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  Paris / AFP The French government maintained a hard line on Saturday ahead of a fresh wave of protest over a bitterly-disputed labour law that has seen demonstrators blockading oil refineries and strikes paralysing the transport network. The escalating unrest, which has gathered pace over the last week sparking petrol shortages that forced the government to dip into strategic ...

  Bloomberg   Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen threw her support behind a growing consensus at the central bank in favor of another interest rate increase soon, while steering clear of specifying the timing of such a move. “It’s appropriate — and I’ve said this in the past — for the Fed to gradually and cautiously increase our overnight interest ...

  Bloomberg Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced an amnesty on an estimated $500 billion of unregistered funds stashed abroad to pay pensioners and help fund a multi-billion dollar infrastructure program. The funds will pay a tax of zero percent to 15 percent depending on the amount and when they are brought back into the country, the government said in a ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, has been presented with the title of ‘Most Innovative Airline of the Last Ten Years’ at the Telegraph UltraTravel Awards, which were held at the London Savoy Hotel. The awards are known as the ULTRAs and are conducted by an annual survey where readers of ...

  Beirut / AFP US-backed Syrian fighters and Iraqi forces on Thursday pursued twin assaults against the IS group, but experts warned the battles will be drawn out. The offensives on key regions of IS-held territory are the two most significant ground efforts against the extremists since they formed a self-styled “caliphate” in 2014. In Syria, an alliance backed by ...

  Ise, Japan / AP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is urging fellow leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies to avert another global crisis by acting to rescue the faltering global recovery. Abe and his counterparts got down to business on Thursday after strolling through the grounds of Ise (Ee-say) Shrine, a tranquil, densely forested landmark that is ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business According to stats from the UAE’s top finance comparison site compareit4me.com, recent figures show a 115 percent increase in the number of consumers searching for business loans on the site between January and March of this year, compared with the same period last year. Currently in the UAE, SMEs contribute an estimated 40-46 per cent ...

  Sunaina Rana / Emirates Business The youngest Emirati real estate professional, Khaled Ali Al Shawy, will collaborate with JK Properties and The Heart of Europe to host a private event which will give a sneak-peak into the Limited Signature Edition Floating Seahorse ocean villas in Dubai on May 30. The one-day event will feature the limited Signature Edition Floating ...

  RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business Driven by a growth in number of medical tourists opting for cosmetic surgery, UAE grabs prominence in the medical tourism industry at a global level. High quality control, luxury centric market and cost effective follow ups, coupled with a world class medical infrastructure, ensure that the country stays atop the list. Global Cosmetic Surgery ...

  Tokyo / AFP Japan passed a law regulating virtual currency, after the country found itself at the epicentre of a multi-million dollar embezzlement scandal following the spectacular collapse of the Tokyo-based MtGox Bitcoin exchange. Once one of the largest, most established exchanges for the cryptocurrency, MtGox collapsed in 2014 after a suspected theft worth nearly half a billion dollars, which ...