Sharjah / Emirates Business The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) organised a Tourist Guide Licence Renewal Course. The course is part of the Authority’s efforts to provide training for those who work in the emirate’s tourism sector in an effort to develop their competencies and improve the quality of service in the industry. This, in turn, resonates ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai Festival City (DFC), an Al Futtaim group development, has announced a first-of-its-kind attraction set to open in a matter of weeks. The innovative and spectacular multimedia show located within the unforgettable stage of Festival Bay, will bring together elements such as light, water and fire to dramatic effect. With the final stages of development ...

  Bloomberg Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson exposed fresh divisions in the UK government by declining to endorse a new proposal that Britain should consider paying the European Union for continued access to its markets after Brexit. In a series of television interviews on Sunday, Johnson steered clear of echoing Brexit Secretary David Davis and Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, ...

  Bloomberg One of the Nordic region’s biggest asset managers is adjusting its portfolio to reflect a lack of confidence in Europe and a growing faith in the prospects of a US boom. Ilmarinen, a Finnish pension fund that oversees about 36 billion euros ($38 billion) in assets, plans to adjust its investments so it’s no longer underweight the US, ...

  Bloomberg US regulators are calling out AT&T and Verizon for exempting their own video apps from data caps on customers’ cellphones. This may not result in any changes in how the wireless carriers operate, however, as agency leaders appointed by Donald Trump, the incoming president, are expected to look more favorably on such practices. The Federal Communications Commission sent ...

Bloomberg Quebec’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest on record last month while Alberta’s surged to a two-decade high, underlining the swing in Canada’s economic momentum through the recovery from an energy crash. Joblessness in the mostly French-speaking province fell to 6.2 percent in November from 6.8 percent in October, and in Alberta it climbed to 9 percent. The national ...

  DETROIT / AP Toyota plans to reveal a new version of America’s top-selling sedan next month at a time when US buyers are moving away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. The Japanese automaker said that it would show off the 2018 Camry at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in January. It is likely to arrive in showrooms ...

  Aleppo / AFP Fierce fighting shook east Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government forces pressed an assault that has seen them retake control of more than half of the former rebel stronghold. President Bashar al-Assad’s army is nearly three weeks into an operation to recapture all of Syria’s second city, divided between regime and rebel forces since 2012. Tens of ...

  Beirut / AFP Air strikes on a village in the Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 21 civilians on Sunday, among them three children, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which earlier reported an initial toll of 14, said dozens more had been injured in the strikes on the village of Kafr Nabal. It ...

  London / AP The Syrian regime’s advances in war-torn east Aleppo do not represent a “victory for Assad” or his Russian ally Vladimir Putin, British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday. “I really think that it’s a mistake to think whatever happens in Aleppo and other areas of rebel-held Syria could amount to a victory for Assad or for ...