Madrid / AFP Spanish parties restarted coalition negotiations on Tuesday in a surprise, eleventh-hour move just as the deadline to form a government draws to a close and fresh elections threaten. The negotiations kicked off again after Compromis—a small, regional grouping involved in coalition talks—submitted a last-ditch proposal for a government that includes measures to fight corruption and poverty. ...

Hanoi / AFP Communist Vietnam has blocked a motley crew of independent candidates from running for its rubber-stamp parliament, according to official results released Tuesday, a move activists said highlights its empty gestures towards democracy. In an unprecedented showing this year more than 100 independent candidates — including dissidents, a taxi driver and a pop star — tried to run ...

  Chernobyl / AFP Ukrainians held candlelit vigils on Tuesday to mark 30 years since the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl spewed radiation across Europe and left several thousand people dead or dying. Church bells rang and mourners lit candles and laid flowers at the site’s memorial as the clock turned 1.23 am—the exact moment when the plant’s reactor number ...

The gender pay gap is back in the news — and may become a major issue in the presidential campaign. It seems an open-and-shut case of job discrimination. Women earn only 79 percent of men’s average hourly earnings. Who could favor that? Actually, the comparison is bogus. A more accurate ratio, after adjusting for differences in gender employment patterns, is ...

  The Dubai Smart City project is a brainchild of UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It started as a dream, but is now taking a concrete shape given the resolve and dedication demonstrated by Sheikh Mohammed to make the project a success. A small port city four ...

    U.K. banks are giving new meaning to the term “Brexit”: They’ve been pulling money out of the rest of the world at a pace not seen since the global financial crisis. The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements suggest that financial institutions have been beating a retreat just about everywhere. In 25 countries whose banks report ...

  Last week, international capital markets enthusiastically granted redemption to Argentina, a serial defaulter on money it has borrowed from external creditors. The scale of this reaction is counter-intuitive and could provide the wrong incentive underpinnings for financial relationships that involve an important element of trust. Yet this kind of forgiveness has occurred regularly — for good and bad reasons ...

  Abu Dhabi / EMIRATES BUSINESS Manazel Real Estate, a leading UAE developer, hosted its Annual General Meeting (AGM) to review the company’s financial performance for 2015 and provide an outlook for the year ahead. Manazel delivered strong growth in earnings with a 29 percent growth in net profit to AED195 million (it was AED152 million in 2014) driven by ...

  Dubai / EMIRATES BUSINESS Around 550 people learnt the ropes of setting up and running a profitable business in the competitive UAE market, as the two-day Millionaire Summit drew to a close. Hosted by Wealth Dynamics Unlimited, the event, which was held on April 24-25, was graced by the few of savviest brains in the global SME sector, inspiring ...

  Dubai / EMIRATES BUSINESS Supporting businesses in the region to drive productivity, efficiency and sustainable development, Canon Middle East has strengthened their business-to-business (B2B) offering with the launch of 12 new B2B products and solutions. The new technologies were launched during an exclusive ‘Canon for Business’ event held on April 25 in Dubai, attended by 150 C-level executives, IT ...