DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Israeli Strike on Damascus Kills Four Iranian Revolutionary Guards -Source
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( Jan. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

By Laila Bassam and Kinda MakiehBEIRUT/DAMASCUS (Reuters) -An Israeli missile strike on Syria's capital Damascus on Saturday killed four members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including the head of the force's information unit in Syria, a security source in the regional pro-Syria alliance told Reuters. Syrian state media said a building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus was targeted in a likely Israeli attack, without giving further details. Iran's state-run Press TV said two Iranian Guards military advisers were killed in the Israeli strike on Damascus. Essam Al-Amin, head of the Al-Mowasat Hospital in Damascus, told Reuters that his hospital had received one corpse and three wounded people, including a woman, following Saturday's attack. In December, an Israeli strike killed two Guards members in Damascus, and another on Dec. 25 killed a senior adviser to the Guards who was overseeing military coordination between Syria and Iran.

Persons: Laila Bassam, Bashar al, Essam Al, Amin, Makdesi, Nayera Abdallah, Maya Gebeily, Mark Heinrich Organizations: Saturday, Iran's, Guards, Reuters, Hamas, Iranian Guards, Mowasat, Jihad Locations: BEIRUT, DAMASCUS, Israeli, Damascus, Syria, Israel, Iran, Gaza, Syrian, Mazzeh, Iran's, Beirut, Dubai

☆ Iran vows revenge on Israel for strike that kills 5 guards in Damascus
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Tehran vowed to carry out revenge attacks against Israel on Saturday after a missile strike flattened a building used as a base of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in Damascus, killing five Guards and an unspecified number of Syrian troops. Ambulances and fire trucks gathered around the site of the strike, which had been cordoned off, a Reuters journalist at the scene said. In December, an Israeli air strike killed two Guards members, and another near Damascus on Dec. 25 killed a senior adviser to the Guards who was overseeing military coordination between Syria and Iran. The conflict has reverberated across the Middle East with violence surging in Syria, Lebanon, northern Iraq and in the Red Sea. On Saturday, an Israeli strike in south Lebanon killed two members of Hamas as they were traveling in their car, three security sources told Reuters.

Persons: Bashar al, Nasser Kanaani, Essam Al, Amin Organizations: Israel, Revolutionary Guards, Guards, Reuters, Iranian Guards, Hamas, Foreign Ministry, Mowasat, Palestinian Locations: Tehran, Damascus, Iran, Israeli, Israel, Syria, Gaza, Mazzeh, Iranian, Lebanon, Iraq, Red

☆ ‘It’s chaos:’ Starving Gazans dig for food, supplies under the rubble
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | Abeer Salman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi CNN —One man carries six jars of cooking oil as he struggles to walk across the rubble. Since October 9, Israel has blocked access to water, food and electricity in the Strip that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. “It’s chaos,” one resident told CNN Monday, standing behind a crowd of people scavenging for supplies under the damage. Displaced Palestinians queue for food donations in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on November 30. A day after the IDF said it was expanding its ground operation, it said it struck about 200 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Persons: Baraka, Dier, Gazans, ” Thomas White, Kamil Al, ”, Mohammed Abed, Ibrahim Dabbour, ” Dabbour, Israel, Israel’s, Khan Younis, Bani Suheila, Abed Zagout, Critics, ” Sari Bashi, ” Bashi, Khalil Abu Marahil, “ It’s, “ We’ve, Sally Essam, Deir Organizations: Abu Dhabi CNN, CNN, Israeli Defense Forces, IDF, of Health, United Nations, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Food Programme, Getty, UN, Hamas, Human Rights Locations: Jerusalem, Abu Dhabi, Gazan, Deir, Israel, Gaza, Dier, East, Rafah, AFP, Beit Hanoun, United States, Khan, Southern Gaza, Khuza'a, Maan, Anadolu, Gaza City, “, Palestinian, Deir al

☆ Iraq expects deal to resume Kurdistan oil output within three days
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Ahmed Rasheed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Iraq's oil minister, Hayan Abdel-Ghani, speaks during a press conference at Iraq's Majnoon oil field near Basra, Iraq, May 12, 2023. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Iraq reached understanding with Turkey on oil exportsBaghdad seeks deal to adjust KRG oil contractsBAGHDAD, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani expects to reach an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and foreign oil companies to resume oil production from the Kurdish region’s oilfields within three days, he said on Sunday. Abdel-Ghani and top federal oil officials on Sunday started meetings with the KRG's ministry of natural resources and senior Kurdish energy officials to discuss the matter. "The purpose of this meeting is to resolve all issues to facilitate resumption of oil production and exports," Abdel-Ghani told reporters in Erbil. APIKUR's members include international oil and gas companies that have a direct or indirect interest in upstream oil or gas contracts in Iraq's Kurdistan region, many of which have had to stop output because of the pipeline closure.

