Bloomberg The UK risks facing a deluge of residency applications as European Union citizens dash to formalize their right to stay in the wake of the Brexit vote. The warning comes from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, which said in a report that registering more than 3 million European nationals already living in the U.K. would present a ...

  Brussels / AFP Eurozone economic activity managed a small gain in July despite Britain’s shock vote in June to quit the European Union, a closely watched survey showed on Wednesday. Data monitoring company IHS Markit said revised figures for its Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for July came in at 53.2 points, up from 53.1 points in June. The ...

  Bloomberg German logistics group Deutsche Post said on Wednesday it had achieved its strongest-ever second-quarter operating result, boosted in large part by online shopping. “Our Post, eCommerce and Parcel division in particular contributed to the positive trend” that saw Deutsche Post increase its net profit to 541 million euros ($606 million), a 66-percent leap over the same period in ...

  Washington / AFP Letitia stands on a metro station platform in downtown Washington, waiting for a train that she now realizes is not going to come. “I will be walking home tonight and all the nights to come,” said the 28-year-old woman, who works as a cashier at a 24-hour supermarket. In the US capital city, an urgently needed ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Car parts supplier Continental upped its forecast for 2016 on Wednesday after strong performance in its tyres business. Chief executive Elmar Degenhart said the group would target an adjusted operating profit of “over 11%”, where previously the target had been set at “around 11%”. Continental’s net profit in the second quarter grew to 905mn euros, up ...

  Beirut / AFP Syrian regime forces bolstered by Russian air strikes recaptured territory overnight in the southwest suburbs of the battleground city of Aleppo, rolling back the short-lived gains of a rebel offensive. Rebels and their extremists allies launched an assault on Sunday in a bid to ease a more than two-week government siege of opposition-held districts of the ...

  London / AFP Coalition warplanes bombed one of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s palaces which was being used as a training base by the IS extremist group, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. The palace in the IS stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq was attacked in a joint operation by the US-led coalition on Monday, with British Tornado ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday asked forgiveness over his past alliance with US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen whom Ankara blames for last month’s attempted coup. In a rare show of public humility, Erdogan said he had failed to see the “true face” of Gulen, who cooperated closely with the Turkish strongman while he was mayor ...

  Riyadh / AFP Saudi Arabia promised “urgent” action to resolve the plight of some 2,500 Indian workers stranded without money in the kingdom after a plunge in oil prices sparked construction layoffs. Labour Minister Mufarrej al-Haqbani issued orders to allow the Indian workers “to immediately transfer their kafala (sponsorship) and renew their residencies,” the Okaz daily reported on Wednesday. Haqbani’s ...

  Kathmandu/ AFP Nepal’s parliament elected former guerrilla and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal as prime minister on Wednesday after his predecessor resigned following deadly unrest over a divisive new constitution. Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda or “the fierce one”, led a decade-long Maoist insurgency before transforming the rebel movement into a political party after a 2006 ...