London / AFP The Scottish National Party heads into regional elections on Thursday hoping to strengthen its clout and secure a mandate to demand independence if Britain leaves the European Union. Victory in the vote could allow the SNP to consolidate a historic triumph in general elections in May 2015, when it swept 56 out of Scotland’s 59 seats ...

SARI RASH, Iraq This month marks the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement that formed Iraq, Syria and the other fragile nations of the modern Middle East. The past few weeks have provided dramatic new evidence, if more were needed, that the old colonial framework created by Britain and France isn’t working. Iraq and Syria are coming apart: Iraq is ...

The European Union’s deal with Turkey to control the streaming of refugees into Europe has become a bittersweet issue, as some EU member states see the pact as a blackmail from Ankara to meet its longstanding demands. Finally, the EU on Wednesday gave conditional backing to visa-free travel for Turks under a migrant deal. It also announced new asylum rules ...

  Donald Trump’s big Tuesday night victory in Indiana wasn’t technically going to clinch the nomination for him. Even by winning most or all of the delegates at stake in the Hoosier State, he would need more to get to the 1,237 he had to hit to be nominated at the convention in Cleveland — about 40 percent in the ...

Nationalism is irrational, bizarre and threatening. Unless it’s your own, in which case it’s natural and reasonable. That’s a lesson I’ve learned as a foreign correspondent and one that teaches a lot about the U.K.’s furious debate over whether to leave the European Union. With each passing week of the campaign, the evidence that voting to exit the EU would ...

  It’s now safe to assume that all software-based businesses will be cloud-based eventually. That raises an important question: Do we know how the major players are doing in the cloud? The answer is, “not really,” and that’s an issue that investors should raise with tech leaders. Installing software, especially specialized business-oriented systems, on local computers is obsolete, as is ...

  Thu Huong Le SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS In Vietnam, a scandal surrounding the mass die-off of fish has created an explosive wave of debate and activism on social media, particularly Facebook. Responding to the social media outcry, many rallied in cities across Vietnam on Sunday, during a national four-day holiday. The rallies took place at an unprecedented scale, spanning ...

  One Belt, One Road (OBOR) is China’s plan to expand its politic and economic influence via a network of economic integration initiatives with stops across three different continents. China has big plans to fund the initiative. The Chinese Development Bank (CDB), the lead financial body for OBOR, will invest $890 billion into over 900 projects. China has also announced ...

  BLOOMBERG Stocks declined worldwide and emerging-market currencies slid to a one-month low after two Federal Reserve officials signaled that the U.S. economy could warrant a rate hike at the central bank’s meeting next month. Equities gauges in the U.S., Europe and developing nations maintained losses, while the dollar pared gains after a report showed companies added fewer workers in ...

  ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has increased by 0.24% to close at 4469.04 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has gained AED 1.75 billion attaining AED 724.94 billion. A total of 442.36 Million Shares were traded with a total value of AED 0.64 billion during the trading session of 04-05-2016 through 7443 transactions. The number of companies ...