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Bloomberg From architects and airlines to insurers and accountants, Britain’s services powerhouse has much at stake in Prime Minister David Cameron’s “Brexit” gamble. A vote to leave the European Union in the June 23 referendum could hamper efforts to make it easier and cheaper to do business in the bloc, potentially costing service providers billions of pounds, analysts and trade ...

SHANGHAI / Reuters China’s Ministry of Finance unveiled details of its 2016 budget plans on Wednesday, with spending jacked up sharply on many items, including an 11-fold increase for “repairs” to 94 billion yuan ($14.54 billion). Other big increases have been made for health care and family planning, which will get a 47.2 percent boost to 12.43 billion yuan. Spending ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s effort to clean up the world’s worst air is facing resistance from power producers who say the government is asking them to spend too much and revamp old plants too quickly. The nation’s first steps to limit toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants may cost 2.5 trillion rupees ($37 billion) and will take longer than ...

Bloomberg For Canada’s Finance Minister Bill Morneau, tasked with selling his government’s new fondness for deficits, words matter. It’s not spending, it’s investment. Long-term beats short-term. Never use the word deficit, ever. Most important, growth is everything. Since releasing his March 22 budget, Morneau has been on the road building the intellectual case for why he needs to run almost ...

Tripoli / AFP Gunmen stormed the headquarters of a Libyan television station late Wednesday, as the authorities in control of Tripoli demanded the departure of the newly-arrived prime minister designate in a blow to hopes for a peaceful power handover. Armed men burst into the headquarters of satellite TV station Al Nabaa in central Tripoli, cut its transmissions and forced ...

Ankara / AFP Turkey’s military on Thursday angrily denied suggestions it could be planning a coup against the increasingly controversial President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Certain media outlets have carried reports speculating over the possibility of a military coup in Turkey, with Erdogan out of the country for almost a week on a visit to the United States. The Turkish military ...

DUBAI / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, on Wednesday inaugurated the new headquarters of the General Department of Forensic Science and Criminology of the Dubai Police. Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of ...

DUBAI / WAM HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, has approved Executive Council Resolution No (8) of 2016 pertaining to the collection of fees from passengers using facilities in Dubai Airports. As per the resolution, every passenger leaving the UAE from any of Dubai’s airports, including transit ...

Dubai / WAM Eager to snap up the unbeatable deals on the latest must-have gadgets, thousands of technophiles flocked to GITEX Shopper Spring, the region’s leading and highly anticipated consumer electronics event, on its opening day. Inaugurated by Sami Al Qamzi, Director General, Department of Economic Development in Dubai, in the presence of Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General, Dubai ...

Geneva / AFP UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called for greater global efforts to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis, as he opened a conference on securing resettlement places for nearly half a million of those displaced by the five-year conflict. “We are here to address the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time,” Ban told the conference in ...