Ankara / AFP German diplomatic missions and a school in Turkey were closed on Thursday for security reasons, the German consulate in Istanbul said, less than a week after a suicide car bomb attack in the capital. The measure concerns the German embassy in Ankara as well as the consulate and German school in Istanbul, it said on its website. ...

LONDON / AP A handful of UK lawmakers have warned US President Barack Obama not to intervene in the debate about whether Britain should remain in the European Union. In an open letter on Thursday, five lawmakers and Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UKIP party, argue that interfering in the debate would mark an “unfortunate milestone” in Obama’s presidency. ...

Washington / AFP US President Barack Obama signed an order implementing UN-backed sanctions on North Korea after a nuclear test and missile launch this year, as Pyongyang promised reprisals. The White House said Obama had signed an executive order targeting the volatile hermit state’s energy, financial and shipping assets. The measures were agreed to at the United Nations in response ...

Ankara / AFP A radical Kurdish group with ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party on Thursday claimed responsibility for the suicide car bomb attack that killed 35 people in Ankara last weekend. The claim by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) came as Germany closed diplomatic missions and a school in Turkey Thursday over security concerns. In a statement on ...

Maputo / AFP Mozambique’s arterial north-south highway has earned the moniker of a “ghost road” with former rebels staging regular raids ahead of a threatened power grab in the country’s centre this month. “We registered eight attacks by Renamo gunmen last week, which caused a total of three deaths—including a three-year-old—and 23 injured,” police spokesman Inacio Dina told a news ...

BLOOMBERG The dollar sank to a five-month low, commodities gained with emerging markets, and government bonds advanced as central banks from the U.S. to Norway indicated a willingness to keep monetary policy accommodative. Developed-market stocks sank on concern that the stimulus is failing to boost growth and corporate earnings. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell a second day after the ...

ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has increased by 2.02% to close at 4533.55 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has gained AED 14.58 billion attaining AED 735.4 billion. A total of 0.9 Billion Shares were traded with a total value of AED 1.87 billion during the trading session of 17-03-2016 through 11470 transactions. The number of companies which ...

Washington / AFP The Federal Reserve has cut its outlook for the US economy and kept its interest rate policy unchanged, citing the impact of the global slowdown and turmoil in world markets. Giving a picture of the US economy less bullish than many had expected, the Fed still forecast continuing hikes to the federal funds rate this year, but ...

MANILA / Bloomberg The Philippine bank manager who approved fund transfers at the center of an $81 million cyber heist will tell lawmakers in a closed hearing on Thursday that she was following orders from high-level officials at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., her lawyer said. Maia Santos Deguito has e-mails, mobile-phone messages and other evidence showing that she was acting ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co., the most valuable US bank, left Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf’s compensation for 2015 unchanged at $19.3 million. Stumpf, 62, received $2.8 million in salary, a $4 million bonus and $12.5 million in long-term equity incentive awards, the San Francisco-based bank said Wednesday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s the ...