News

  AFP The EU ordered Spain on Monday to recover 140 million euros ($150 million) in illegal state aid set aside for a high speed train test centre that Brussels said was unnecessary. The commission, the EU’s powerful executive arm, in 2015 launched a probe into the plans for the unique testing site mear Malaga where, if completed, trains could ...

  Bloomberg Canada stocks fell the highest level in a year, halting a three-day advance as commodities producers retreated with crude and gold. The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 0.3 percent to 14,555 at 9:56 a.m. in Toronto. The benchmark is up 12 percent in 2016, making Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 22.4 ...

  Bloomberg Indian Railways plans to rack up debt to help fund an unprecedented modernization plan. Some 2.5 trillion rupees ($37 billion) of debt is required in the five years through 2020, according to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. That’s more than triple the 692 billion rupees of outstanding Indian Railway Finance Corp. bonds. The network is also exploring non-fare revenue ...

  AFP GAIL India Ltd. is seeking to defer a 20-year contract to buy liquefied natural gas from Gazprom PJSC until the Russian company’s Shtokman project begins production, officials at the South Asian country’s biggest gas transporter said. New Delhi-based GAIL signed a contract in 2012 to buy 2.5 million metric tons a year of LNG from Gazprom starting in ...

  AFP Japan on Monday posted its first half-year trade surplus since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, after the accident sent energy import bills soaring and led to a string of deficits. The world’s third largest economy logged a January-June surplus of 1.8 trillion yen ($17 billion), against a 1.69 trillion yen deficit in the same period last year, the ...

  AFP An Australian couple are raffling their tropical island resort and say they hope whoever holds the winning US$49 ticket loves warm weather. Doug and Sally Beitz moved to the remote Micronesian island of Kosrae in the 1990s, but now want to return to Australia to enjoy being grandparents. Instead of selling their 16-room Kosrae Nautilus Resort to a ...

AFP Ramped-up international sanctions on North Korea have inadvertently disrupted the already challenging work of aid agencies there, those in the field say, with risk-averse banks refusing to transfer funds needed to keep operations running. Aid shipments have also been held up or blocked indefinitely at Chinese customs in confusion over what is covered by the significantly upgraded UN sanctions ...

  Emirates Business Aldar Properties PJSC (Aldar) — Abu Dhabi’s leading listed property development, investment and management company — views Al Ain as a key expansion market for its retail portfolio, driven by its significant local population and vibrant business landscape. According to Urban Planning Council’s “Plan Al Ain 2030”, the city population will witness a 3 fold- increase over ...

  Emirates Business Dubai Land Department (DLD) has unveiled its brand-new revamped website, featuring an innovative and modern easy-browsing system, in addition to providing a range of services tailored to a range of customer demographics. The new system is embedded with options for six major global languages, namely Arabic, English, Spanish, Chinese, French and Russian. The announcement was made at ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business du, the region’s first full member operator of the Global Certification Forum (GCF), welcomed regional and global telcos to the first MENA standardisation conference in association with GCF. A series of knowledge sharing workshops, held at Jumeirah Creekside Hotel on July 19 and 20, presented topics related to GCF such as regulations and certification, live ...