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  Caracas / AFP Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro can pass his 2017 budget without the approval of the opposition-majority legislature, the Supreme Court ruled, triggering an outcry from the leftist leader’s opponents. Maduro and the National Assembly have been at each other’s throats since the center-right opposition took control of the legislature in January, ending the left’s 17-year monopoly on ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business As much as 94% of all companies in the UAE are SMEs. Together, they contribute 30% of the country’s GDP, and employ 72% of the country’s working population. The figures come from BLOOVO.COM’s latest research on the beneficial role SMEs play in catalysing economic diversification and employment regionwide. SMEs operate extensively throughout the rest of ...

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business Etihad Airways has received the Skytrax Certified 5-Star Airline Rating — the most coveted quality standard in the airline industry, further strengthening its position as a leader in innovative guest experience, service and hospitality. The rating follows an exhaustive three month audit of the airline’s global product and service offering by the London-based research ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Fears of an imminent disruption to traditional banking from the financial technology sector are overblown, with a collaborative approach being the most likely way forward, according to experts at the Global Islamic Economy Forum being held in Dubai. Speaking at a plenary session titled: The Tesla of finance is coming: are Islamic banks ready for ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkey said on Wednesday it fears the world will be plunged into a global conflict with superpowers Russia and the US on opposing sides if the proxy war in Syria continues. “If this proxy war continues, after this, let me be clear, America and Russia will come to a point of war,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), stressed that the United Arab Emirates, under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, continues to implement its developmental and humanitarian initiatives to alleviate the suffering of people in Yemen. ...

  Sofia / WAM Bolstering economic relations, and trade and investment between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bulgaria are the focus of talks between UAE Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in the Bulgarian capital. Trade between the UAE and Bulgaria stood at US$500 million in 2015, said Al Mansouri, who is ...

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. cut its third-quarter operating profit by $2.3 billion after ending production of its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, the first official indication of how much the crisis will cost South Korea’s largest company. Profit is projected to be 5.2 trillion won ($4.63 billion) instead of 7.8 trillion won in the three months ended September, the ...

  SINGAPORE / AP The wealthy city-state of Singapore — with its flourishing trade, orderly life and almost non-existent crime — is hardly a place one would associate with illegal trade. But a new report by a reputed organization reveals that in fact the country has a poor record of preventing just that. The new Economist Intelligence Unit released a ...

  Geneva / AFP The UN’s rights chief warned on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s statements pointed to a “dangerous” figure emerging on the world stage if he won the US presidency. At a press conference in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said he was “not keen or intent on interfering in any political campaign.” ...