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  Bloomberg Offshore hedge fund managers and priced-out young Australians have long argued the pace of house price growth in the nation’s biggest cities is unsustainable. They may finally be right. After two years of double-digit growth, the Sydney house price index gained just 3.2 percent in the year to September, the weakest increase since 2012, according to the latest ...

  Bloomberg China called for better coordination to cut emissions after a sixth day of heavy smog engulfed much of the northern part of the country and spurred the year’s highest alert. With the toxic haze shrouding the capital Beijing, coastal Tianjin, and surrounding Hebei province, the environmental protection ministry called for cities to coordinate anti-emission measures such as halting ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The Board of Directors of the Central Bank of the UAE has approved a number of applications of banks and other financial institutions working in the UAE to expand their activities and open new branches. The decision was taken during the board’s 11th meeting at the Central Bank office in Abu Dhabi, under the chairmanship of ...

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business In yet another strong proof of its outstanding performance in the service sector, Imdaad, a leading provider of integrated facilities management solutions in the GCC, has been awarded the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA)-Gold Category on Tuesday. Imdaad took home last year an award in the Silver Category, reflecting its consistency and continuous drive ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) took part, for the 5th consecutive year, in the Seatrade Middle East Cruise Forum Abu Dhabi 2016, taking place at the Four Seasons hotel on Al Marya Island on December 13-14. The Authority headed a delegation from the emirate including the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority – ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business A high-profile delegation from Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), visited the Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) program’s headquarters in in Jumeirah Emirates Towers Offices. The Authority was recently established to support and develop small and medium enterprises in Saudi Arabia, and increase their contribution to the economic development of the Kingdom. ...

  Aleppo / AFP Buses began entering the last rebel-held parts of Aleppo on Sunday to resume the evacuation of thousands of increasingly desperate Syrian civilians and rebels trapped in the besieged enclave. As international alarm grew over the plight of the residents including women, children, the sick and wounded, the UN Security Council was to vote on whether to send ...

  Berlin / AFP Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that German authorities believe a deadly rampage by a lorry driver at a Berlin Christmas market was a “terrorist” attack likely committed by an asylum seeker. Police were questioning a suspect, described by media as a 23-year-old man from Pakistan or Afghanistan who had arrived via the so-called Balkan route ...

  Bloomberg For unionized auto workers, even amid a booming US market, the only safe jobs of late have been building pickups and sport utility vehicles. Within the next month, General Motors Co. plans to permanently cut about 3,300 employees at three car plants, as the largest US automaker slashes production of models including the Chevrolet Cruze compact. The Detroit-based ...

  Bloomberg A federal judge said Volkswagen AG continues to make progress in settlement talks with car owners and regulators to fix or get about 80,000 Audi, VW and Porsche vehicles with emissions-cheating 3.0-liter diesel engines off US roads. US District Judge Charles Breyer, saying he was optimistic a resolution would be reached, ordered a “final continuance” and told lawyers ...