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Mauritian bank begins east Africa expansion with Kenya buy

  Bloomberg SBM Holdings Ltd., Mauritius’s second-biggest lender, said it’s acquiring Fidelity Commercial Bank Ltd. of Kenya to kick off an expansion in East Africa that will target four more countries. The bank is buying FCB’s entire share capital for 100 shillings and injecting 1.46 billion shillings ($14.3 million) of new capital, Port Louis-based SBM said in a statement on ...

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Brussels outranks Frankfurt in pay league for central bankers

  Bloomberg Mario Draghi may be first among equals in the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, but he certainly isn’t the best paid. The central bank governors of Belgium, Italy and Germany make more than the ECB president’s annual 386,000 euros ($409,400), data compiled by Bloomberg show. Belgium’s Jan Smets took the crown with about 480,000 euros, almost six times ...

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Where boxing is a way of life!

  Accra, Ghana / AFP Parkins Takyi-Aidoo bobs and weaves around a ragged punch bag, dancing on concrete in a rehearsal for the knockout blow that one day could secure him fame and glory. The Ghanaian is just 13 years old but by training in the Bukom neighbourhood of Accra — a hotbed for fighters — he probably has a ...

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Ancient Indonesian martial arts seeks global spotlight

  Jakarta / AFP Some fight with machetes three-feet long, others are armed with daggers curved like the claws of big cats, while other combatants rely on only their minds. This is the world of “pencak silat”, or Indonesia’s martial arts, which are now battling for greater global recognition — having secured a place in the Asian Games, the government ...

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Saudi shares rebound, outperform rest of Gulf

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabian stocks rebounded on Tuesday as oil prices hit a one-month high, outperforming other stock markets in the Gulf where traders booked profits. Egypt’s main index pulled back but foreign buyers continued to hunt for bargain buys, lifting the broader index. Saudi Arabia’s general market index rose 1.6 percent to 6,602 points, heading back towards ...

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Global equities surf commodities wave

  London / AFP Stocks across the globe forged higher on Tuesday, with Wall Street setting new records as rising metals and oil prices bolstered sentiment in the mining and energy sectors, dealers said. At the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow jumped above 19,000 for the first time, extending its post-election rally. London stocks gained 0.9 percent on ...

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Facebook experimental drone accident under scanner

  Bloomberg A U.S. safety agency is investigating an accident involving a massive experimental drone Facebook Inc. is developing to bring the internet to remote areas of the world. No one was hurt in the incident, which came during the unmanned aircraft’s first test flight on June 28. It marks the latest hiccup in Facebook’s plans to wirelessly connect the ...

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Google’s online travel adventure upsets its biggest advertisers

  NEW YORK / Bloomberg At the largest online travel conference last week, industry executive Steve Hafner was asked an unusual question: What’s the first word that comes to mind when you think about Google? “Annoying,” said Hafner, chief executive officer of Priceline Group Inc.’s Kayak business. Hafner captured the mood well. Despite more than $15 billion in annual revenue ...

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Facebook in crosshairs as fake news battle heats up

  Washington / AFP Hillary Clinton was about to be indicted, Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump: the battle over fake news is heating up after a White House campaign in which the misinformation industry may have swung the outcome of the vote. Last week, Google and Facebook moved to cut off ad revenue to bogus news sites. But media watchers ...

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Percentage of UAE women in nuclear industry highest in world

  ABU DHABI / WAM Emirati women make up for 20 percent of the workforce in the UAE’s nuclear energy industry, the highest rate globally in the nuclear energy sector, a senior official at the Nawah Energy Company, a subsidiary of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), said on Monday. “This strong presence of women in the nuclear sector reflects ...

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