Over 300 insurance professionals, regulators and key industry players will share their perspectives on the impact of the global financial crisis on the Saudi insurance industry during a special summit to be held in the Kingdom. Highlighting the challenges and opportunities facing the Islamic insurance market, the Third Saudi Insurance Summit will convene at the [...]

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD And CAROL E. LEE LONDON—U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron warned that military operations in Libya will be a long slog that continues until Col. Moammar Gadhafi leaves power, a shift from the president’s initial stance that the military intervention in Libya would be limited in nature. View [...]

President Barack Obama has paid tribute to US forces at a ceremony at the military cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Memorial Day. "Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we cannot ever fully repay. But we can honour their sacrifice, and we must." Defence Secretary Robert Gates also paid tribute to the [...]

Shock waves emanating from a trombone have been caught on video for the first time, researchers say. It was first suggested in 1995 that the intense pressure waves, which can briefly exceed the speed of sound, could come from trombones. Shock waves can form when energy is quickly put into a confined channel; weak shock [...]

Fiat says it will buy the US government's 6% stake in Chrysler, which will give the Italian carmaker a majority share in the US company. After Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2009, Fiat agreed with the US government to share technology and management in return for a 20% stake and has quickly built that [...]

As India's economy grows, tens of thousands of young Indians who have studied overseas are heading back to their homeland, drawn by rising living standards. It's a phenomenon known as the reverse brain drain. "If we were in the States we'd be one of many camping companies in a saturated market, whereas here we have [...]

Musicians and friends have been paying tribute to the poet and hip-hop pioneer Gil Scott-Heron, who has died at the age of 62. The musician's publisher Jamie Byng remembered him as "a giant of a man, a truly inspirational figure whom I loved like a father and a brother". Scott-Heron infected people who encountered him [...]

By PAUL HANNON Euro-zone policy makers are playing for time, desperately searching for ways to keep those members that have been bailed out in funds, but with no clear strategy for ever getting them off life support. One approach that seems to be gaining traction is a version of what is known as the Vienna [...]

IIR Middle East, a leading provider of specialist information and services for the academic and scientific, professional and commercial business communities, today announced that additional panellists will be joining its comprehensive line-up of high-profile speakers for the forthcoming Third Saudi Insurance Summit. Representatives from Medgulf, Bupa Arabia and Tawuniya will join the Kingdom’s foremost summit [...]

Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have voted to bar Chinese defence firms from receiving Pentagon contracts. The amendment was passed as part of a larger defence budget bill passed by the House in Washington on Wednesday. It excludes all companies owned by or affiliated to the Chinese government from US defence deals. The [...]