<!----> SaudiGulf Airlines was doing more than just showing off its new Airbus A320 aircraft at the Bahrain International Airshow. The new carrier’s presence was the surest sign yet that Saudi Arabia’s domestic aviation market is finally about to take off. The privately-owned airline and soon-to-be rival Al Maha Airways, a subsidiary of Qatar Airways, have been awaiting final approval and their operating licences from the kingdom’s regulator, General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Read more [...]

<!----> UK-based defence giant BAE Systems has announced the appointment of Mark Simpkins as its new vice president, Middle East, with responsibility for regional operations. Moving to Bahrain after three years running BAE Systems in New Delhi, Simpkins is charged with evolving the company's business in the Middle East with customers and partners. The appointment comes amid a slowdown in defence spending in the Middle East as low oil prices are eating into budgets in the Gulf region, one of Read more [...]

<!----> Arcapita, the Bahrain-based investment firm, has announced that it has acquired a privately-held portfolio of senior living communities in Colorado, United States, in a joint venture with MorningStar Senior Living. The transaction value totalled about $85 million, Arcapita said in a statement. It added that the transaction is expected to be the first in a series of acquisitions of senior living facilities by Arcapita as it looks to develop another sizeable senior living portfolio in Read more [...]

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Bussell, of Virginia, died in the Bahraini capital of Manama on Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Defense said Bussell died of non-combat related causes, but provided no further details about the circumstances of the man's death. Bussell was assigned to Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center Detachment Bahrain at Naval Support Activity Bahrain. He was working in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the name for the U.S. military operation against the Islamic State (ISIS) group Read more [...]

The escalating crisis in Saudi Arabian-Iranian relations is going to impact many countries in numerous ways. For years Saudi Arabia and Iran's geopolitical rivalry has fuelled bloodshed in many corners of the Islamic world from Lebanon to Afghanistan. However, Riyadh's decision to execute Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr at the start of this month, the Iranian response, and the political fallout have raised the Middle East's sectarian temperatures to the highest level since the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Knowing Read more [...]