...In Gabon, 70 percent of the 6.000 new vehicles sold each year are big 4x4s, mostly Japanese models, according to the Gabonese Federation of Car Importers...
source: The Peninsula, Africa, the new El Dorado for luxury cars; 2014/1/2
... Up to 11,000 fighters from more than 70 nations have joined the struggle in
Syria against President Bashar Al Assad, almost doubling estimates made in early 2013. The number of individuals from western Europe taking up arms has tripled to
reach 1,900 and includes up to 366 from Britain. The number reported from France has quadrupled while Belgium has the highest
per capita rate. Arabs and Europeans made up the bulk of
foreign fighters, with up to 80 per cent, but militants from south-east Asia,
North America, Africa, the Balkans and countries of the former Soviet Union were
also represented.
Syria is becoming as big a magnet for Muslim fighters as Afghanistan was in
the 1980s when an estimated 35,000 foreigners joined the mujahideen ranks
against Soviet invaders...
...Real estate deals in Qatar in 2013 were worth QR45.5bn ($12.49bn), but growth over the previous year was negligible, at barely three percent, due to skyrocketing land prices. In terms of value, the growth in real estate transactions in 2012 (over 2011) was a record 72 percent. The value of property deals concluded in 2012 was QR44.06bn as against just QR25.6bn in 2011...