Beirut/ AFP Syrian regime forces and rebel factions sent hundreds of reinforcements to Aleppo on Monday as opposition fighters announced an all-out offensive to take the country’s second city. The battle for Syria’s former economic powerhouse is intensifying after an opposition advance at the weekend broke through a three-week government siege of the city’s rebel-held east, dealing a major …

  Tehran / AFP Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rumoured to be planning a political comeback, has asked Barack Obama to return $2 billion of assets frozen in the US in a letter made public on Monday. Ahmadinejad wrote that despite early promises by the US president to improve ties with Iran “the same hostile policies along with the same …

  Washington / AFP Democrat Hillary Clinton has widened her lead over White House rival Donald Trump to eight points after both parties’ nominating conventions, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll out Sunday. Clinton led Trump 50 to 42 percent among registered voters, according to the telephone survey carried out August 1-4. She got a strong bounce in the …

  Kathmandu / AFP A helicopter crashed into a hillside in Nepal on Monday, killing all seven people on board including a baby, an airline official said. The Fishtail Air helicopter carrying six locals to Kathmandu lost contact with air traffic control about 30 minutes after taking off from the western district of Gorkha. Rescuers have reached the crash site …

  Montreal / AFP Anti-globalization activists will gather in Montreal on Tuesday for the first World Social Forum (WSF) to be held in the northern hemisphere, hoping the location will provide fresh impetus for the movement. A march through downtown Montreal is to kick off the event, which was first held in Brazil in 2001 seeking to promote alternatives to …

  Bloomberg DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s second-quarter profit declined 6 percent as provisions for troubled energy-services firm Swiber Holdings Ltd. overshadowed gains in interest and fee income. Net income fell to S$1.05 billion ($780 million) from S$1.12 billion a year earlier, Singapore’s largest bank said in an exchange filing Monday. That compared with the S$1.07 billion average of five analysts …

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s Spanish asset-management unit is buying a shopping mall in Barcelona for 493 million euros ($547 million) from Northwood Investors LLC. The Diagonal Mar mall has shops operated by companies including Primark Stores Ltd. and Hennes & Mauritz AB and comprises 90,000 square meters (969,000 square feet) of leasable space, Deutsche Asset Management said in a …

  Bloomberg The French economy is set to return to growth this quarter, the nation’s central bank said, as President Francois Hollande aims to cement a turnaround ahead of next year’s general election. Gross domestic product will rise 0.3 percent in the three months through September, the Bank of France (BoF) said on Monday. That’s more optimistic than economists in …

  Bloomberg Uganda’s central bank reduced its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points for a third consecutive time, to 14 percent, citing an unfavorable growth outlook due to global economic uncertainty. While warning that drought may hurt food prices, a major component on the inflation index, the monetary policy committee expects both headline and core inflation to slow toward …

  Bloomberg The outlook for most commodities remains shaky even after investors poured more than $50 billion into raw materials this year, and it may take fiscal stimulus to get things going, not more central bank easing, according to Barclays Plc, which reached for the history books to make a case. Additional monetary easing by the central banks is unlikely …