Masonry Layout

  Hanoi / WAM HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, met Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During the meeting, HH Sheikh Abdullah conveyed the greetings of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and His Highness ...

Aleppo, Syria / AFP The truce in Syria’s battleground city Aleppo expired on Thursday with no new last-minute extension, as a besieged town near the capital prepared to receive its first humanitarian aid in four years. World powers are to meet in Vienna next week to try to push faltering peace talks towards ending a five-year conflict that has killed ...

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business Etihad Airways’ finance team has continued its winning streak by landing two key awards — for best treasury team and for securing a unique US$700 million bond agreement — from the Middle East chapter of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT ME). Last year’s landmark finance transaction for Etihad Airways Partners’ (EAP), a brand ...

  RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business The UAE has yet again established itself as one of the most preferred choices for destination weddings, with the industry pegged to grow 100% in the country by end of the year. This was revealed in a recent survey which pegged the global destination-wedding industry at US$80 billion, representing 27 percent of the overall global ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business The pragmatic approach of the UAE towards its allies and neighbouring nations has enabled the country to build strong relations and play a key role in finding solutions to regional and international issues, stated His Excellency Omar Al Bitar, UAE Ambassador to China, while addressing a lecture on the topic ‘UAE 7 Star Diplomacy’ ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s parliament passed a bill to overhaul archaic bankruptcy laws, taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi a step closer to fulfilling his pledge to make it easier to do business in the world’s fastest growing major economy. The upper house approved the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Act days after it was cleared in the lower house. The ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of England cut its growth forecasts and issued its strongest warning yet that a vote to leave the European Union would hurt the economy. With just six weeks to go until Britain’s referendum, the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mark Carney, said there were more signs it was weighing on growth and clouding the ...

  Bloomberg Ioannis Plotas doesn’t share his prime minister’s belief that the start of debt-relief discussions on Monday is a step forward for Greece. Rather, the 52-year-old is worried that the latest hikes in income tax and social security contributions passed by Greek lawmakers on Sunday to appease creditors will drive the dry cleaning shop he runs with his sister ...

  Bloomberg For Janet Yellen’s Fed, 2016 is beginning to look all too familiar — another saga of disappointment and downgrade. Last year, Federal Reserve officials started off signaling two interest-rate increases but those plans didn’t work out: Weak first-quarter U.S. growth delayed action in June, international concerns took September off the table and liftoff finally happened in December. This ...

  BRASILIA / AFP Brazil’s Senate voted on Thursday to impeach President Dilma Rousseff after a months-long fight that laid raw the country’s fury over corruption and economic decay, hurling Latin America’s largest country into political turmoil just months before it hosts the Summer Olympics. Rousseff’s enraged backers called the move a coup d’etat and threatened wide-scale protests and strikes. Her ...