Persons: Hayan Abdel, Ghani, Essam, Abdel, Ahmed Rasheed, William Maclean, David Goodman Organizations: REUTERS, Kurdistan Regional Government, of Commerce, ICC, Association of, Petroleum Industry, Thomson Locations: Basra, Iraq, Turkey, Baghdad, BAGHDAD, Kurdish, Erbil, Iraq's, Kurdistan, Ankara, Iraq's Kurdistan

A screengrab taken from video shows ruins of the Saqallah family compound after the blast on October 19. A view of the Saqallah family compound before the strike. From left, Doctors Omar Saqallah, Saed Saqallah and Ameed Saqallah were among the 42 relatives killed on October 19. They’re just ordinary people: doctors and grandmothers and grandfathers and uncles and aunts and children,” Abu Shaban said. Until the killing stops, Abu Shaban says his family still reels: “I’m still in this nightmare.

Persons: Tariq Hamouda, Manal, it’s, they’re, Hamouda, Tariq Hamouda “, ” Hamouda, ”, Tariq Hamouda Israel, Eyad Abu Shaban, “, “ It’s, ” Abu Shaban, Essam Abu Shaban, Layla Saqallah, Ahmed, Abu Shaban, –, Omar Saqallah, Saed, Ameed Saqallah, Tariq, – Saed, Omar, Ameed, Khorsheed, Sen, Amy Klobuchar’s, “ We’ve, haven’t Organizations: CNN, Palestinian, Hamas, Israel Defense Forces, Palestinian Ministry of Health, United Nations Office, Humanitarian Affairs, Boca, Community, Islamic Locations: Gaza, Maple Grove , Minnesota, Israel, Sheikh Ejleen, Gaza City, Hamouda, Israeli, Minnesota, Ramallah, South Florida, Tel El Hawa, Boca Raton, Grove, Brooklyn, Amy Klobuchar’s Minnesota

☆ Journalists ordered out of flood-hit Libyan city after protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/6] Volunteers carry victims of a powerful storm and heavy rainfall that hit Libya to bury them at a cemetery in Derna, Libya September 19, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra Acquire Licensing RightsSept 19 (Reuters) - Journalists reported they were ordered out of the devastated eastern Libyan city of Derna on Tuesday, the day after protesters torched the home of the ousted mayor in fury over the authorities' failure to protect the city from floods. Essam Abu Zriba, interior minister in the eastern administration, told Arab TV channel al Hadath that journalists and aid workers were operating normally. Arab broadcaster Al Hurra reported that the authorities had asked all journalists to depart as soon as possible. Hichem Abu Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation in the administration that runs eastern Libya, told Reuters by phone that some journalists had been told to move, in a step unrelated to the protests there overnight.

Persons: Zohra, Essam Abu, Al Hurra, Al, Hichem Abu Chkiouat, Abdulmenam, Ghaithi, Muammar Gaddafi, Derna, Aguila Saleh, Aguila, Mansour, Taha Miftah, Tom Perry, Peter Graff, Alexandra Hudson, William Maclean Organizations: Volunteers, REUTERS, Journalists, Reuters, Communications, Libyan National Army, Islamic, World Health Organization, Thomson Locations: Libya, Derna, Essam, Arab, Al Jazeera, Islamic State, al Qaeda

[1/5] An aerial view shows rescue teams searching for dead bodies at a beach, in the aftermath of the floods in Derna, Libya September 17, 2023. Hamad Awad sat on a blanket on an empty street with a bottle of water and bedding alongside him. "I am staying in our area trying to clean it and trying to verify who is missing," he said. Entire districts of Derna, with an estimated population of at least 120,000, were swept away or buried in brown mud. Civil protection workers from Algeria combed through the rubble of multistorey buildings with a dog to help detect any survivors.

