News

Washington / AP U.S. officials say the Pentagon’s long-awaited plan to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the United States calls for up to $475 million in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings. The plan, ...

Washington / AP President Barack Obama sent lawmakers an official $1.9 billion request to combat the spread of the Zika virus in Latin America and the U.S. He is also requesting flexibility to use a limited portion of leftover funds provided in 2014 to fight Ebola to take on Zika, which has been linked to severe birth defects. Top House ...

New York / AP Starbucks is changing the terms of its rewards program so that people who spend around $5 or less per visit won’t get as many freebies. The Seattle-based coffee chain says its loyalty program will award stars based on the dollars spent starting in April. Currently, people earn a star for each transaction, regardless of how much ...

Bloomberg The sea stretched toward the horizon last New Year’s Eve as the Theo T, a red-and-white tug at her side, slipped quietly beneath the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge in Texas. Few Americans knew she was sailing into history. Inside the Panamax oil tanker was a cargo that some on Capitol Hill had dubbed “Liquid American Freedom” — the first ...

ANKARA / EMIRATES BUSINESS Kuwaiti investors will have a unique opportunity to discover Turkey’s diverse real estate landscape and meet with leading local and international developers and market experts at next month’s inaugural Cityscape Turkey exhibition, which will be held from 24-26 March, 2016 at the Istanbul Congress Center. The latest addition to the Cityscape portfolio of global events, the ...

Bloomberg Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust, Canada’s biggest office REIT, jumped the most in more than seven years after it said it would sell about C$1.2 billion ($870 million) of property and reduce its payout to weather the energy downturn. Dream Office rallied as much as 14 percent to C$18.60 in Toronto, the most since December 2008. The REIT ...

ANKARA / EMIRATES BUSINESS Qatari investors will have a unique opportunity to discover Turkey’s diverse real estate landscape and meet with leading local and international developers and market experts at next month’s inaugural Cityscape Turkey exhibition, which will be held from 24-26 March, 2016 at the Istanbul Congress Center. The latest addition to the Cityscape portfolio of global events, the ...

Washington / AP U.S. home prices increased at a steady clip in December, helped by a healthy job market and low mortgage rates. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier, same as the annual increase in November. Prices rose 11.4 percent in Portland, Oregon; 10.3 percent in San Francisco and 10.2 percent ...

Atalanta / AP Home Depot reported better-than-expected profit and revenue in the fourth quarter and comparable-store sales jumped as the company continues to ride a sustained recovery in the housing market. The nation’s largest home improvement retailer also boosted its quarterly dividend by 17 percent. Solid job gains and low mortgage rates have fueled a rebound in home sales. Builders ...

DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), has recorded a net profit of AED516 million for fiscal year ended December 2015, representing an impressive 27% increase over 2014. Total revenues for the year reached AED 1.66 billion, a 12% increase YoY. “Empower achieved an annual increase of 6.7% in its cooling capacity, to pass it over 1,115,000 Refrigeration ...