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  Bloomberg For UK consumers, the good times might not keep rolling. Quickening inflation looks set to erode almost two years of real-wage growth, undermining the key driver of the economy. Data due Friday will probably show consumption helped growth accelerate to 0.6 percent in the second quarter, before the referendum on European Union membership. Still, there are challenges ahead ...

  Brasília / AFP The impeachment trial of Brazil’s first woman president, Dilma Rousseff, got underway on Thursday with high expectations that the suspended leader of Latin America’s biggest economy will be sacked within days. The Senate trial was opened by Supreme Court president Ricardo Lewandowski half an hour late in the blue-carpeted chamber at 9:30 am (1230 GMT). The ...

  Kabul / AFP At least 16 people were killed after militants stormed the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, officials said on Thursday, in a nearly 10-hour raid that prompted anguished pleas for help from trapped students. Explosions and gunfire rocked the campus after the attack began Wednesday evening, just weeks after two university professors—an American and an Australian—were kidnapped ...

  JEDDAH / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry was holding talks with his Gulf counterparts and a British minister in Saudi Arabia on Thursday on the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Libya. The coordination with Washington’s major Middle East allies came on the eve of Syria talks in Geneva between Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. After a ...

  AP The world’s first self-driving taxis began picking up passengers in Singapore starting Thursday. Select members of the public can hail a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. While multiple companies, including Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years, nuTonomy says is the ...

  Bloomberg Steel production in China, the world’s biggest supplier, will probably contract this year and shrink further in 2017 as local demand slows, hurting the outlook for iron ore, according to Li Xinchuang, a vice chairman at the China Iron & Steel Association. “There will be significant declines in the next three months,” said Li, who’s also dean of ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to enhance regulatory cooperation and facilitate cross-border activities. The MoU establishes a framework for both authorities to provide assistance, exchange regulatory information and co-operate in supervising and ...

  Accumoli / AFP A powerful pre-dawn earthquake devastated mountain villages in central Italy on Wednesday, leaving at least 73 people dead, dozens more injured or trapped under the rubble and thousands temporarily homeless. Scores of buildings were reduced to dusty piles of masonry in communities close to the epicentre of the pre-dawn quake, which had a magnitude of between ...

  Karkamis / AFP Turkish tanks and hundreds of opposition fighters thrust deep inside Syrian territory on Wednesday in a lightning operation that within hours ousted IS extremists from a key Syrian border town. The air and ground offensive—the most ambitious launched by Ankara in the Syria conflict—made rapid progress towards Jarabulus with rebel fighters already proclaiming victory by the late ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Sanad Aero Solutions GmbH (Sanad), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, on Wednesday announced an expansion to its existing relationship with Etihad Airways, national carrier of the UAE. The 12-year sale and lease-back agreement is valued at US$265 million and sees Sanad add an additional 12 spare engines in support of the airline. Sanad, which ...