Brussels / AFP European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday he opposed his predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso’s decision to work for Goldman Sachs because of the firm’s role in the global financial crisis. Barroso’s appointment in July as a non-executive chairman and advisor at the US investment bank has caused a furore in the European Union, with French …

  Bloomberg For all the conveniences that cities have to offer — from shorter commutes to neighborhood farmers markets — many are failing to meet the challenges of sustainable development. North America’s largest cities fare poorly, with not a single one in the Top 20 of the second annual Sustainable Cities Index published by Arcadis, an Amsterdam-based global engineering and …

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia will in November become the first country in the world to export wood products to the European Union meeting new environmental standards in a move aimed at bolstering transparency and curbing illicit logging. Officials from the European Union and Indonesian unveiled measures on Thursday to ensure timber exports to the trade bloc, valued at roughly …

    Kuala Lumpur / AFP A piece of aircraft wreckage found in June off Tanzania has been confirmed as coming from the doomed airliner MH370, Malaysia said on Thursday. The debris, found on Pemba Island off the Tanzanian coast, is the latest piece of wreckage to be linked to the Malaysia Airlines jet, whose disappearance remains a mystery. Malaysia’s …

  Washington / AFP Less than two weeks before their first debate, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in a very tight race for the White House, a national poll showed. The CBS News/New York Times survey found Clinton had just a two-point edge (46 to 44 percent) over her Republican rival in a two-way matchup among likely voters. Among …

  Sharjah / Emirates Business More than 300 new hotels housing almost 85,000 guest rooms are set to open across the Middle East and Africa next year, latest industry figures have revealed. The Middle East and Africa Hotel Construction Overview report by TOPHOTELPROJECTS – released in the days leading up to the 17th annual The Hotel Show Dubai (17-19 September …

  DUBAI / Emirates Business For the seventh year in a row, National Bonds Corporation (National Bonds), the leading sharia-compliant savings and investment company in the UAE, is distributing ‘Eidiyah’ to more than 500 lucky minor bondholders. Eidiyah is an annual initiative that rewards minor bondholders via special electronic draws for AED50 and a grand draw for AED50,000 – held …

  Emirates Business Underscoring Majid Al Futtaim’s leadership in the retail sector, the Luxury Wing has undergone a complete revamp as part of the mall’s Evolution 2015 AED1 billion multi-stage redevelopment journey, contemporising the avenue to offer a premium location for international luxury brands. Most recently, Mall of the Emirates has welcomed MCM, Boucheron, Brunello Cucinelli, Etro, Marc Jacobs, Roger …

  Bloomberg More than 6,000 workers cycle through the world’s biggest nuclear plant every day to operate and maintain a facility that hasn’t sold a kilowatt of electricity in more than four years. The buzz at Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant plays out daily across Japan, where utilities employ thousands of workers and spend billions of dollars …

  Bloomberg Have you been mixing up your Chinese debt with your Chinese leverage? If so, economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. want you to stop that right now. In a note published this week, they argue that the conventional wisdom that “debt” and “leverage” are basically the same doesn’t really work for the world’s second-largest economy. In fact, the two …