Chinese festival to enthrall crowds at Al Majaz

Sharjah / Emirates Business A spectacular Chinese Festival will take place at Al Majaz Waterfront, from February 23 – 27. The first of its kind event for Al Majaz Waterfront will feature a range of attractions and activities including Chinese street food, live performances and a dragon boat race. The five-day festival will include several performances such as the dragon ...

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EU steel workers protest against Chinese imports

Bloomberg European Union industries led by the steel sector mobilized thousands of people for a march in Brussels to warn about job losses from Chinese competition, seeking to persuade EU policy makers to retain a full arsenal of import tariffs. The demonstration in the heart of the EU quarter on Monday sought to dissuade the bloc from recognizing China as ...

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USA Senators urge Polish leaders to uphold Democracy

Bloomberg Poland’s new leaders are eroding the country’s democratic record through laws that give the government new powers, three U.S. senators said in a letter to Prime Minister Beata Szydlo. The dispatch by Senators John McCain, Benjamin Cardin and Richard Durbin follows an unprecedented move by the European Union’s executive last month to start a probe into whether rule of ...

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‘Laser’ diverts New York-bound flight to Heathrow

London / AFP A British pilots’ union on Monday demanded action after a laser beam dazzled the co-pilot on a New York-bound flight, forcing the Virgin Atlantic jet to turn back shortly following take-off from London’s Heathrow Airport. Police responded to “reports of a laser shone in the direction of a commercial flight that had taken off at Heathrow” on ...

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Polish mortgage scheme could hurt banks

Warsaw / AFP Poland’s controversial bid to convert foreign currency mortgages, mostly in Swiss Francs, into the local zloty currency, could “hurt” the Polish banking sector, a global ratings agency warned on Monday. Moody’s said the move by Poland’s new right-wing government would be “credit negative”, hurting the domestic banking sector’s “ability to lend and absorb future shocks”. “It would ...

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USA sceptical of Beijing using non-navy boats in S China Sea

Bloomberg China’s increased reliance on non-naval ships to assert its claims in the South China Sea is complicating U.S. efforts to avoid a clash in the disputed waters, according to 7th Fleet commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin. While the U.S. and Chinese navies are working more closely under an agreed code for unplanned encounters at sea, the deployment of coast ...

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HSBC stays in London, snubbing Hong Kong

LONDON / AFP Europe’s largest bank HSBC said it would remain headquartered in Britain, rejecting a move to Hong Kong despite concerns about increased regulation in the UK and a possible split from the EU. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation said London’s many advantages meant it was “ideally positioned” to provide a home base. It made no reference to ...

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Ukraine to make case for Cabinet rejig as another reformer quits

Bloomberg The political crisis roiling Ukraine’s post- revolution leaders is coming to a head after the International Monetary Fund threatened to cut off aid and another top reformer quit. If efforts to revamp the cabinet fail, the risk is early elections. PM ArseniyYatsenyuk is set to report to parliament this week on government performance, with proposed personnel changes to follow. ...

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A small German city pushes nation’s auto giants on pollution

Bloomberg A leafy city of 275,000 in Frankfurt’s commuter belt is opening a new front in the German car industry’s battle against pollution. An administrative court in Wiesbaden, known for a historic hot spring and a giant U.S. military base, ordered the regional government to clean up diesel exhaust fumes by September or face a fine. The ruling last month ...

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Deflation blow hits Romania hard in Jan

Bloomberg Romania’s first bout of deflation in more than 25 years worsened in January after a new round of tax cuts came into force, but the decline in prices was less than expected. Prices fell 2.1 percent from a year earlier after a 0.9 percent decline in December, the National Statistics Institute said on Monday in an e-mailed statement. The ...

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