By Timothy Mclaughlin | CHICAGO CHICAGO Residents of the U.S. East Coast on Thursday felt a blast of arctic air that earlier swept across the Midwest, with a large swath of the country now under a wind-chill advisory and Boston facing possible record-low temperatures on Friday. The arctic air began blowing south from Canada into the Midwest earlier this week, prompting authorities to warn of the risk […]
Qatar expects to post a budget deficit of 28.3 billion riyals ($7.8 billion) in 2017, the finance ministry said on Thursday, in a sign of the lingering toll of low global oil prices on Gulf economies. Finance Minister Ali Shareef al-Emadi said that revenues were estimated at 170.1 billion riyals while expenditure was estimated at 198.4 billion riyals, state news agency QNA said. The gas-rich Gulf state […]
BEIRUT Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday the world would be different after what he called the “liberation of Aleppo”, describing it as a historic moment. “What is happening today is the writing of a history written by every Syrian citizen. The writing did not start today, it started six years ago when the crisis and war started against Syria,” Assad said in a video statement […]
The US dollar marched higher on Thursday, reaching its strongest level against the euro for more than a decade, after the US Federal Reserve signalled a more aggressive outlook for interest rate policy. Europe’s single currency was among the hardest hit, falling through the $1.04 level to trade at its lowest level since early 2003. Driving the dollar’s strength is a growing divergence between benchmark interest rates […]
Thursday 11:00 GMT Overview Stock markets are trading cautiously as Treasury yields hit fresh highs after the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates for only the second time since the financial crisis. The prospect of the US central bank perhaps having to tighten policy faster than expected to reflect any additional boost to growth from president-elect Trump’s fiscal plans is lifting the dollar to a 14-year […]
The Australian Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield has called on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to only declare domestic mobile roaming if there is an overwhelming case for it, and not simply as a result of a “balance of probabilities”. “I am concerned that there is a real risk that any declaration will lead to an erosion of long-term benefits for all consumers including those […]
By Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Tom Perry | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT An attempt to evacuate people in need of medical attention from rebel-held eastern Aleppo stalled on Thursday when fighters loyal to the Syrian government fired on the convoy, wounding three, the head of the ambulance service said. The vehicles had intended to leave under a deal to evacuate people from rebel areas following rapid […]
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 […]
FUJAIRAH // A three-year-old Arab girl, M A, fell to her death from a third-floor apartment on Wednesday in Qidfa, Fujairah Fujairah police said they received a call at around 11am reporting that a girl had fallen from a flat. Ambulance, an investigation team and police patrols rushed to the site and the girl was moved to the nearest health care centre to be treated. Due to […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 14, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Yoga class Take part in the popular Flow in the Dark yoga class at Bodytree Studio. Enjoy a night of yoga, music and creative expression led by Angela. The lights will be […]
Commercial banks in Qatar will see their profitability fall under continued pressure in the coming years as deposit growth slows and interest rates drop, new research shows. A report by BMI Research, part of Fitch Group, states: “In the first 10 months of 2016, the average interest rate on government securities stood at 2.65 percent, well below the average of 5.96 percent that banks demand on private […]
Arctic air blowing through Chicago and other parts of the U.S. Midwest was expected to keep the region under a deep freeze on Wednesday, as residents of Oregon were blanketed with snow from a separate weather system, forecasters said. Temperatures in Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, were expected to plunge to between 13 and 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 to minus 5 degrees Celsius) with a […]
Long-term borrowing costs for lower-quality US investment-grade companies are nearing 5 per cent — the highest level in nine months — as investors anticipate rising inflation and higher growth, reversing from the six-decade low touched earlier this year. The average yield on the closely followed Moody’s Baa index has climbed to 4.9 per cent, the highest since March when the US credit market slowly recovered from a […]
Saudi Arabia’s 2017 state budget is likely to show Riyadh has shrunk a huge deficit caused by cheap oil faster than expected, which may let it spend more to bolster a shaky economy This year was one of the most painful for the Saudi economy in decades. Growth slowed sharply and speculators bet against the Saudi currency as the government fought to curb a deficit that totalled […]
December 14, 2016 by: Robin Harding in Tokyo Optimism at Japanese companies is on the rise for the first time in 18 months after Donald Trump’s election as US president breathed new life into the country’s drive to escape deflation. The Bank of Japan’s closely watched tankan index for large manufacturers rose from +6 to +10 in December, the first increase since the second quarter of 2015, […]
newslide Dubai set to become online creation hub Dubai is set to join the world’s leading ‘content creation’ hubs following the revelation at Diff 2016 that YouTube is set to open a YouTube Space in Dubai Studio City. What is a YouTube Space, I hear you ask. According to Jamal Al Sharif, head of Dubai Film Commission and Dubai Studio City, it is everything the UAE needs […]
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 […]
Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, During my morning reading, I ran across an interesting article from Paul Lim via Time giving several reasons why the stock market will “rise for a ninth straight year.” “For ordinary Americans, 2017 is likely to feel like the best year economically since the Great Recession. The recovery is finally expected to trickle down to you in the form of […]
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, […]
Russia’s rouble has cemented its position as the best-performing currency of the past three months, enjoying the benefits of a strong oil price at a time when the US appears to be tilting towards a more accommodating relationship with Vladimir Putin. A 2.3 per cent rise in the rouble’s value against the dollar on Monday was followed by a further half per cent gain during Tuesday trading. […]
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 […]
Photo Families that fled violence in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo on Tuesday arriving in the Fardous area, where shooting was also reported. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images GENEVA — Pro-government forces retaking the eastern neighborhoods of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo killed at least 82 civilians on Monday, the United Nations estimated, in what one official called “a complete meltdown of humanity.” Zeid […]
An untold number of Syrians trapped in an ever tightening patch of rebel territory in Aleppo are desperately seeking a way to safety as the opposition’s final foothold in a major city looked on the verge of collapse. The International Committee of the Red Cross called for all sides to urgently agree a deal to evacuate people as it warned that time was running out for trapped […]
A powerful cyclone that hit India’s southeastern coast on Monday killed up to 10 people, according to India’s National Disaster Management Agency. The cyclone, packing winds of 74-80 miles per hour, with brief gusts measuring up to 86 miles per hour, is expected to weaken over the next 12 hours as it moves north, resulting in light rainfall in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, […]
