13,000 Refugees at Greek border ahead of summit

IDOMENI / AfP Some 13,000 refugees are crammed in unhygienic conditions on Greece’s border with Macedonia, officials said on Saturday, with all eyes on a key EU-Turkey summit on Monday that is seen as the only viable solution to the crisis. “There are 13,000 people here and nearly 20,000 in this prefecture, over 60 percent of the country’s entire refugee ...

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Philippines seizes N Korean ship under UN sanctions

Manila / AFP The Philippines said on Saturday it had impounded a North Korean vessel in response to tough new United Nations sanctions introduced in response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The 6,830-tonne cargo ship Jin Teng will not be allowed to leave Subic port, northeast of the capital Manila, where it had been docked for three ...

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US presses UNSC to confront sex abuse by peacekeepers

UNITED NATIONS / AP The United States is pressing the UN Security Council for the first time to confront the escalating problem of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers, which has undermined the organization’s credibility. The United States is the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, and US officials said the Obama administration wants the council to send ...

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Frontier Airlines to hire Barclays, Deutsche Bank services for IPO

DENVER / Bloomberg Frontier Airlines Inc., a no-frills carrier, hired underwriters for an Initial Public Offering (IPO), people with knowledge of the matter said. Frontier, owned by private equity firm Indigo Partners, is working with Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. on the IPO, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions ...

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Gap reports 2 percent drop in revenue measure for February

NEW YORK / AP Gap Inc. is reporting a 2 percent drop in a key revenue measure for February, dragged down by weakness at its Banana Republic stores. The results, announced this week, were slightly worse than the 1.4 percent decline that analysts were expecting, according to Thomson Reuters. Gap said that by division its namesake brand saw revenue at stores ...

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France, Britain sign €2bn futuristic combat drone programme deal

PARIS / AFP France and Britain have inked a deal to invest more than two billion euros in the development of next generation combat drones, Paris said in a statement. Following a two-year feasibility study begun in 2014, “we hope to proceed to the next phase in 2017 to prepare for the full-fledged development of operational demonstrators of air combat ...

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Adidas sees sales, profits rising 10-12pc this year

Frankfurt / AFP Sports giant Adidas said that it expects revenues and profits this year to rise by 10-12 percent as the current consumer boom in Germany continues. “Group sales are expected to increase at a rate between 10 and 12 percent on a currency-neutral basis in 2016,” the German sportswear and equipment manufacturer said in a statement. “The positive ...

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Retail giant Costco hikes entry level wages for first time since 2007

NEW YORK / AP Costco is raising entry-level wages for its hourly workers for the first time since 2007 as the warehouse club operator fights to compete in a tighter labour market. The company told investors that it will pay workers $1.50 more per hour in the US and Canada effective this month. Workers will now earn at least $13 or ...

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German retailer Metro eyes expansion in Myanmar, Iran

Frankfurt / Bloomberg German retail and distribution giant Metro will decide by the end of this year on whether to expand into Myanmar and post-sanctions Iran, its chief executive said in a magazine interview on Thursday. “Myanmar is benefitting from opening up politically and has high growth potential,” CEO Olaf Koch told the weekly WirtschaftsWoche. “We’re also examining what opportunities ...

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Banks’ hands tied as Basel tightens rules

Bloomberg Banks’ options for gauging the risk of incurring losses from events such as fraud, cybercrime and litigation are set to shrink as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision tries to stop firms gaming the rules. The global regulator, whose members include the US Federal Reserve and the People’s Bank of China, proposed scrapping an ‘unduly complex’ internal model-based method ...

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