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Quito / Reuters Latin America’s main oil exporters called on both OPEC and non-OPEC nations to take action to stabilize oil markets, in a timid statement that did not explicitly back an output freeze or offer more aggressive proposals to shore up slumping prices. Delegations from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela met in Quito in the run-up to a meeting ...

Kabul / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Kabul on Saturday on an unannounced visit to show support for the Afghan unity government and its attempts to revive peace talks with the Taliban. His visit comes as the extremist group is experiencing a resurgence following the withdrawal of US-led combat troops in 2014, announcing recently it was ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg In the energy world, India is becoming the new China. The world’s second-most populous nation is increasingly becoming the center for oil demand growth as its economy expands by luring the type of manufacturing that China is trying to shun. And just like China a decade ago, India is trying to hedge its future energy needs ...

CAIRO / AP The Saudi-led coalition behind a year-long military campaign against Yemen’s Shiite rebels is ready to commit to a cease-fire as long as the rebels abide by a UN Security Council resolution that calls for their pullout from Yemeni cities, the alliance’s spokesman said. Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al Asiri told The Associated Press that the Yemeni rebels known ...

Al-Qaryatain / AFP Bassam Dabbas did not think he would survive to see his hometown of Al-Qaryatain retaken when IS group extremists seized control and captured him and hundreds of other Christians. Now, around eight months later, he stands in the charred remains of the Mar Elian church where he once used to pray, and struggles to digest that he ...

New York / WAM “Despite low oil prices, the trend toward lower-cost renewable energy will continue in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as business confidence grows in the sector’s potential and countries adopt increasingly favourable regulations,” said Bader Al Lamki, Executive Director of Masdar Clean Energy. Al Lamki comments came during Masdar’s participation in the Bloomberg New ...

Malaysia / AFP A Malaysian parliamentary report released on Thursday said a state-owned fund linked to Prime Minister NajibRazak made more than $3 billion in unexplained overseas payments and called for the fund’s former CEO to be investigated. The report presented to parliament by its Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which has examined the affair, marked the first time an official ...

SHARJAH / WAM His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member, Ruler of Sharjah and President of Al Qasimia University (AQU), on Thursday opened the first International Conference for the AQU under the theme, ‘Our Identity in our historic and heritage memory.” The conference is jointly organised by the University of Sharjah in association with Sharjah ...

SINGAPORE / Reuters Barclays has agreed to sell its wealth and investment management business in Hong Kong and Singapore to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), as the British lender continues its drive to reduce risk and simplify. OCBC, Singapore’s second-biggest lender, said on Thursday it had agreed to pay $320 million for the units – its second-largest private banking deal since ...

Bloomberg Dutch voters rejected a treaty between the European Union and Ukraine by a resounding margin, in a referendum that exposed the extent of anti-EU sentiment in one of the bloc’s founding members. British campaigners to leave the bloc hailed the news from the Netherlands, as did the leader of France’s anti-EU National Front, Marine Le Pen, and Russian Prime ...