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  Kathmandu / AFP Nepal’s government unveiled the first budget drawn up since the country introduced a new constitution last September, with a focus on funding reconstruction and reviving the battered economy. Millions continue to live in temporary shelters after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Himalayan nation in April 2015, killing nearly 9,000 people. Finance minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel outlined ...

  Bloomberg Bayer AG is close to choosing banks to arrange funds for its proposed acquisition of Monsanto Co., according to people familiar with the matter, after the U.S. company rejected the initial $62 billion bid as too low and sought reassurances on the potential financing. Bayer will probably raise more than $40 billion in short-term bridge financing and most ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Bayer’s chief executive said in an interview published on Sunday he is ready to meet environmental groups to address concerns about his group’s plans to take over US agrochemicals giant Monsanto. In an interview with the Sunday newspaper Frankfurter AllgemeineSonntagszeitung, Werner Baumann also hinted that the Monsanto brand could disappear once the business is integrated into ...

  Frankfurt / AFP The ECB, expected to hold fire on monetary policy at its meeting Thursday, will likely focus instead on welcoming Greece back into the fold of fully-fledged eurozone borrowers after a bailout deal, analysts said. European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi may well also use the lull in the bank’s unprecedented stimulus drive to remind governments that ...

  Bloomberg The risk of a British exit from the European Union has the government in Denmark, an EU member that hasn’t adopted the euro, preparing for the worst. While most polls suggest U.K. voters probably won’t back a so-called Brexit, the June 23 referendum on whether to stay or go still threatens to cause disruption on a scale that ...

  Geneva / AFP When Swiss engineer Carl Eduard Gruner came up with the idea to build the world’s longest rail tunnel under the Alps in 1947, he predicted the visionary project could be finished by the start of the 21st century. He would turn out to be off by 16 years. Gruner’s sketch and technical paper called “Journey through ...

  Sharjah / EMIRATES BUSINESS Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB), a leading shariah compliant commercial bank in the UAE, successfully repaid a USD 400 million sukuk. The Sukuk was raised in May 2011 under challenging market circumstances. The funds raised under the sukuk were used for general corporate purposes and business expansion of SIB. Mohamed Abdulla, CEO of SIB, thanked the ...

  DUBAI / WAM Secretary-General of the Federation of UAE Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Humaid bin Salim, said the UAE was at the top member of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in terms of intra-OIC trade in 2014 with US$121.7 billion accounting for 15.2 per cent of the total intra-OIC trade. Turkey came second with $77.8 billion (9.7 per cent ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, stressed that the strong and active presence of the UAE’s diplomacy in the regional and international arenas in terms of hosting numerous international agencies and conferences, as well as its active participation in international efforts to fight terrorism and ...

  Pristina / WAM UAE, represented by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), signed two final agreements on avoidance of double taxation on income and the protection and promotion of investment with the Republic of Kosovo. The signing ceremony took place in the capital Pristina during an official visit of the UAE delegation headed by Younis Haji Al Khoori, Under-Secretary of MoF ...