Onzain / AFP When they were born premature in 1912, doctors gave Paulette and Simone the slimmest chance of survival. But 104 years later, the French twins say there’s a simple secret to their longevity: sticking together. With their long white hair tied back in ponytails and gold spectacles perched on their noses, Paulette Olivier and Simone Thiot are happy ...

London / Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne must do more to back up the economic case for expanding Heathrow Airport, the chairman of Parliament’s Treasury Committee said. Lawmaker Andrew Tyrie wrote to Osborne for a second time after what he described as the chancellor’s “curious” explanation for stonewalling questions included in a January 25 letter. Osborne’s reply, ...

You cannot understand the vulnerable state of the US and global economies — and nervous stock markets — without coming to grips with the crash of “emerging-market” countries. Led by China, these are middle-income countries that, along with the poorest countries, account for 85 percent of the world’s population and 60 percent of the global economy, according to Christine Lagarde, ...

Uzbekistan tightly controls its currency, in the past year allowing it to depreciate very gradually. Officially, the Uzbek som has avoided the rapid and massive depreciation experienced by the Kazakh tenge, for example. But, unofficially, as Olim Abdullayev wrote for bne Intellinews this week, it’s a whole different story. On the Uzbek black market the som sits at 6,200 sum ...

Ever since the Eurasian recession began in earnest — or, predating that, when it was clear that Russia’s economic engine would stall under Vladimir Putin’s third term — there has nonetheless been a source of hope for Central Asia’s economies: China. On the backs of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) platform, Beijing has stepped in to provide Central Asian ...

Dubai / WAM Mohammad Abdulla Al Gergawi, Chairman of Dubai Holding, announced on Saturday the preliminary unaudited financial results of its business group, Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group (‘DHCOG’), for the year ended December 31, 2015. DHCOG continued to see good operational progress with all businesses performing well and contributing to Group profitability. Net profit increased to AED 5.83 billion, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Dr. Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi, Speaker of the Federal National Council (FNC), recently met Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank Group and his accompanying delegation, which included a number of regional directors in the Middle East. During their meeting, they discussed ways to strengthen mutual cooperation in various fields, especially in the parliamentary field. ...

Dubai / WAM Dubai Customs has firmly stood against infringements of intellectual property rights in order to protect society and the economy from the harm of counterfeit goods, and to support a competitive investment environment in Dubai by enabling producers to avoid losses arising from imitation of their brands. Consequently, the number of seizures of IPR-infringing items carried out by ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Microcredit Summit Campaign and the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development announced a strategic partnership for the 18th Microcredit Summit: Frontier Innovations in Financial Inclusion, to be held in Abu Dhabi next month. The 18th Microcredit Summit will gather global policy makers and microfinance experts to explore how microfinance and other innovative financial inclusion strategies can ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Department of Economic Development (DED), Abu Dhabi has expressed its commitment to eliminate all negative practices that affects the performance of the business environment in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and to maintain the advanced and safe environment, stressing the importance of combating street vendors in collaboration with all the local community. The statement came ...