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JIM GOMEZ / AP With the symbolic handshakes and unity photo-op, President Barack Obama’s high-profile summit with Southeast Asian leaders in California this week aims to step up pressure against China’s increasingly worrisome behavior in disputed waters. Forging a common front and encouraging bolder rhetoric against Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, however, will be a challenge among the ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has called on the ministers of the 12th Cabinet of the UAE government to work diligently and faithfully to help promote sustainable development of the country, achieve the aspirations of its people, and take the UAE to even higher stage of advancement beyond its growing international stature ...

Bloomberg Debating in the shadow of the death of conservative US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a downsized and more combative Republican presidential field battled in South Carolina over foreign policy, abortion, truthfulness, campaign tactics and blame for the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. The ninth debate featured just six candidates, including an even louder than usual Donald Trump, who blamed ...

Bloomberg As preparations for this week’s European summit enter their final stretch, France is leading resistance to UK demands for a deal to shield British banks from the rules governing lenders in the euro area. French negotiator Philippe Leglise-Costa pushed back against British Prime Minister David Cameron’s insistence on fencing off financial regulation for the City of London at a ...

Bloomberg The perpetrators of violent clashes in Hong Kong this week shattered its values in one night, the city’s financial secretary said, urging those involved to “turn their horses back from the cliff.” The “small group of people who lost rationality” marred the city’s interests and tarnished its image, and their actions are a departure from Hong Kong people’s respect ...

TAIPEI / AP Rescuers in Taiwan pulled out the remains of the final victims of last week’s earthquake and with a minute of silence ended the search with the death toll of 116, most of them in a collapsed high-rise apartment building. All but two of the dead came from the 17-story Weiguan Golden Dragon residential complex, which toppled when ...

Munich / AP A senior figure in the Syrian opposition movement on Sunday criticised the truce deal forged by the US and Russia, saying Moscow was continuing its onslaught on civilian areas. “We have gotten used to conferences and hope put into words but what we need is action, and the action I see is that Russia is killing Syrian ...

Athens / AFP An assessment of Greece’s attempts to reform its struggling economy is being held up by disagreements between the European Union and the IMF, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said. “Negotiations on the reform plan have fallen behind, which is in nobody’s interest,” he said on Sunday, cited by the Avghi daily, close to Tspiras’ Syriza party. Greece ...

London / WAM The global oil price will hopefully retain its normal average, reaching USD 50 to 60 per barrel by mid-2017, Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) President, Bakheet Al-Rashidi said on Saturday. In an exclusive statement to KUNA on the sideline of the annual KPI’s international marketing London bureau celebration, Al-Rashidi said that the current status quo of the global ...

Mumbai / afp Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi renewed his call on Saturday for firms to invest in India and turn it into a global manufacturing hub, painting the country as a bright spot for investment in an uncertain world economy. The right-wing prime minister was addressing a gathering of industry leaders, CEOs and foreign dignitaries in the commercial capital ...