April, 2016

• 11 April

  Philippines is critical to the US rebalance to Asia

  

  Later this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter will travel to the Philippines as part of a broader Asia trip. His upcoming visit highlights how the Southeast Asian state – long belittled as one of Asia’s weakest militaries and Washington’s laggard alliance – has in fact grown to become a critical part of America’s ongoing rebalance to the region. Although ...

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• 11 April

  El Salvador grasps to put an end to its gang wars

  For nearly a week late last month, a modicum of peace appeared to have settled over El Salvador. After the country’s leading criminal gangs called a unilateral truce, violent crime suddenly plunged, and the homicide rate fell to around nine a day. If that doesn’t sound like much to cheer about, consider this: The small Central American nation of about ...

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• 11 April

  HNA to buy airline caterer Gategroup for $1.5 billion

  

  Zurich / Bloomberg Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. agreed to buy Swiss airline catering company Gategroup Holding AG for 1.4 billion francs ($1.5 billion), as billionaire Chairman Chen Feng continues on an acquisition spree of aviation-related assets around the world. Gategroup shares jumped the most in almost seven years. Shareholders would get 53 francs a share as well as the ...

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• 11 April

  Boeing officials to visit Tehran soon

  

  TEHRAN / AP Iran said that the US has allowed Boeing to have direct talks with Iranian airliners following reports that a Boeing delegation will visit the country, the official IRNA news agency reported. The report quoted Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, as saying “Boeing intends to launch its talks with Iranian companies with permission from the ...

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• 11 April

  Sears gets $500mn from investment firm

  Bloomberg Sears Holdings Corp., the department-store operator run by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, obtained a new short-term loan partially funded by an investment firm that manages billionaire Bill Gates’s fortune. Cascade Investment has funded $125 million of a $500 million loan that Sears raised by using about 20 of its mortgaged properties as collateral, the retailer said in a ...

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• 11 April

  ABF to buy rest of South Africa’s Illovo Sugar

  

  Bloomberg Associated British Foods (ABF), the biggest shareholder in Illovo Sugar, has reached an agreement to buy the rest of the South African sugar producer for 5.6 billion rand ($370 million) after raising an earlier offer. ABF, which holds a 51.35 percent stake in Illovo, has made an offer of 25 rand ($1.65) per share for the stake it does ...

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• 11 April

  Air France to initiate talks on unit sale

  

  Bloomberg Air France-KLM Group will enter into talks with an exclusive buyer for its in-flight service unit Servair within the next few weeks, a person familiar with the plan said. The company won’t sell the entire business, said the person, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. Servair, the world’s third-largest in-flight caterer, was valued at about ...

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• 11 April

  No turning back time for Kathmandu’s bead-sellers

  

  Kathmandu / DPA Khwaja Asad Shah sits in his cramped beads shop in the heart of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, surrounded by the glitter of colourful pieces of glass. “We’ve been here for eight generations,” says Shah, explaining that Muslim families like his arrived from Kashmir some 500 years ago. They came during the Malla era, 1484-1520, as masons and ...

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• 11 April

  Space is the limit!

  

  Ritika Sharma / emirates business Every now and then you hear people comparing an insignificant deed with “man has reached the moon” expression. But how many times did you think it really was that big deal. Not often? Today is a day to not only acknowledge the fact that it indeed is a momentous accomplishment of mankind, but that the ...

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• 11 April

  This greenie stands apart

  

  Ritika Sharma / Emirates Business Dubai-based Kehkashan Basu is founder of a youth sustainability organisation named Green Hope UAE, winner of NRI of the year award, has been a speaker at 45 United Nations and other international summits and has travelled to over 20 countries. Guess what makes her extraordinary – she is just 15. This UAE teenager was a ...

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