By Howard Schneider and Lindsay Dunsmuir | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and signaled a faster pace of increases in 2017 as central bankers adapted to the incoming Trump administration’s promises of tax cuts, spending and deregulation. The increase in the federal funds rate to a range of between 0.50 percent and 0.75 percent was widely expected. But the prospect of […]
The EU’s border agency has accused charities operating in the Mediterranean of colluding with people smugglers, according to confidential reports seen by the Financial Times. The accusations from Frontex bring to the fore a long-simmering dispute between EU officials and non-governmental organisations over how to resolve a migration crisis that has caused the deaths of 4,700 people this year alone. Frontex put its concerns in a confidential […]
Steve Garey, who retired from the Anacortes refinery in 2015 after almost 25 years and served as president of the United Steelworkers local, said that while some positive changes were made after the 2010 accident, upper management at Tesoro remains “contemptuous” of its work force and is “hiding behind incredibly permissive process safety regulations.” Those regulations grew out of a string of catastrophic events in the 1980s, […]
Dubai is working with HSBC on the financing of Expo 2020 Dubai, a $7 billion exhibition centre project expected to attract 25 million visitors, sources familiar with the matter said. The site will host Expo Dubai which will run from October 2020 to April 2021 and will be the first World Expo hosted in the Middle East, according to the Expo 2020 website. The project provides more […]
Photo The coffins of victims from Sunday’s bombing of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral after funeral services in Cairo on Monday. Credit Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CAIRO — Egypt faced the prospect of a surge in sectarian bloodshed on Tuesday after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Coptic cathedral in Cairo that killed 25 people on Sunday. The group warned of […]
BEIRUT Government forces resumed shelling of rebel-held eastern Aleppo districts on Wednesday, which stopped after about half an hour, Syrian rebel officials and witnesses told Reuters on Wednesday. “There is fierce bombardment by the regime forces on besieged Aleppo, using artillery, tanks, and mortars,” a Turkey-based official in the Jabha Shamiya faction told Reuters, citing reports from the ground. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdulrahman […]
DUBAI Eleven headless bodies have been dumped in a nature reserve in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, a local news website reported on Wednesday. The Aden al-Ghad news website quoted a security source in the city as saying that the male bodies were found on Tuesday evening in the al-Hiswa reserve, west of Aden. It was not immediately clear who killed the men and why, […]
BEIRUT An evacuation of rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo was delayed on Wednesday for reasons that were not clear, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, holding up implementation of an agreement to restore government control over the area. Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said the first group of evacuees was due to leave at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), but nobody had left an hour later. A Reuters […]
By Laila Bassam and Angus McDowall | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT Syrian rebels prepared to withdraw from Aleppo on Wednesday after a ceasefire agreement that ended years of fighting in the city and gave President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory yet after more than five years of war. The agreement was a result of talks between Russia, Assad’s main ally, and Turkey, a leading backer of the […]
Investors are making a record bet on global bank shares following the US election, according to a new survey of institutional money managers that also highlights the risks to the sector if Donald Trump fails to deliver faster economic growth. The allocation that investors made to bank stocks this month climbed to a weighting of 31 per cent above their benchmarks, up from 25 per cent in […]
ERBIL, Iraq — The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that a United States airstrike had killed three Islamic State operatives who were involved in mounting terrorist attacks in Europe, including the deadly assault in Paris in November 2015. The three men were killed on Dec. 4 in an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State’s declared capital, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary. He described the men […]
ABU DHABI // The Arab world is entering a new era, involving reform and changes in its mindset, according to the former Egyptian foreign minister and secretary general of the Arab League. In an interview with The National, Amr Moussa said the region’s young citizens, who make up about 70 per cent of the population, are better educated and have aspirations for the future. “They reject what […]
