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WASHINGTON / AP Cuba’s government said it plans to do away with a penalty on converting U.S. dollars, but warned the Obama administration not to expect more changes until the U.S. trade embargo is lifted. Three days before President Barack Obama visits the island, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez dismisses Obama’s lofty rhetoric about using his visit to speak directly ...

Bloomberg Colombia’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate for a seventh straight month as the inflation outlook continued to worsen and economic growth unexpectedly accelerated. In a split decision, the seven-member board voted to lift the key rate by a quarter point to 6.5 percent, bank Governor Jose Dario Uribe told reporters after the meeting in Bogota. Policy makers ...

Bloomberg Brazil is moving closer to unwinding a measure designed to shore up the nation’s currency as speculation President Dilma Rousseff will be impeached sparks a rally in the real. On Friday, the central bank said it will offer up to 20,000 foreign-exchange reverse swap contracts, which are equivalent to buying dollars in the futures market. The auction, which will ...

Bloomberg The dollar’s third straight weekly decline is triggering signals that U.S. currency weakness may be overdone. The greenback has gone from beating its major peers last year to losses against every one of those currencies this month. That’s pushed one measure of dollar momentum, the relative strength index, to its most extreme in almost four years as the Federal ...

AP A state body that invests in the Iron Range poured $17 million into a money-losing ski resort, gave financial assistance to businesses that may not have needed it and failed to require job creation in return for many of the loans it doled out, according to an audit of its activities released on Friday. The Office of the Legislative ...

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, discussed on Thursday with HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, bilateral relations and ways to enhance them in the best interests of the two fraternal countries and ...

WELLINGTON / WAM HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, met with Todd McClay, Minister of Trade of New Zealand, in the New Zealand capital, Wellington. During the meeting, they discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in key sectors between both countries, especially in the fields of agriculture and food security, and several other ...

Dubai / AFP Dubai’s DP World, one of the world’s largest port operators, said on Thursday that a major acquisition and “robust” growth helped its profit to surge 30.7 percent to $883 million in 2015. Revenues grew 16.3 percent to $3.97 billion, the company said in a statement. DP World’s ports handled 29.1 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), the standard ...

Dubai / WAM Amanat Holdings PJSC (“Amanat”), the region’s largest integrated healthcare and education company, on Thursday announced its net profit of AED50.6mn for the period since inception on the November 17, 2014 to December 31, 2015. Amanat reported total income of AED89.6mn, comprised mainly of AED57.3mn of gain and dividends from Al Noor Hospitals Group and an AED 32.3mn ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Department of Economic Development(DED), Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), has said that the levels of all pollutants from industrial establishments in Abu Dhabi were lower than federally accepted limits for 2015. The IDB expressed its intention to set a register for technical inspection and testing companies in coordination with the Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council ...