January, 2017

• 2 January

  IS extremists claim New Year’s massacre at Istanbul nightclub

  

    Bloomberg IS claimed responsibility for the killing of 39 people celebrating the New Year inside a fabled Istanbul nightclub, an act of terrorism that has become grimly familiar in Turkey as it fails to keep the violence in Syria from spilling into its cities. Shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, an assailant killed a police officer guarding the entrance ...

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• 2 January

  Yemen’s children starve as war drags on

  

    ABS, Yemen / AP As the first light of dawn trickles in through the hospital window, 19-year-old Mohammed Ali learns that his two-year-old cousin has died of hunger. But he has to remain strong for his little brother Mohannad, who could be next. He holds his brother’s hand as the five-year-old struggles to breathe, his skin stretched tight over tiny ...

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• 2 January

  Hundreds flee fighting near Syria’s capital despite truce

    BEIRUT / AP Hundreds of civilians fled a mountainous region outside the Syrian capital, where government forces were battling several insurgent groups, including an al-Qaida-linked outfit excluded from a recent nationwide cease-fire. The Syrian military said some 1,300 people fled the Barada Valley region since Saturday. The region has been the target of days of airstrikes and shelling despite the ...

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• 2 January

  Loan growth at India’s largest bank jumps from 25-year low

  

    Bloomberg State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, is predicting an acceleration in loan growth from a 25-year low after slashing borrowing costs to the lowest level in at least six years. The state-run lender cut lending rates based on the marginal costs of funds by 90 basis points across all tenures on Sunday. Other banks including Union ...

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• 2 January

  Bank Hapoalim’s credit card unit may fetch $1 billion

  

    Bloomberg Bank Hapoalim Ltd.’s credit-card unit may be valued at about $1 billion as the lender prepares to divest the business to comply with new Israeli regulations, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Tel Aviv-based bank and smaller rival Leumi Le-Israel Ltd are both meeting with investment banks about the sale of their credit card units, ...

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• 2 January

  Masraf Al Rayan to halt brokerage business

    DUBAI / Reuters Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar’s second-largest bank by market capitalisation, said on Monday that it had decided to suspend the activities and licence of its brokerage business, Al Rayan Financial Brokerage Company. After obtaining the necessary approvals from regulatory authorities, the bank said the last date of trading for the company would be Jan. 12. All remaining ...

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• 2 January

  New bank regulations aren’t capital control, says PBOC’s Ma

  

    Bloomberg China’s new regulations on cash transactions and overseas transfers are not capital controls, according to a central bank researcher cited by the official Xinhua News Agency. New requirements published by the People’s Bank of China on Friday stoked concern that the government is imposing capital controls in a disguised form, Xinhua reported. “It is not capital control at ...

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• 2 January

  Preserving their ‘submerged’ heritage!

  

    Mexico City / DPA Many people think of archaeologists as people who excavate dry earth at scorched sites, or dust off relics with small paintbrushes under piercing sunlight, perhaps donning hats in the style of Indiana Jones. This is not the case with Pilar Luna’s team. Their gear consists of air tanks, wetsuits, diving fins and dive tables for ...

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• 2 January

  Delivering the post ‘intelligently’!

  

    Frankfurt / DPA There was a time when postal services were about gathering heavy sacks full of letters, painstakingly sorting the mail manually and delivering letters on heavy-duty bicycles. Not any more – with everything from drones and self-driving cars coming up, postal services are rushing into a robotic future. In some nations, today’s sorting offices are dominated by ...

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• 2 January

  US refiners open export spigot to meet Latin American need

  

    Bloomberg US refiners exported record amounts of oil products last week, taking market share from struggling competitors in Mexico and the Caribbean. Almost 4 million barrels a day of gasoline, distillates like diesel and heating oil, and propane left the country as refiners in Texas and Louisiana processed the most crude in at least 24 years. Demand has grown ...

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