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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...