Low interest rates pose one of the biggest threats to the US economy and expose investors to the potential for heavy loses from a price shock across a range of markets, according to an independent arm of the US Treasury. The concerns are raised in the Office of Financial Research’s annual financial stability report to Congress, which concludes that threats to stability remain “in a medium range”. […]
ABU DHABI // Security and economic and cultural integration will help the Arab world build a prosperous future, experts from the region said on Tuesday. They were speaking on the second day of the Fikr 15 conference, which is aimed at finding solutions to the risks, challenges and threats facing Middle East unity and identity. “The threats that face the security of the Arab world are external […]
By Laila Bassam and Stephanie Nebehay | ALEPPO, Syria/GENEVA ALEPPO, Syria/GENEVA The United Nations said on Tuesday it had reports that Syrian soldiers and allied Iraqi fighters had summarily shot dead 82 children, women and men in recaptured east Aleppo and a military source said the last rebel pocket could fall “at any moment”. The Syrian army has denied carrying out killings or torture among those captured, […]
By Gabriela Baczynska | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS The European Union will not pay towards rebuilding post-war Syria if Moscow and Damascus leave no space in the future for opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, according to a draft joint statement from the EU’s 28 leaders. For weeks, Syrian, Russian and Iranian firepower has pounded rebels – including those backed by the West and Turkey – in what was […]
Wall Street looked set to open higher on Tuesday, as investors keep a close watch of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting where it is widely expected to raise interest rates for the second time since the financial crisis. A hike of 25 basis points in the Fed’s target range of 0.25-0.50 percent is priced in, but investors will be examining the Fed’s statement and economic forecasts for […]
DUBAI Many disasters loom over one of the poorest countries in the Middle East as it suffers through nearly two years of war, among them a colossal pile of waste outside Yemen’s capital leeching toxic waste into its diminishing water supply. Hardly a paragon of waste management before the war, Sanaa was at least able to separate out the most dangerous materials from the 10-million-ton hill thanks […]
GENEVA Many unaccompanied children, possibly more than 100, are trapped in a building that is under heavy attack in besieged eastern Aleppo in Syria, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said in a statement on Tuesday, citing an unnamed doctor in the city. “According to alarming reports from a doctor in the city, many children, possibly more than 100, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in […]
The battle for eastern Aleppo will be over soon, but tens of thousands of Syrians there will find little peace. The victory for the government of President Bashar al-Assad will open another violent, disorienting chapter in their lives, and a dangerous one for the opposition. Soon, civilians and rebel fighters alike will either be punished or have to flee the city and join the many thousands of […]
By Nigel Stephenson | LONDON LONDON Global shares edged up on Tuesday, helped by gains in banks after Italy’s largest lender unveiled a 13 billion euro share issue, while the dollar held steady before a Federal Reserve meeting expected to deliver higher interest rates. UniCredit launched Italy’s biggest share issue to clean up its balance sheet and boost profitability in the latest move to strengthen the Italian […]
By Laila Bassam | ALEPPO, Syria ALEPPO, Syria The Syrian army and its allies have taken full control over all the Aleppo districts abandoned by rebels during their retreat in the city, a Syrian military source said on Tuesday. Rebel defences collapsed on Monday, leading to a broad army advance across more than half of the remaining insurgent pocket in Aleppo and a retreat of opposition fighters […]
December 13, 2016 by: Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Donald Trump is poised to name Rex Tillerson, chief executive of ExxonMobil, as his secretary of state, ignoring criticism that the oil and gas man is too close to Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. Mr Trump tweeted on Monday that he would formally unveil his choice for the high-profile cabinet position on Tuesday morning. US media reported […]
Algebris Investments, a London-based asset manager, is seeking to raise €1bn for a second fund aimed at Italy’s non-performing loans as investors’ interest in what’s been the Achilles heel of the country’s banking sector intensifies. The launch by Algebris, which has $6bn in assets under management, comes amid increased focus by foreign investors on the potential of Italy’s pile of €360bn of problem loans, of which €200bn […]
