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Bloomberg The US and Russia set an August deadline for a deal to end Syria’s five-year war as they agreed to try to push forward negotiations between the government and opposition that remain deadlocked over the fate of Russian ally President Bashar Al Assad. “We will accelerate the effort to try and move the political process forward,” US Secretary of ...

MOSCOW / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, in a meeting with Russian President, Vladimir Putin noted, “I am happy to be in Moscow and we hope to develop trade exchanges and will discuss the best ways to enhance this approach. We are ...

MOSCOW / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Thursday received John Kerry the US Secretary of State, in Moscow. During the meeting, they discussed friendship ties and co-operation between the UAE and the US as well as ways to enhance them in ...

DUBAI / WAM Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial affairs, discussed on Thursday with Fausto Herrera, Ecuador’s Minister of Finance, the growing trade and economic relations between the two countries, and ways to strengthen them. During the meeting held at the ministry in Dubai, the two parties reviewed the growth and development of the UAE’s economy, as ...

Paris / AFP Security forces responded with tear gas on Thursday as French students protesting proposed labour reforms hurled bottles at riot police in Paris and the western city of Nantes. The reforms, which were significantly watered down under pressure from a wave of protests, were adopted earlier Thursday by the cabinet of an increasingly unpopular President Francois Hollande, who ...

Bloomberg Two days after IS attacks on Brussels, European Union ministers are trying to overcome their divisions and convince citizens that they can stop the wave of terrorism as police hunt for a new suspect possibly involved in the bombings. As Belgian police continue their search for the surviving perpetrators, EU interior ministers meet in Brussels on Thursday afternoon to ...

Damascus / AFP Pro-government forces pushed a fierce bid to recapture Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra from extremists on Thursday as Moscow hosted top US diplomat John Kerry for talks on the fraught peace process. The IS group called on civilians still living in Palmyra to leave, as army and pro-government militia battled the extremists on several fronts along the ...

Bloomberg Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Argentina in more than a decade as his counterpart, Mauricio Macri, seeks a rapprochement with the international community following a decade of financial and diplomatic isolation. Obama, arriving from an historic state visit to Cuba, met with Macri and is scheduled to attend a business forum in Buenos Aires before ...

Bloomberg Technology entrepreneur Karim Brahiti sees opportunities springing from the biggest threat Algeria’s economy has faced in decades. “The plunge in oil prices is a necessary evil that will force us to get out of our comfort zone and find alternatives,” said the 36-year-old Brahiti, now investing back home after years spent scouring for contracts in sub-Saharan Africa countries. “The ...

Singapore / Bloomberg Singapore said it will adopt an expansionary fiscal budget to boost growth, reducing pressure on the central bank to provide more support for the economy weeks before its next policy decision. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, presenting his first budget to Parliament, pledged support for companies that are facing labour constraints and a faltering global outlook, promised ...