Eustacia Huen   ,     CONTRIBUTOR I cover food, luxury, and occasionally tennis (when Nadal is playing).     Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. FORBES Abraj Kudai—the  $3.5-billion project  expected to become the world’s biggest hotel (by room count) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia—may have trouble completing as scheduled by 2017. This is as result of the low oil prices last year, which according to a recent  Gulf Business  article, could be causing quite a ripple effect to the Saudi economy. As the owner of the Abraj Kudai project, the  Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance  is also a prime customer of The Saudi Binladin Group (SBL)—one of  the country’s largest construction companies. Naturally, the actions of the government directly affect SBL. So when the low oil prices began propelling the government “ to cancel or suspend projects and delay payments ,” SBL suffer...

A lion sleeps inside a cage at the Caricuao Zoo in Caracas, Venezuela July 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso   BY  PAULA BOLYARD   Source: pj media CHAT   120  COMMENTS At least 50 animals have died in the last six months at the Caricuao zoo in Caracas, Venezuela, due to widespread food shortages that are affecting both man and beast in the socialist nation. Marlene Sifontes, a union leader for employees of state parks agency Inparques which oversees zoos,  told Reuters  that the zoo lost Vietnamese pigs, tapirs, rabbits and birds after the animals went weeks without eating. Others animals at the zoo are in danger of severe malnutrition. Lions and tigers, which should be on a carnivorous diet, are being fed mango and pumpkin just to get something in their empty stomachs, while an elephant is being fed tropical fruit instead of its usual diet of hay, the union leader said.  According to one report , the big cats are be...