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Obama joins Scalia mourners at Supreme Court

Washington / Bloomberg President Barack Obama and thousands of other mourners paid respects to the late Justice Antonin Scalia as his flag-draped casket lay in the US Supreme Court’s ceremonial hallway. Pallbearers carried Scalia’s casket up the court’s marble staircase into the building as his somber, and in some cases tearful, former colleagues waited along with family members, former law ...

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North conducted artillery drill near sea border: South Korea

Seoul / AP Sounds of explosions caused South Korean residents of a front-line island to prepare to evacuate early Saturday, but it was later determined the noise came from a North Korean artillery drill across the rivals’ disputed maritime border, officials said. The false alarm was indicative of the high anxiety between the Koreas in the wake of the North’s ...

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US embassy raises alarm at fighting in northern Myanmar

Yangon / AFP The US embassy in Yangon said it was “deeply concerned” over clashes involving ethnic armed groups and the military in northern Myanmar that have displaced thousands of people, warning that the violence threatened to unravel the country’s delicate peace process. Heavy bouts of fighting broke out last week in Shan state between two ethnic rebel groups in ...

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Russia fails in UN bid to rein in Turkey over Syria

United States / AFP Western powers rejected a Russian bid at the United Nations to halt Turkey’s military actions in Syria, as France warned of a dangerous escalation in the nearly five-year conflict. The emergency Security Council meeting came as US Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned there was “a lot more work to do” for a ceasefire to take ...

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Monitors to spur launch of S Sudan govt

United Nations / AP The head of an international group monitoring South Sudan’s peace process said he will propose security arrangements to spur the return of rebel leader Riek Machar as vice president, a critical step to launching a national unity government that must urgently tackle escalating violence and the country’s “humanitarian catastrophe.” Festus Mogae told the UN Security Council ...

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Police guns and cameras at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate

Jerusalem / AFP The sniper barrel juts out of the ancient wall above Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, pointing down towards a young Palestinian being searched by Israeli policemen. A key tourist site and one of the entrances to the Old City, the massive white stone gate has become a backdrop for the violence between Israel and Palestinians that erupted almost five ...

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Jet Airways adds frequency of flights on India-Dubai routes

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business Considering the ever-increasing rush of travellers between India’s commercial capital Mumbai and Dubai, Jet Airways — which works in alliance with UAE’s national carrier Etihad Airways — has announced increased frequency of flights between the two cities from March 1. A new flight from Indian capital Delhi is also in the offing, making Mumbai-Dubai and ...

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Singapore Airshow announces $12bn of deals from trade days

SINGAPORE / AP Organisers of the Singapore Airshow said $12.3 billion in airplane deals were signed at the event this week, a sharp drop from the last show in 2014. Leck Chet Lam, managing director of Experia Events, said that this year’s figure was comprised of 10 deals, with another 40 made at undisclosed values. There were 24 undisclosed deals ...

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The one shock Russia dodged is finally set to catch up with Putin in 2016

MOSCOW / Bloomberg After deflecting pressure in 2015 with salary reductions, part-time work and unpaid vacations, companies are increasingly opting to cut jobs as the economy enters its second year of contraction. As Russia’s biggest companies from carmaker AvtoVAZ to nuclear plant operator Rosenergoatom plan job cuts, Labor Minister Maxim Topilin predicts unemployment reaching the highest since 2013 by mid-year. ...

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MoE urges stronger joint pan-Arab action

Cairo / WAM Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy of the UAE, has called for stronger joint pan-Arab economic action to counter current challenges, eliminate obstacles to intra-Arab trade and investment and speed up innovation and creativity to achieve economic diversification, development and prosperity. The UAE takes great interest in the issues of joint Arab action as a ...

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