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Dubai / Bloomberg First Gulf Bank (FGB) PJSC reported a better-than- expected six percent rise in full-year profit as the United Arab Emirates’ third-biggest bank was helped by non-operating income. Net income advanced to 6.01 billion dirhams ($1.64 billion) from 5.66 billion a year earlier, the Abu Dhabi-based lender said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. The mean estimate of ...

Tel Aviv / Bloomberg Israel’s natural gas companies and Noble Energy Inc. have signed the first contract to supply natural gas from the Leviathan site offshore Israel. Partners in Leviathan, Israel’s largest field, will supply 6 billion cubic meters of gas over 18 years to two power stations owned by local electricity producer Edeltech Group. Leviathan will be developed by ...

Qamishli / AFP A delegation including senior US diplomat Brett McGurk met with members of a Kurd-Arab alliance fighting the IS extremist group inside Syria on Saturday, Kurdish sources said on Sunday. The visit appeared to be the first by a senior US government official inside Syrian territory. McGurk, who is US President Barack Obama’s envoy to an international coalition ...

Riyadh / AFP Saudi authorities have arrested nine American citizens among 33 “terror” suspects rounded up over the past days, the Saudi Gazette newspaper reported on Sunday. Four Americans were arrested on Monday and five others over the past four days, the paper reported citing an unidentified source. The arrests also included 14 Saudis, three Yemenis, two Syrians, an Indonesian, ...

Damascus / AFP At least 50 people were killed and 110 wounded on Sunday in three bomb blasts near the revered Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab outside the Syrian capital Damascus, state media said. State news agency SANA said the first blast was caused by a car bomb that detonated at a bus station near the shrine. It said two ...

There’s been endless speculation in recent weeks about whether the US, and the whole world for that matter, are about to sink into recession. Underpinning much of the angst is an unprecedented $29 trillion corporate bond binge that has left many companies more indebted than ever.Whether this debt overhang proves to be a catalyst for recession or not, one thing ...

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business In a bid to woo more investors, Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), the flagship free zone of Dubai and trade and logistics hub for the wider Middle East region, is all set for a system overhaul. Making visa procurement an easy task is part of this refurbishing plan and Jafza is looking forward to achieve ...

Isis Almeida / bloomberg The European Union is poised to miss its sugar export quotas this season as a reduced harvest limits overseas sales, according to independent soft commodities trader Group Sopex. The EU’s 28-member nations will probably ship less than 1 million metric tons in the season that started in October, John Stansfield, a Sopex analyst, said in an ...

Myanmar / AFP In a modest dormitory in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, novice MP Tin Thit recites a poem he has penned called “No Retreat”, steeling himself to enter Myanmar’s parliament carrying the dreams of a nation left traumatised by army rule. A poet, editor, activist — and now newly elected MP — he is among hundreds of political newcomers poised ...

LONDON / AFP British Prime Minister David Cameron and European Council President Donald Tusk were meeting in London to try to hammer out a deal aimed at keeping the UK in the EU, after Cameron said the existing proposal is “not good enough.” The working dinner comes with Tusk expected to publish draft proposals early this week for how to ...