May, 2016

• 7 May

  Hollande prepares for re-election bid

  

    PARIS / AP The most unpopular president in France’s modern history, Francois Hollande, is preparing the ground for a potential re-election bid. His leftist base is in open revolt, protesting youth are clashing with police nearly every night, and France is in a six-month state of emergency — yet he is on a new mission to convince the French ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  Residents return as truce extended in Syria’s Aleppo

  

    Aleppo / AFP Displaced families returned home and schools reopened in rebel-held districts of Syria’s Aleppo on Saturday after a temporary truce was extended for 72 hours in the battleground northern city. Residents trickled back into eastern areas of Aleppo, encouraged by a halt in the deadly violence that hit last month, an AFP reporter said. More than 300 civilians ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  Nepal recalls India envoy, cancels prez visit

    Kathmandu / AFP Nepal has recalled its ambassador to India and cancelled an upcoming visit by its president to New Delhi, officials said on Saturday, further straining ties between the two neighbours after months of tension. Deep Kumar Upadhyay was recalled to Kathmandu late Friday after allegedly siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  Morocco jails brother of ‘Paris attacks’ ringleader

    Rabat / AFP A Moroccan court sentenced the younger brother of suspected Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud to two years in prison on charges including justifying terrorism, state media reported. According to his lawyer, Yassine Abaaoud was unaware of the activities of his brother, who was killed in a French police raid just days after the November 13 attacks ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  USA sends troops to Yemen

  

    Washington / AFP The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that it has deployed US troops to Yemen since the country’s collapse last year to bolster government and Arab coalition forces battling Al-Qaeda. Spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the US military has also stepped up air strikes against fighters with Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). A “very ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  Israel aircraft hit Gaza as violence flares for 4th day

  

    Gaza City / AFP Israeli aircraft hit two Hamas targets in Gaza early on Saturday in response to rocket fire as the worst flare-up of violence since a 2014 war entered a fourth day. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket launch and most such fire since 2014 has been carried out by fringe extremist groups but ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  DRC to build $100bn hydropower plant

  

    d r congo / Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of Congo said the developer for the first phase of the $100 billion Grand Inga hydropower project will be selected by August for construction to start by June next year. Two of the three groups that answered Congo’s 2010 call for bids remain in the running, Bruno Kapandji, head of the ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  The misadventures of Fannie and Freddie

  

  Gigantic government’s complexity and opacity provide innumerable opportunities for opportunists to act unconstrained by clear law or effective supervision. Today’s example, involving the government’s expropriation of hundreds of billions of dollars, features three sets of unsympathetic actors — a grasping federal government, a few hedge funds nimble at exploiting the co-mingling of government and the private sector, and two anomalous ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  Global fight against smoking will continue

    The crackdown on smoking advertising is assuming a global trend. Many countries are moving gradually to tighten grip on smoking promotion to reduce tobacco-related deaths. The tobacco industry, which rakes in huge revenues and gives employment to lot many people, is lobbying hard to put brakes on an all-out war against tobacco even as governments move cautiously to address ...

  Read More »
• 7 May

  Hong Kong’s tax revenue decline has a silver lining

    Cal Wong SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Amid the slowdown in the Hong Kong property market, Hong Kong’s overall tax revenue has fallen for the first time in six years. In total, the taxman collected HK$291.3 billion (US$37.5 billion), down HK$10.6 billion from the year before. Stamp duty takings on property transactions have plunged 16 percent in the 2015-16 fiscal ...

  Read More »