in the Gulf, told Gulf News.