Persons: Ayman Al, Hamad Awad, Storm Daniel, spokespeople, Osama Al, OCHA, al, Mohammad Shaheen, Abdulnabi, Muammar Gaddafi, Abdulhamid, Mohammed, Menfi, Abdelaziz Boumzar, Ayman Sahly, Adam Makary, Thomas Perry, Maya Gebeily, Philippa Fletcher, Susan Fenton Organizations: REUTERS, Volunteers, United Nations, Sunrise, Humanitarian Affairs, Crescent, Libyan Red Crescent, Reuters, NATO, Thomson Locations: Derna, Libya, DERNA, Libyan, Algeria, al Badya, Ajaylat, Tripoli

Thousands of people are confirmed dead and thousands more missing, with the mayor saying the toll could reach 20,000. Usama Al Husadi, a 52-year-old driver, had been searching for his wife and five children since the disaster. Husadi, who had been working the night of the storm, dialled his wife's phone number once again. "We lost at least 50 members from my father’s family, between missing and dead," he said. Confirmed death tolls given by officials so far have varied, but all are in the thousands, with thousands more on lists of the missing.

Persons: Hassan El Salheen, Aly, Storm Daniel, Mohamed Abd El Ghany, Usama Al Husadi, Husadi, Wali Eddin Mohamed Adam, Abdulmenam, Ghaithi, Mohamed Mohsen Bujmila, Khadija, Bujmila, Muammar Gaddafi, Peter Graff, Angus MacSwan Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Derna, Saudi, Al, Rescue, United Arab, NATO, of National Unity, Thomson Locations: Libya, Al Sharief, Bani Swief, Egypt, DERNA, Libyan, Al Arabiya, Derna, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Qatar, Tripoli

☆ Vodafone takes 'first steps' in turnaround with top-line improvement
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - Vodafone (VOD.L) reported better top-line growth on Monday, driven by higher prices in Britain and improvements in Germany, Italy and Spain, marking a positive start for new Chief Executive Margherita Della Valle's turnaround plan. She said on Monday that organic service revenue had improved "across almost all of our markets", as it reported a 3.7% first-quarter rise. The decline in service revenue in Germany more than halved quarter-on-quarter to 1.3%, as price rises partially offset the impact of customer losses over the last 18 months. Growth in service revenue in Britain, where Vodafone announced the merger of its operation with Hutchison's rival network Three last month, accelerated to 5.7%, boosted by strong growth in consumer and price increases. In Italy, improved demand from businesses helped reduce the service revenue decline to 1.6%, from 2.7% in the previous quarter, it said, while Spain saw a smaller improvement to a decline of 3.0% from 3.7%.

Persons: Margherita Della Valle's, Luka Mucic, Della Valle, We've, Ahmed Essam, Paul Sandle, Kate Holton, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Vodafone, SAP, Thomson Locations: Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain

☆ Iraq plants mangrove forest to fight climate disaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Essam Al-Sudani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BASRA, Iraq, June 29 (Reuters) - As Aymen al-Rubaye plants mangrove seedlings in the sprawling tidal flats of southern Iraq, the black smoke rising over the skyline behind him shows the ecological damage that he is toiling to undo. Rubaye, an agricultural engineer, is working for a project started by Iraqi government bodies and a United Nations agency to grow up to 4 million mangrove trees in the Khor al-Zubair mudflats region, located near major oil fields. The tidal flats south of Basra are a baking landscape of water, salt, mud and hazy sky, riven by channels that Rubaye and his team navigate by boat. [1/5]Engineer Ayman Al-Rubaie, 47, plants mangrove trees in the wooded areas of the Shatt Al-Arab River, in Basra, Iraq June 21, 2023. Mangrove plants "can resist these harsh conditions we are passing through" without needing irrigation water, Rubaye said.

Persons: pats, Ayman Al, Essam, Rubaye, Ahmed Albaaj, Angus McDowall, Peter Graff Organizations: United, World Bank, REUTERS, United Arab Emirates, Thomson Locations: BASRA, Iraq, United Nations, Khor, Basra, . Southern Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab

☆ Factbox: Vodafone, Hutchison UK merger to create country's largest mobile operator
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 14 (Reuters) - Vodafone (VOD.L) and CK Hutchison (0001.HK) unveiled the merger of their British operations, creating the country's largest mobile operator. Hutchison will own 49% and Vodafone 51% of the combined group, which will be led by current Vodafone UK boss Ahmed Essam. REVENUEUK represented 14% of group service revenue for Vodafone, and 16% of total revenue for Hutchison, according to latest annual results. RETAIL STORESThree has 311 retail stores in UK, according to its website, while Vodafone UK had 410 stores as of January. SPECTRUMVodafone has spectrum access between 3720-3760 MHz, while Three UK has access between 3460-3480 MHz, according to British telecoms regulator Ofcom.

