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

  BAGHDAD / AP US-backed Iraqi government troops announced on Wednesday they were in “full control” of eastern Mosul after routing IS militants from that part of the northern city, three months since the major operation started. The achievement was a “big victory,” said Iraqi Army Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati, who commands the counter-terrorism forces, describing the success of the Iraqi ...

  GAO / AP A suicide bomber in an explosives-laden vehicle attacked a camp in northern Mali on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and wounding dozens of soldiers and former fighters now trying to stabilize the region. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion quickly fell on the extremist groups operating in the area which oppose the 2015 ...

  DAVOS / AP Lawrence Summers, the former US Treasury Secretary, has warned that Donald Trump’s threats to firms using Mexico as a manufacturing base will be counterproductive and could lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Summers told a panel at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday that the president-elect’s “rhetoric and announced policies” over Mexico ...

  JERUSALEM / AP An Israeli Arab rammed his vehicle into a group of police officers on Wednesday, killing one of them before he was shot dead during clashes in southern Israel over a court-ordered operation to demolish illegally built homes, police said, while local residents accused the police of using excessive force against demonstrators. The conflicting accounts, and ensuing confrontations ...

  BANJUL / AP Gambia’s Parliament has voted to extend President Yahya Jammeh’s term in office for three months, even as his mandate was set to end Thursday, state television said on Wednesday. The extension takes effect immediately. The announcement came a day after Jammeh declared a three-month state of emergency as he seeks to stay in power despite losing elections ...

  BEIJING / AP China on Wednesday called on the US to bar a Taiwanese delegation from attending Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, underscoring concerns that the incoming president could seek to redefine relations between Beijing, Taipei and Washington. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the request had been passed to Trump’s transition team and to the current administration of Barack ...

  In the first week of 2017, the offshore yuan surged by a record amount against the U.S. dollar over two days, interbank borrowing costs soared and volatility intensified. The following week, pretty much everything reversed. It’s a familiar pattern that exemplifies the contradictions bedeviling China’s currency. Policy makers have expended much effort trying to internationalize the yuan, notably by ...

  For Morgan Stanley’s wannabe shareholders, this may be your time to pounce. The New York bank’s shares fell as much as 3.3 percent on Tuesday, despite a string of good news: Earnings per share blew past analysts’ estimates as Morgan Stanley posted its highest fourth-quarter profit since 2006 and record annual revenue. Those feats were made possible by a ...

  Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) needs urgent treatment. Cuts to the social services budget mean hospital wards are clogged with people who could probably be cared for at lower cost elsewhere, especially the elderly in need of social care rather than medical treatment. Staff are stretched to the limits. The situation is already critical and the government’s published plans ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Shares in Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) weighed on Saudi Arabia’s stock market on Wednesday after the company reported a wider net loss for the fourth quarter, while Egypt’s index pulled back as local traders booked gains in blue chips. The Saudi equities index edged down 0.3 percent as SEC slumped 3.4 percent after posting a quarterly ...