Karachi / AFP Pakistan’s national flag carrier said it has raised $130 million in fresh financing from a banking consortium, as the airline staggers under the weight of earlier loans totalling more than $3 billion. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said in a statement the financing facility was arranged by Pakistan’s United Bank Limited (UBL) and Credit Suisse Singapore as ...

  Bloomberg Weak global growth and uncertainty over interest rates are among rising ‘headwinds’ that threaten to drag on Singaporean banking profits, according to the city’s central bank. The potential for spillover from vulnerabilities in China’s financial system into Asia and anti-globalization sentiment are also among challenges highlighted in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s annual assessment of the financial sector ...

  Bloomberg DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Bank of Singapore, Asia’s largest home-grown private banks, will consider more acquisitions as they grapple for a bigger slice of business from the region’s growing number of millionaires. DBS would look at any deal that fits with its strategy and is at the “right” price, the bank’s consumer and wealth head Tan Su ...

  Bloomberg The yuan climbed to its strongest level in a week, as Chinese authorities work to halt the currency’s recent plunge with stronger fixings and a verbal defense. The currency rose as much as 0.26 percent to 6.8900 per dollar, the strongest level since Nov. 22, before trimming the gains to trade 0.24 percent stronger as of 5:31 p.m. ...

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is cutting about 10 percent of the staff in its corporate and institutional division as part of a plan announced last year to eliminate 15,000 jobs and improve profitability at the Asia-focused bank, according to a person familiar with the plans. Staff will be notified of the cuts starting this week, and jobs will be ...

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA is scrapping plans to separate its consumer lending operations from large corporate and institutional banking in the UK in the wake of the country’s vote to leave the European Union, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The Spanish lender is discussing fresh proposals with the Bank of England to meet the regulator’s ...

  Geneva / AFP Up to 16,000 civilians have fled strife-torn parts of eastern Aleppo as the rebels lost all of the northern neighbourhoods of their stronghold, the UN said on Tuesday, describing the situation as “chilling”. “The intensity of attacks on eastern Aleppo neighbourhoods over the past few days has forced thousands of civilians to flee to other parts of ...

  Aden / AFP Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi accused Shiite rebels and their allies on Tuesday of dashing hopes for peace after they unveiled a new government in areas under their control. Hadi said that Monday’s formation by the Iran-backed rebels of a government of national salvation showed their determination to “spread chaos and destruction” and “destroys any chance ...

Madrid / AFP Amnesty International on Tuesday denounced conditions for migrants arriving in Spain’s overseas territories of Melilla and Ceuta, where they said asylum rights were not always respected. After interviewing some 50 people in both north African enclaves that neighbour Morocco, the group said migrants who arrived there had at times experienced police abuse. Ceuta and Melilla are favoured ...

  Ramallah / AFP Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah re-elected him party head on Tuesday as the movement opened its first congress since 2009 with talk mounting of who will eventually succeed the 81-year-old. Abbas was re-elected by consensus, party spokesman Mahmud Abu al-Hija said, and was due to address the congress at 6:00 pm . Some 1,400 delegates were attending. ...