Persons: CK Hutchison, Hutchison, Ahmed Essam, Eva Mathews Organizations: Vodafone, CK, HK, Hutchison, Ofcom, BT Group, O2, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

Under the terms, Vodafone will own 51% and Hutchison 49% of the combined group, which will be led by current Vodafone UK boss Ahmed Essam. The finance chief of Hutchison's Three UK, Darren Purkis, will take the same role in the new group. The combined operator will have about 27 million customers, overtaking BT's (BT.L) EE and VM O2, jointly owned by Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Liberty Global (LBTYA.O). Vodafone, which is currently Britain's third-biggest mobile operator, and fourth-placed Hutchison will have options which would allow Vodafone to acquire the Hong Kong-based conglomerate's 49% stake in the future. Shares in Vodafone, which fell to a 25-year low of 71 pence on Tuesday, rose 3.6% after the deal was announced.

Persons: CK Hutchison, Canning Fok, Ahmed Essam, Darren Purkis, Hutchison, Vodafone's Essam, Robert Finnegan, Gail Cartmail, Paul Sandle, Clare Jim, Kate Holton, Sharon Singleton, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Vodafone, CK, HK, Hutchison, Hutchison's, BT's, VM O2, Telefonica, Liberty Global, Britain's Competition, Markets Authority, CMA, Unite, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, Britain, Hong Kong, China, London

Vodafone and CK Hutchison, which owns the Three UK mobile network, agreed to merge their U.K. businesses, following talks that have been ongoing since last year, the companies said Wednesday. Vodafone will own 51% of the combined business, leaving CK Hutchison the minority stake. "This long-awaited mega merger represents the biggest shake-up in the UK mobile market for over a decade," Kester Mann, director for consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight said in emailed comments. Current Vodafone UK CEO Ahmed Essam will lead the new enterprise, while the present Three UK Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Darren Purkis will assume the CFO position at the merged business. BT acquired EE in 2016, while Telefonica and Liberty Global launched Virgin Media O2 in 2021.

Persons: CK Hutchison, Kester Mann, Ahmed Essam, Darren Purkis, Nick Read, Margherita Della Valle Organizations: Vodafone, CK, CK Hutchison, Insight, BT, Virgin Media O2, EE, O2, Telefonica, Liberty Global, Markets Authority, CMA, Activision Blizzard

"The fresh water is finished," said Khamis Adel, a lifelong fishermen and indigenous Marsh Arab from Al-Khora in Basra. It's a question asked by many who once lived off Iraq's marshlands, rich waterways which gave birth to civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. As the rivers and marshlands dry out, so too does the economy that they sustain. "Now a fisherman is nothing, they are like beggars," he said, pushing his boat along the canal in humid heat. Even after the 2003 U.S. invasion, when parts of the marshes were flooded again, water levels did not fully recover.

Persons: Essam, Khamis Adel, Mohsen, Hasan Moussa, Hasan, Naame Hasan, Adel, Saddam Hussein, Ahmed Saeed, Issam, Timour Azhari, William Maclean Organizations: REUTERS, UNESCO, of, U.N's, Organization for Migration, WE, Thomson Locations: Iraqi, Basra, Iraq, BASRA, NAJAF, Al, Khora, of Eden, Mesopotamia, Turkey, Iran, Najaf, U.S, Issam Sudani, Timour, Baghdad

☆ Oil prices stable as economic fears balance OPEC+ cuts, U.S. stock draw
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Rowena Edwards | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Flames emerge from flare stacks at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File PhotoLONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Oil prices were stable on Wednesday, as the market weighed gloomy economic prospects against expectations of U.S. crude inventory declines and OPEC's voluntary output cuts announcement. Bullish sentiment continued after voluntary cuts pledged by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+. However, weak manufacturing activity in the U.S. and China - the two biggest oil consumers - have capped oil oil price gains. Record Russian diesel flows to the Middle East in March, and the sluggish performance of middle distillates contracts have "acted acted as a brake on any attempt to push crude oil prices meaningfully higher," Varga said.

CNN —Football pundits on Qatar’s Alkass Sports channel mocked the German football team following its World Cup exit – by mimicking the players’ protest over human rights. Soon after, El-Hadary and other pundits then cover their mouths and wave goodbye – apparently in celebration of Germany’s exit. Football pundits on Qatar's Alkass Sports channel appear to mimic the German players' protest gesture. Twitter/@alkasschannelThe gesture mimics what the German players did to protest against FIFA’s decision to ban the “OneLove” armband that many European captains had been hoping to wear in Qatar in support of LGBTQ rights. Following Germany’s 1:1 draw against Spain last Sunday, Jassem said in an al-Majlis episode that he was “shocked” at Germany’s protest.

Search resuls for: "Essam"

16 mentions found