The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

Damascus / AFP Syria’s regime agreed on Tuesday to a ceasefire deal announced by the United States and Russia, but there were widespread doubts it could take effect by the weekend as hoped. The agreement, announced on Monday, does not apply to extremists like the IS group and Al-Nusra Front, putting up major hurdles to how it can be implemented ...

Moscow / AFP A ruthless and corrupt leader with his own private army who has carved out de facto independence for his restive region: Russia’s opposition on Tuesday lashed out at Chechen strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov in a new report. The report—authored by prominent opposition figure Ilya Yashin and entitled “National security threat”—alleges that Kadyrov has been allowed by President ...

KUWAIT CITY / AFP The scene US forces encountered as they pushed into Kuwait in 1991 to end the Iraqi occupation could only be described as a hellscape. Hundreds of burning oil wells set ablaze by Iraq’s army had left sand sodden in an oily sludge and the skies overhead choked with thick black smoke. As they fled, Saddam Hussein’s ...

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” Newton’s Third Law of Motion Notice the Newtonian physics of America’s Madisonian system. Barack Obama’s Woodrow Wilsonian hostility to the separation of powers, expressed in his executive authoritarianism, is provoking equal and opposite reactions from the judicial and legislative branches. The Supreme Court has inflicted on Obama a defeat accurately ...

The borrowing spree has started to boomerang, leading global economy to moan under a record pile of debt. On record, the world has continued to borrow since the 2008 financial crisis, adding nearly $60 trillion, pushing the worldwide debt load to $200 trillion in 2014, nearly three times the size of the entire global economy. History has it that the ...

Bill SAVADOVE A new stock market regulator chief could give China’s beleaguered shares a short-term lift, but analysts say Liu Shiyu faces the same old problems as his ousted predecessor: shattered market confidence and the need for sweeping reforms. Xiao Gang was dismissed as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), state media reported Saturday, after a three-year tenure ...

China’s Air Force has created a new unit dedicated solely to tracking and responding to drones, according to China Daily. In a press release, the PLA Air Force said the unit would focus on “small, slow-moving drones flying at an altitude of less than 1,000 meters,” China Daily reported. The language in the report makes it seem as though military ...

Hong Kong / AP Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered said on Tuesday it swung to a surprise $2.36 billion net loss in 2015 against a backdrop of global market volatility, restructuring costs and bad loans. Chairman John Peace described the performance as “poor” in what he called a watershed year, which saw the company announce it would axe 15,000 jobs under ...

Riyadh / Emirates Business As high as 38 percent of KSA respondents would recommend their bank as a first choice to friends or colleagues according to the first ever NPS Survey conducted in the Kingdom by Souqalmal.com , KSA’s #1 financial comparison website. Respondents were asked to evaluate various aspects of the overall banking experience. The parameters covered customer service, ...

Frankfurt / AP Deutsche Bank says it has completed a buyback of euro-denominated bonds aimed at demonstrating its financial strength after violent swings in the bank’s share price. The bank said investors had offered to sell only 1.75 billion euros ($1.92 billion) worth of bonds under the bank’s bid to repurchase 3 billion euros of them. Of that, Deutsche Bank ...