Bloomberg New Zealand has overtaken Singapore as the best country in the world to do business, according to the World Bank. Singapore slipped to second in the bank’s 2017 “ Doing Business” report after topping the ranking for a decade. Finland dropped out of the top 10, falling to 13th. Macedonia, which placed 92nd a decade ago, improved two ...

  Bloomberg Nintendo Co.’s plan to get its business back on track with mobile games and a new console is coming up against a hard reality: the core business is getting weaker. Pokemon Go, which gave investors and customers an early indication of the company’s potential to carve out a significant share of the smartphone gaming market, delivered a 12 ...

  Arbil / AFP The United States said on Thursday that up to 900 IS group extremists have been killed in the offensive to retake Iraq’s Mosul, as camps around the city filled with fleeing civilians. Iraqis who fled their homes expressed joy at escaping IS’s brutal rule as they were given shelter and assistance, in some cases reuniting with relatives ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkish authorities ordered the detention of 73 air force pilots as part of the probe into the group blamed for July’s failed coup, state media reported on Thursday. At least 45 had already been detained after police operations began on Thursday across the country including the central Konya province and the capital Ankara, the official Anadolu news ...

  Ankara /AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that the military operation supporting Syrian opposition fighters in northern Syria will target the IS-held city of Raqa. Erdogan said the rebels were now advancing on the important city of Al Bab to clear IS group elements. After retaking the city, they will target Manbij, captured by Syrian Kurdish ...

  Afghanistan / AFP US drone strikes targeted two top Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, American officials said, calling it the most significant attack against the militant group in the country in several years. The strikes on Sunday in Kunar province targeted Farouq al-Qahtani, Al-Qaeda’s emir for northeastern Afghanistan, and his deputy Bilal al-Utabi. Multiple Hellfire missiles “levelled” two different compounds in ...

  Mogadishu / AFP A breakaway group of around 50 Somali militants who declared loyalty to the IS extremists abandoned a small port town on Thursday a day after occupying it, residents and an official said. “The militants left town early this morning but they are not far away,” said Abdiweli Adan, an elder in a town close to Qandala ...

  New Delhi / AFP India announced on Thursday it was expelling a Pakistani visa official for suspected spying after he was briefly detained carrying sensitive defence documents, with tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours already running high. New Delhi police said the official had been recruiting Indian nationals for two and a half years to spy for Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence ...

  Brussels / AFP The European Union begun training the Libyan coast guard as part of efforts to curb the growing influx of irregular migrants from North Africa, EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said on Thursday. “Today we are starting the training of the Libyan coast guard in Operation Sophia which is a very important step,” Mogherini said as she ...

  London / AFP The British pound rallied briefly on Thursday on brighter-than-expected economic growth data, while European stock markets sagged amid a dearth of eurozone news. Sterling bounced after official data showed that Britain’s economy grew by a better-than-expected 0.5 percent in the three months following the country’s refere- ndum in favour of exiting the European Union. The currency ...