The official SANA news agency spelled no further details Wednesday, but other media reports said that the Minister of Oil, Sulaiman Abbas, signed the contract with the Russian company named Ceo Naftagas, reported Xinhua.

The contract is for oil exploration and production in the block two of Syria's territorial water, which stretches from the shore of the coastal city of Tartous to the city of Banyas.

The minister said the contract will go into effect "immediately " in spite of the sanctions imposed on Syria by the European Union and the US, noting that the Russian companies in Syria have not stopped its work despite the sanctions.

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Infosys suffered a fall in its market value in the morning trade on Monday after the software services exporter confirmed the departure of director V. Balakrishnan.

The resignation of Mr. Balakrishnan, who was being seen as a candidate to become Infosys' next chief executive officer (CEO), is the eighth senior executive to depart the company since co-founder Narayana Murthy returned to the company as executive chairman in June this year.

Mr. Balakrishnan has the highest profile among the executives who left the company after Mr. Murthy's return. He has previously served the company as chief financial officer (CFO). He has remained the head of several key

  Launching a startup is no cakewalk. From determining how to set up your company to snagging your first hire and figuring out how to scale, there is plenty of room for error. What makes some entrepreneurs' experience smooth sailing is taking the time to listen to people who have done it before.

Over this past year, our series Startup of the Month asked successful entrepreneurs what advice they have for others looking to take the leap into the startup world. From ignoring what goes wrong to dismissing some advice and surrounding yourself with amazing people, here is the best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.   Source: entrepreneur.com  

By tinkering yet again with Obamacare, the administration has just set in place one of the most unfair tax policies ever levied on Americans, deciding that some people have to pay taxes while others in the same class don't.

The Obama Administration has essentially waived the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act, saying people can seek a “hardship” exemption if they lost their coverage. Actually, it is much more complicated than that: If you lost coverage as a result of Obamacare because your policy was not considered good enough, you can either seek a substandard catastrophic policy in the market (which likely still costs more than the one you had)

Following a stellar sales year, storied retailer Barneys New York is slated to open yet another flagship store location in New York City--in the very building where Barney Pressman founded the company in 1923.

Barneys will reclaim the five-story, 57,000-square foot space in New York's Chelsea neighborhood from Loehmann's, the off-price department store chain, which filed for bankruptcy for the third time on Monday and is in the throes of liquidation.

The new store is slated to open in 2017, exactly 20 years after Barneys left the space amid its own bout with bankruptcy.

The move will not affect Barneys' uptown flagship store on Madison

  Given our status as a proud nation of binge-watchers, it's no surprise that Hulu's looking good right now. But it's hardly been an easy year for the media-streaming service, which spent some time on the market and saw the departures of several top executives, including its CEO.

Mike Hopkins, Hulu's current CEO, touted the company's year-end accomplishments in a blog post on Tuesday titled "A Strong 2013". Hopkins said he expects Hulu to reach $1 billion in revenue in 2013, up from $695 million last year.

"When you think about the fact that Hulu first launched out of beta in 2008, it's quite an impressive feat to sc

  In a move that will consolidate much of the freelance economy in a single corporate entity, online freelance work platforms Elance and oDesk announced their intent to merge, forming a new company with a yet-to-be-determined name.

The resulting company will lay claim to more than 8 million freelancers and 2 million businesses in more than 180 countries, according to a release issued by Elance. Elance and oDesk will continue to exist as separate platforms even after the merger, though no longer as rivals

The companies anticipate that joining forces will allow them to improve technical issues, such as matching professionals with relevant jobs, while stream

Los Angeles, Dec 18 : Rapper Jay Z was guarding a toilet at a vegan restaurant here while his wife, pop star Beyonce, used the facility in peace.

The 44-year-old stopped anyone from entering the washroom, but his gesture did not go down well with the other diners who had to queue until Beyonce was done.

"Halfway through their meal, Jay got up and asked a waitress to check if anyone was currently in the bathroom," dailystar. co. uk quoted a source as saying.

"Once they had established the loos were empty, Beyonce scurried inside while he stood guard over the door. When a couple of customers tried to go in, he politely asked them if t

As federal crowdfunding legislation languishes on Capitol Hill, a handful of states have decided to press forward with their own equity crowdfunding legislation.

Michigan’s Senate unanimously passed legislation last week that would make equity crowdfunding legal in the state, according to a statement from the Michigan Municipal League. The bill originated in the House, and will need to go back to the House for a procedural approval vote before being signed into law by the governor. The bill is expected to pass.

