Nicosia, Feb 15 : The Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has announced that it will implement an ambitious program aiming at upgrading its three refineries - Mina Abdullah, Mina Al Ahmadi and Shuaiba - at a total cost of 3.5 billion dollars.

The program involves the upgrading of tanks, effluent revamping and renovation of control, safety and the main process systems at all its refineries.

If everything goes according to plan, the upgrading will be completed in 2010.

Nicosia, Feb 10: Ahmad al-Obaid, who is the head of the Kuwait Society for Safeguarding Public Funds, has said that the Society filed a suit against the Kuwait Petroleum Company(KPC) for misappropriation of public funds.

He was quoted by Al-Qabas newspaper as saying that millions of dinars had been embezzled at the petroleum training center.

Nicosia, Feb 5 : The Government of Abu Dhabi on Wednesday announced that it has decided to implement an action plan under which it will inject 4.36 billion dollars additional capital into the following financial institutions in the emirate: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, First Gulf Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Union National Bank.

The move is aimed at strengthening confidence in the financial sector which has been shaken as a result of the world-wide financial crisis.

The Government of Abu Dhabi announced that it would buy bonds with no maturity date from five banks as a precautionary step to enhance confidence into the emirate''s banking sector.

Nicosia, Feb 3: The National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) of Bahrain and Shell International Gas and Power Limited have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) concerning the feasibility of various gas initiatives in the kingdom.

Bahrain in recent years has experienced a sharp increase in natural gas consumption and has been exploring ways of meeting demand both through the development of the country''s own gas resources and through imports.

Athens, Nicosia - The United Nations' senior envoy for Cyprus expressed cautious optimism on Friday that a settlement for the divided Mediterranean island can be reached, but cautioned that it still remained a difficult task.

"It is an incredibly difficult talk, nobody should underestimate how hard it is after so many years and such deep conflict," said Alexander Downer, special advisor to the UN Secretary-General. "But days like today just help to confirm the view that I am cautiously optimistic."

Nicosia, Jan 3 -- The World Bank''s report Doing Business in the Arab World 2009 says the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the easiest country to do business in the Middle East. The report ranked UAE in the 14th place globally in its assessment of 181 countries.

"Economies that have efficient customs, good transport networks and fewer document requirements, making compliance with export and import procedures faster and cheaper, are more competitive globally," the report said.