BLOOMBERG It’s long been common practice for Americans to head north for bargains whenever the Canadian dollar falls meaningfully below the greenback. During the current slump, they’re doing so from the comfort of their homes by shopping online from small-time Canadian merchants. The Canadian dollar — the loonie — has fallen about 18 percent against its U.S. counterpart over the ...

BAGHDAD / AP Iraqi officials hailed on Wednesday the progress achieved by government troops on the second day of a military operation aimed at dislodging IS militants from a key area north of the capital, Baghdad. On Tuesday, Iraqi troops, backed by aerial support and paramilitary forces, launched a new push to retake a sprawling desert area outside the central ...

Irbid / AP Seven men killed in armed clashes with Jordanian special forces had ties to the IS extremist group and had planned attacks on military and civilian targets in the kingdom, the country’s intelligence service said on Wednesday. The deadly confrontations, sparked by an arrest raid, took place late Tuesday in the northern city of Irbid. The men killed ...

Beirut / AFP More than 1,700 civilians have been killed by Russian air strikes in Syria since Moscow’s air campaign began five months ago, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. “Since September 30, Russian air strikes have killed 4,408 people including 1,733 civilians,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The civilian toll included 429 children and 250 women. ...

Riyadh / AFP Gulf nations on Wednesday declared Lebanon’s Hezbollah a “terrorist” group, in the latest regional move against the Shiite organisation fighting in support of Syria’s regime. The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council “decided to consider the militias (of Hezbollah) a terrorist organisation”, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al Zayani said in a statement. The GCC targeted Hezbollah because of “hostile ...

Jalalabad / AFP Gunfire and an explosion echoed on Wednesday as militants attacked India’s consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing three people in the latest in a string of assaults on Indian installations in the country. No group has so far claimed the brazen attack, which coincided with a NATO change-of-command ceremony that saw US army general ...

“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” represents the new conventional wisdom for some journalists appraising the current state of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Rejected in Mexico due to domestic party politics, whipsawed in Sri Lanka by changes in government, obstructed by protests in Myanmar, scuppered by the U.S. Committee on ...

Australia is in the midst of evaluating its strategic partner for SEA1000, the Future Submarine Project. As Andrew Davies, director of the Australia Strategic Policy Institute, wrote, this is a “wonderful case study of defense acquisition” spanning “every aspect of defense decision-making from long-term strategic crystal ball gazing, including the possible impact of future technologies, through military strategy development and ...

ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has decreased by -0.61% to close at 4367.17 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has lost AED 4.31 billion attaining AED 708.41 billion. A total of 2.16 billion shares were traded with a total value of AED 2.8 billion during the trading session of 02-03-2016 through 22489 transactions. The number of companies which ...

Bloomberg A global equities rally gathered momentum in Asian trading and emerging-market currencies strengthened as economic data from the U.S. and Australia spurred risk-taking. Copper rose and gold fell. Benchmark share gauges jumped more than 3 percent in China, Hong Kong and Japan, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed for a fifth day. Australia’s dollar rose for a third ...