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Bloomberg President Barack Obama assembles on Wednesday his top national security officials at the CIA to discuss options to increase pressure on the IS in Syria. With each additional step, he risks drawing the US further into the conflict he has spent five years trying to avoid. The meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee brings together some of ...

DAMASCUS / AP Syrians in government-controlled areas headed to polling stations on Wednesday to elect a new 250-member parliament that is expected to serve as a rubber stamp for President Bashar Assad. Voters began turning up shortly after the stations opened at 7 a.m. Around 3,500 government-approved candidates are competing after more than 7,000 others dropped out. Early on Wednesday, ...

  BLOOMBERG The cloud that China cast over financial markets is starting to lift — and that’s a boon for stocks and commodities. After trade data pointed to stronger growth in the world’s second-biggest economy, global equities wiped out the last of this year’s losses, copper and iron ore jumped, and haven assets including the yen and gold retreated. European ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, received on Tuesday Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia, at Al Bahr Palace, for talks about ways of enhancing co-operation and friendship to serve mutual interests, particularly in economic, investment, trade and ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM HH Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, today opened the 10th edition of the Cityscape Abu Dhabi at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE ...

Dubai / WAM Retailing in the UAE is expected to reach AED 200 billion by 2017, growing by a 5% on average each year, according to an analysis by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Consumer spending is also expected to continue rising in the medium-term, with growth rates projected to stabilize at about 4% on average per year ...

Beijing / Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is making its largest overseas investment with a $1 billion deal for control of Lazada Group SA, taking the Chinese e-commerce giant to Southeast Asia and closer to a goal of shedding its home-market reliance. China’s largest online emporium will pay $500 million for new shares in the closely held company and purchase ...

Bloomberg U.K. inflation accelerated to a 15-month high in March as an early Easter boosted air fares and clothing prices increased. Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since December 2014, the Office for National Statistics in London said on Tuesday. That exceeded the 0.4 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Core ...

Bloomberg Greece will take a one-week break in bailout review discussions with its creditors, after failing to reach an initial agreement, as officials from the Greek government, the euro area and the International Monetary Fund fly to Washington to attend IMF meetings. Officials decided to “pause,” so they can all go to Washington, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said in ...

Bloomberg The agriculture slump is getting so bad in the U.S. that farmers are about to get more government aid than at any time in the past decade, signaling the rising public cost of crop surpluses and cheap food. About $13.9 billion of net farm income this year will be federal payments, or about 25 percent of total profit estimated ...