MUST-READS

• MERS
  Saudi Arabia: Deaths from MERS virus reach 348

  Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry says that a total of 348 people have died in the kingdom after contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS. The ministry's latest figures, released late Tuesday, include two recent deaths recorded in the capital Riyadh. It brings to 810 the number of confirmed cases in Saudi Arabia since the virus was first identified in 2012.

• Housing and Real Estate
  Saudi Arabia’s idle land

  In September, the kingdom's Supreme Economic Council said it is studying a proposal to tax undeveloped urban land to ease housing shortages and help the country meet its target of building 500,000 units at a cost of USD 67 billion.    The issue is politically sensitive as much of the prime land in major cities is owned either by members of the royal family or wealthy family groups who are reluctant to sell.

• ISIS Propaganda
  Isis Propaganda Mag Dabiq: Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia Threatened While Setbacks Concealed

  The front cover of the English language magazine's fifth issue featured a picture of Islam's holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram, or the Grand Mosque, in the Saudi city of Mecca, with a pledge to seize it.

• Dubai
  Analysis: Mounting supplies: Dubai’s impending property correction

  There has also been a marked deterioration in the economic outlook for Dubai over the summer. Oil prices are down sharply. The dollar-linked dirham has appreciated very quickly making Dubai tourism and trade less competitive. Interest rates are going up. The global economy appears to be slowing down and not expanding as previously thought. Geopolitical events are another headwind. The progress of ISIL is alarming to everyone in the Gulf. The nuclear talks in Iran are coming to an end. Ebola is bad for the travel business. The sanctions against Russia have crushed the ruble. Dubai is a global hub city and business here is far from immune.

• Clothing Custom
  Opinion: The Abaya – Back in Black

  There has been a lot of discussion lately about what women in Saudi Arabia must wear when they are out in public.  That traditionally black cloak worn over her clothing that hides the female form is called the abaya, and lately there have been heated discussions about whether colored abayas should be permitted or not.  My husband has told me that when he was growing up in Jeddah, women did not wear abayas.  Of course women dressed modestly, but they wore what they wished in terms of colors and styles, and they weren't obligated to wear the uniform of the black abaya.  It wasn't really until about the 1990s when religious police began forcing women to wear the abaya in public.

• Malware
  People Are Flipping Out Over Regin, Super-Sophisticated Spy Software

  Symantec says Regin was first detected in 2008, but disappeared three years later, only to resurface in 2013. Regin has attacked all kinds of businesses, including telecoms, hospitality, and airlines, but nearly half of it targeted private individuals and small businesses. Russia and Saudi Arabia were the two hardest hit countries, each accounting for 28% and 24% of the attacks respectively, but it’s also been spotted in Mexico, Ireland, and India.

• Pakistan
  The Ship Breakers

  After their useful life is over, more than 90 percent of the world's ocean-going container ships end up on the shores of India, Pakistan, Indonesia, or Bangladesh, where labor is cheap, demand for steel is high, and environmental regulations are lax. The ships are driven right up onto shoreline lots set aside for ship breaking, then attacked by hammer and blowtorch until all usable material has been stripped away to be sold or recycled.

• Petrochemicals
  Over $60bn petchem projects set to boost Saudi local sector

  MEED, the Middle East Business Intelligence, lists 26 projects worth $15 billion under way in the Saudi petrochemical sector, while another $46 billion worth projects are under planning stage.

• Al-Qaeda in Yemen
  Al Qaeda In Yemen Denounces ISIS

  Yemen's al-Qaida branch on Friday denounced the Islamic State group for declaring a caliphate on territory it seized in Syria and Iraq and for aggressively seeking to expand its area of influence. The al-Qaida Yemeni offshoot's purported spiritual guide, Sheikh Harith al-Nadhari, said such expansionist intentions are "driving a wedge" among jihadi groups. He was referring to Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's recent call for followers to "explode volcanos of jihad everywhere."

• Middle East SWFs
  Why 2015 will be year for ME wealth funds

  The region’s SWFs are taking advantage of their scale and long-term investment perspective by allocating more of their assets to real estate such as hospitality, industrial, logistics and retail, as well as funding infrastructure, where yields are higher. While the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Kuwait Investment Authority have been buying property since the mid-1970s, there has been a marked rise in brick and mortar investments by these funds and their peers from around the Arabian Gulf.

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