“We are an arm’s reach away from being able to assist a segment of our economy that will prove to be huge economic drivers, those new small businesses

Apple and Google celebrated a big milestone this year.   The App Store commemorated its fifth anniversary with a fire sale of free downloads, while Google Play touted 50 billion downloads and over 1 million apps posted in the platform.   Despite the abundance of programs housed within these separate stores, quite a few slip below the radar that don't receive the recognition they deserve.   We've rounded up the most underrated apps you really should be using. Check out our top 15 picks.   Source: entrepreneur.com  

Coca Cola Co. announced plans yesterday to restructure its North American business in an attempt to expedite its refranchising efforts and streamline its focus.   As of Jan. 1, 2014, the integrated North American business will be segmented into a traditional company and a bottler operating model. The company will consist of two operating units: Coca-Cola North America and Coca-Cola Refreshments.   “Now, we are in a position to leverage this flexibility to return to a traditional company and bottling operating model in North America, which will enhance our focus on execution and accelerate the refranchising of our bottling system in our flagship market,” said Coca-Cola CEO

A roundup of the best tips of the week from Entrepreneur.com.   By any definition, Beyoncé is a superstar entertainer, so it's hard to believe that she would release an album without any fanfare or advance warning. But that's exactly what she did today when she dropped her fifth solo album, a "visual album" of 14 original songs and 17 music videos.   What can you take away from this move? The importance of connecting directly with your fans -- and for "fans" you can substitute clients, customers or what you will. "I didn't want to release my music the way I've done it," the singer said in a statement. "There's so

  The rupee ended at a four-month high on Tuesday due to dollar flows, as custodian banks sold dollars on behalf of their clients. The appreciation in the currency was despite dollar demand from oil marketing companies (OMCs).

The rupee ended at 61.04 a dollar compared with the previous close of 61.14. The last time the rupee rose to such levels was on August 8, at 60.86 a dollar. It opened at 60.99 a dollar and during intra-day trade, touched a low of 61.29. Since the beginning of this financial year, the currency has weakened 12.45 per cent.

“Foreign banks sold dollars, due to which the rupee strengthened. During the day, OMCs were

     

Pooja, 25, had won Rs 20,000 as a token of appreciation for completing three years at an auditing firm, a welcome return for many long days spent at the office, handling client queries and tallying balance sheets, sometimes at the cost of missing parties and weekend trips with friends. Therefore, the cash award had to be metamorphosed into something precious, perhaps a light piece of jewellery for daily use. Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, founder and chief executive, Bluestone

Minutes later, she was browsing through 600 varieties of pendants on online jewellery portal Bluestone.com. About 200 designs suited her budget. One hundred and si

  The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has slapped Coal India Ltd (CIL) with a penalty of Rs 1,773 crore — the biggest by the watchdog on a company — over alleged abuse of its monopolistic position. The fine comes to roughly three per cent of the Kolkata-headquartered Maharatna company’s average turnover in the past three years

The order was issued on a complaint filed by Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (Mahagenco), which had said the mining entity’s alleged misconduct could be “established” at two levels. One, at the time of executing a contract for coal supply; and two, while implementing the terms of any

  Income-Tax department has informed the Delhi High Court that Nokia India and Nokia Corporation owe it Rs 21,153 crore as total tax liability (existing and anticipated), including penalty during a seven-year period from 2006-2013.
 
The amount payable by Nokia has been arrived at by the I-T department on the basis that the mobile manufacturing firm does not discharge its TDS liability on royalty payments and is not entitled to any deduction under tax laws for operating from a special economic zone (SEZ).
 
The submission has been made by the I-T department in its reply to Nokia's plea for unfreezing of its assets in India prior to its $7.2 bi

Beverages and food major PepsiCo today said it has appointed D Shivakumar , who had worked with Finnish handset maker Nokia for about eight years, as the chairman and CEO for PepsiCo’s businesses in India region, with immediate effect.
 
The announcement comes within a month after PepsiCo Inc chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi announced that the food and beverages major will be investing about Rs 33,000 crore ($5 billion) in India by 2020.
 
Shivakumar succeeds Manu Anand, who quit as PepsiCo India president in June this year and has joined Cadbury India as managing director. Since June, PepsiCo has been without an India head and has been overseen by San

Japan's Nikkei climbed 2.3% on Monday, its best one-day gain in three months, spurred by a slide in the yen after an upbeat US jobs report raised expectations the Federal Reserve will soon begin removing its stimulus.

The Nikkei ended 350.35 points higher at 15,650.21, while the yen was down 0.2 percent at 103.08 to the dollar, adding to Friday's 1.1 percent slide and edging closer to a six-month low of 103.38 yen touched last week.

Monday's gain took the Nikkei close to a six-month intraday high of 15,794.15 reached last week.

Declines in the yen tend to boost sentiment towards Japanese equities because investors expect the weaker cur

Image Credit: Kynetic When Michael Rubin was 16, he built a 142-foot ski ramp made out of 45,000 pounds of ice so customers at his ski shop could test their gear. In August. In 98 degree weather.

“I believe there are two types of business people -- risky and rational,” the then 16-year-old Rubin told Small Business Chronicle in September 1988. At the time, Rubin owned Mike’s Ski Shop in the suburban community of Conshohocken, Penn. “And since I am the risky type, a ski run in 98 degree weather sounds great to me!”

For Rubin, that appetite for risk has paid off. He is now 41 years old and worth $2.7 billion. Impressive, especially

  Consumers continue to shift their shopping habits from stores to screens.

While the Black Friday to Cyber Monday shopping period is expected to be pretty lackluster this year, one bright spot -- if you can call it that -- is that Cyber Monday is expected to clock double-digit growth numbers, according to a report from Los Angeles-based industry research firm, IBISWorld.

Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, is expected to generate $1.8 billion in sales, a 13.1 percent increase over Cyber Monday spending in 2012. While that's down from the 21 percent growth seen last year, it continues to signal to retailers that online is where it