JERUSALEM / AP Israel on Tuesday refuted a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “surprised” the Obama administration by cancelling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming. Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group’s annual summit, but his ...

CANBERRA/ AP The US Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a buildup of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations’ militaries in discussions to avoid any miscalculations, a top US general said on Tuesday. Gen. Lori Robinson, the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, also urged ...

Tehran / AFP Iran conducted multiple ballistic missile tests on Tuesday in an exercise to demonstrate “deterrent power,” a move that comes in defiance of US sanctions imposed over its missile programme in January. The announcement by the official IRNA said the tests showed the country’s “all-out readiness to confront threats” against its territorial integrity. State television a short time ...

Kuala Lumpur / AFP Investigators probing what happened to flight MH370 said Tuesday the cause of the plane’s disappearance remained a mystery as the second anniversary passed with devastated next-of-kin still grasping for answers. The Malaysia-led international team of aviation experts set up to investigate issued an annual progress report but the brief statement had no new insights on what ...

BLOOMBERG Global stocks dropped as a slump in Chinese exports dragged metals lower and brought equities’ five-day winning streak to a halt. Japanese government bonds surged in a haven-asset rally that also lifted the yen, gold and Treasuries. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index extended its decline from a five-week high as investors sold equities that had led the recent rebound, ...

ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has increased by 0.24% to close at 4574.07 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has gained AED 1.75 billion attaining AED 741.97billion. A total of 0.94 Billion Shares were traded with a total value of AED 1.15 billion during the trading session of 08-03-2016 through 11363 transactions. The number of companies which has ...

BEIJING / Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc winning approval to start a credit-card business in China’s $1 trillion market offers Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver added flexibility in his push into the nation’s retail banking and wealth-management industries. The approval from Chinese authorities came as HSBC ended a card venture with Bank of Communications Co., the bank’s Asia-Pacific head Peter Wong ...

CAPE TOWN / Bloomberg FirstRand Ltd., Africa’s biggest bank by value, said first-half profit was little changed after South Africa’s economy slowed and non-performing loans increased. Net income rose to 10.48 billion rand ($683 million) in the six months ended December 31 from 10.3 billion rand a year earlier, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. Earnings per share ...

Canberra / Bloomberg Australian central bank Deputy Governor Philip Lowe said that low wage growth and contained inflation provide scope to cut rates further and said, like most of his global peers, he’d prefer a weaker currency. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s official said the economy had proved pretty resilient to the winding back of a massive mining investment boom and ...

BLOOMBERG Arnaud Droitcourt, Bank of America Corp.’s head of Asia-Pacific equity trading, left the company as it cuts jobs to trim expenses, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Droitcourt, a Hong Kong-based managing director who oversaw both cash equity and equity derivatives trading of the bank, left Tuesday, said the person, who asked not to be identified ...