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HONG KONG / Bloomberg Hong Kong residential home sales plunged 70 percent in February from a year earlier to a 25-year low, as falling prices and economic uncertainty deterred buyers. Last month, 1,807 homes were sold in Hong Kong, compared with 6,027 a year earlier, according to government statistics. Home sales fell from 2,045 in January, the data show. “The ...

BEIJING / Bloomberg Shanghai’s most-senior official said the city’s property market has “overheated” and should be more tightly controlled after a recent surge in residential housing prices. “An irrational and overheated sentiment have emerged in the Shanghai real estate market, and these sentiments have raised home prices,” Han Zheng, the city’s Communist Party chief, said at briefing during annual legislative ...

Doha / EMIRATES BUSINESS With a rapid increase in the number of people using primary healthcare services, a major expansion in the facilities is on the anvil in the Western region of the country that comprises a large geographical area. The new appointment system through the Wayyak telephone service has helped organise the functioning of health centres and improve performance. ...

Bloomberg Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has attacked China and warned about the dangers of deficient immigrant screening. “They’ve taken our jobs, they’ve taken our money, they’ve taken everything,” he said of China in a speech late last month. He has called for a revamping, even a freezing, of the immigration system, but says he would make an exception ...

ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS Boeing and the Paramount Group, the South African based global defence and aerospace business, have expanded their 2014 agreement to cooperate on an advanced mission system for a variant of the Advanced, High Performance, Reconnaissance, Light Aircraft (AHRLAC). A high-wing, two-seat aircraft, AHRLAC is designed to incorporate advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and weapons ...

BLOOMBERG United Continental Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz, who underwent a heart transplant after falling ill five months ago, will return to full-time duty next week. Munoz, 57, had been participating in all major corporate decisions during his recovery and has been meeting with employees and shareholders, the airline said in a statement. He joined in on a ...

Bloomberg American Airlines Group Inc.’s pilots union, an early backer of the carrier’s merger with US Airways, blasted the return of “toxic” labour relations, a substandard product and violations of their contract. American executives can no longer rely on the excuse that they need more time to bring everything into order since the two companies merged in December 2013, the ...

London / AFP British energy provider Npower, a subsidiary of German giant RWE, will announce this week that it is cutting nearly 2,500 jobs, according to the latest media reports. This means losing more than a fifth of the 11,500 jobs which Npower’s operations support in Britain, according to Sky News. The announcement is expected on Tuesday, when RWE releases ...

Bloomberg Airline miles junkies typically have one goal for their large mileage balances: Enjoying a first class service while jetting across an ocean for free. Only rookies burn miles on such things as rental cars, theater tickets, and magazine subscriptions. Delta Air Lines, the world’s second-largest carrier, wants to end that mindset and get people treating their miles as a ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE on Sunday signed six deals worth more than AED767 million with various international and local companies to help strengthen the country’s unmanned and aerospace defence sector. The announcement was made at a press conference by Brigadier General Rashid Mohammed Al Shamsi, Chairman of Higher Organising Committee of the second Unmanned System Exhibition (UMEX 2016) ...