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

  TEHRAN / AP A high-rise building in Tehran engulfed by fire collapsed on Thursday, killing at least 30 firefighters and injuring some 75 people, state media reported. The disaster struck the Plasco building, an iconic structure in central Tehran just north of the Iranian capital’s sprawling bazaar. Firefighters, soldiers and other emergency responders dug through the rubble, looking for survivors. …

  MILAN / AP Rescue workers were met with an eerie silence on Thursday when they reached a four-star spa hotel struck by an avalanche in a mountainous earthquake-stricken region of central Italy. At least 30 people were missing, including at least two children, authorities said. Guests at the three-story Hotel Rigopiano in the central Abruzzo region alerted emergency workers of …

  LUCKNOW / AP A truck loaded with sand collided with a school bus early Thursday, killing at least 24 young children in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police said. At least two dozen other children were injured when the speeding truck collided head-on with the bus, said Javeed Ahmed, the state’s top police official. The children, between the …

  Bloomberg A day before US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, another pro-Russian president was sworn in far to the east, in NATO member Bulgaria, as questions arise over the future of the alliance amid rising animosity with its Cold-War adversary. Rumen Radev, a 53-year-old, US-trained general, took an oath of office on Thursday in Sofia after defeating the ruling party’s …

  NICOSIA / AP Greece’s president says an insistence by Turkey and Turkish Cypriots on keeping troops and military intervention rights on Cyprus even after the ethnically split island is reunified is “anachronistic” and unacceptable.” President Procopis Pavlopoulos says such positions are contrary to European Union norms and would create “dangerous precedents” if implemented. He said after talks with Cypriot President …

  PRISTINA / AP Kosovo’s foreign minister has written to his counterparts in the European Union, US and other countries denouncing “numerous acts of provocation and aggression” from Serbia, an official said on Thursday. The minister, Enver Hoxhaj, called on the EU, which facilitates Pristina-Belgrade talks to normalize ties, “to urge Serbia to remain committed to good neighborly relations,” according to …

  BEIJING / AP Sidestepping recent disputes over Taiwan and regional security, China said on Thursday that “important progress” has been made in its relationship with the US under President Barack Obama and the two countries should move forward as partners rather than competitors. Asked to sum up relations under Obama, who leaves office Friday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying recalled …

  DUBAI / Reuters Egypt’s blue-chip stock index tumbled on Thursday after Reuters reported that authorities were considering temporarily reintroducing a stamp duty on stock market transactions, while Saudi Arabia was supported by quarterly corporate earnings. The index dropped 3.7 percent, its largest single-day decline since June 2016. Local traders were heavy net sellers after a Finance Ministry source, speaking …

  Bloomberg For some China investors, the outlook for bonds is becoming a compelling reason to buy stocks. December’s debt selloff, the biggest in six years, may just be the start as policy makers crack down on speculative trading, according to HFT Investment Management Co. With the Shanghai Composite Index one and a half years on from its own bubble …

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Airways on Thursday announced its Abu Dhabi – Düsseldorf route will be operated 14 times a week with the addition of a new daily service, effective March 26. The double daily schedule will provide greater choice to local passengers travelling between Abu Dhabi and Düsseldorf, and further increase connectivity to and from Germany …