PARIS // Dozens of religious leaders boarded a bus on the Champs Elysees in Paris on Saturday to kick off a European tour of the sites of recent Islamist attacks to remember the victims and condemn violence.
Imams from countries including France, Belgium, Britain and Tunisia were joined by representatives of other religious communities at the spot where French policeman Xavier Jugele was shot dead in April.
Tour stops will include Berlin, where organisers say they hope to meet German chancellor Angela Merkel, Brussels and Nice, with a return to Paris for July 14, the first anniversary of the Nice lorry attack.
ISIL claimed responsibility for both the Nice attack in which a lorry killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day on the city's seafront and the lorry attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in December last year that killed 12.
The imam of Drancy, an area in Paris's northeastern suburbs, and the Jewish French writer Marek Halter had the idea for the tour.
"We are here to say that our religion and the values of Islam are opposed to those assassins," said Imam Hassen Chalghoumi.
Some 30 people boarded the bus on Saturday with more expected to join along the way, bringing the total number of participants to 60.
It came as a French judicial source said a 42-year-old man had been charged in connection with the January 2015 terror attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris.
DNA testing found samples from the man, identified as Abdelaziz S, on one of the weapons used by Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four people after taking shoppers hostage at the Hyper Cacher market.
He was detained in a Paris suburb on Wednesday and is being held on charges of criminal association with terrorists.
"During questioning, the suspect failed to provide any satisfactory explanation about why his DNA was found inside the weapon, but he insists he knew nothing of Coulibaly's plans," the source said.
Two women, aged 23 and 31, who were also detained by investigators earlier in the week, have been released.
The attack on the Jewish supermarket on January 9 came a day after Coulibaly killed a policewoman, and a few days after the assault by other extremists on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine offices that killed 12 people.
According to investigators, the Tokarev handguns and an assault rifle used by Coulibaly were purchased by a company owned by the wife of a suspected arms trafficker, Claude Hermant.
Hermant, a former mercenary during the wars in former Yugoslavia, claims to have sold them on to another suspected trafficker, identified as Samir L, in a deal aimed at infiltrating a network with the blessing of the French police.
Samir L was one of several people charged in the months following the Hyper Cacher attack for helping Coulibaly obtain the weapons, though all have denied any knowledge of his plans.
Hermant and his wife have been called in twice for questioning in the inquiry, but no charges have been filed.
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UK's plans to cut net migration
Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.
Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.
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