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Bloomberg The strain is starting to tell on Angela Merkel. Left to climb the solitary path she’s chosen during Europe’s refugee crisis, the German chancellor mocked fellow European leaders this week for refusing to come to her aid by stalling a resettlement plan. At a private meal last month with German newspaper executives critical of her stance, she proudly served ...

Bloomberg Turkey’s leaders vowed to retaliate for a bombing of a military bus that killed at least 28 people, raising the risk that the country will step up its intervention in the war in Syria to strike groups suspected in the attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in the capital, Ankara, which killed both civilians ...

Washington / Bloomberg President Barack Obama will pay a historic visit to Cuba in the coming weeks, senior Obama administration officials said, becoming the first president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades. The brief visit in mid-March will mark a watershed moment for relations between the US and Cuba, a communist nation estranged from the US ...

Beirut / AFP More than 60 health facilities in Syria supported by the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity were hit in attacks last year, with a dozen completely destroyed, the group said on Thursday. In a new report, MSF warned Syria’s health infrastructure “has been decimated”, with frequent aerial assaults and shelling of hospitals and clinics, in violation of international ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg Lockheed Martin Corp. has offered to build its flagship F-16 fighter jet in India, as the South Asian nation scrambles to modernize its aging defense fleet while trying to establish the country as a manufacturing base. Lockheed Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Marillyn Hewson, made the offer to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September, ...

Shanghai / AFP Apple on Thursday launched its mobile payment service Apple Pay in China, pitting the US technology giant against strong domestic rivals in a large but already crowded market. Success in the world’s second-largest economy is crucial for the California-based firm. Apple Pay is available in only a few other countries including the United States, Britain, Canada and ...

CARACAS / Bloomberg Venezuela boosted gasoline prices for the first time in almost two decades and devalued its currency as President Nicolas Maduro attempts to address triple-digit inflation and the economy’s deepest recession in over a decade. The primary exchange rate used for essential imports, such as food and medicine, will weaken to 10 bolivars per dollar from 6.3, Maduro ...

RAS AL KHAIMAH / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, offered his condolences to the family of the martyr Abdullah Juma Hassan Al Shamsi, who died in the line of duty while taking part in Arab coalition’s ‘Operation Restoring Hope’, to support the ...

Bloomberg Ukraine headed for a standoff between its two most powerful politicians after Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk defied President Petro Poroshenko’s call for his resignation and defeated a no-confidence motion in parliament. The result threatens to conserve political gridlock that’s jeopardizing the economy and billions of dollars of foreign aid. The motion to remove Yatsenyuk can’t be repeated during the ...

Bloomberg There’s only one major group of combatants in the Syrian war that’s backed by both Russia and the US—and now Turkey is attacking it. For a fourth day on Tuesday, Turkey unleashed its 155- millimeter heavy guns across the border with Syria. The targets were Kurdish forces, whose recent advance is a key part of the Russian plan to ...