Merkel in euroskeptic Poland in struggle to save EU

  WARSAW / AP German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Warsaw on Tuesday for talks with Poland’s top leaders, taking efforts to save the European Union to a country that is keen to keep as much national power as possible and fears being marginalized in a “two-speed Europe.” Her trip is “one of the most important visits in Polish-German relations since ...

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Romanian government seeks loophole on corruption

  BUCHAREST / AP Romania’s government is on a high-risk mission: devise a legal and politically acceptable way to remove penalties for some types of official corruption. First, the government tried to effect the change by imposing an emergency decree without public debate. The move backfired badly, sparking massive demonstrations in the capital of Bucharest and other major cities that ...

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China’s central bank suspends reverse repos to drain liquidity

  Bloomberg China’s central bank refrained from offering reverse-repurchase agreements for the third day in a row, which resulted in a net withdrawal of funds from the financial system. The People’s Bank of China didn’t carry out the open-market operation because it aims to keep liquidity basically stable, and current levels are relatively high, according to a statement posted on ...

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Indian lender shuns firms to become top Asian bank stock

  Bloomberg Indian Bank, a century-old state-owned lender based in the country’s south, has emerged as Asia’s top-performing bank stock in the past year, driven by a focus on consumer loans that are less likely to sour than corporate advances. The Chennai-based firm is aiming to boost retail lending, which includes mortgages and loans underpinned by gold as collateral, to ...

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RBNZ governor to step down in September

  Bloomberg New Zealand central bank (RNBZ) governor Graeme Wheeler will step down when his term ends in September and hand the reins to a deputy until a permanent successor is appointed in 2018. Deputy Governor Grant Spencer will helm the Reserve Bank for six months after Wheeler departs on Sept. 26, Finance Minister Steven Joyce said on Tuesday in Wellington, ...

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UniCredit begins $14bn cash call against shaky backdrop

  MILAN / Reuters UniCredit began Italy’s biggest corporate share sale in an attempt to raise 13 billion euros ($14 billion) to rebuild the bank’s capital after a balance sheet clean up. Banks in Italy have been struggling to deal with bad loans left behind by a deep recession, leading to a series of capital raisings and consolidation in the ...

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Harvesting olives in West Bank

  Dura Al Qari’a / DPA Plastic tarps on the ground are slowly filling up with green and black olives. Imad Hasan, clad in a blue pullover, a cap and jogging pants, is standing on a metal ladder five metres above the ground, picking the olives by hand from the tree, the ripe fruit nestled between narrow pointed leaves. Down ...

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Female engineer braves odds in Antarctica

  Carlini Base / DPA What’s it like to live surrounded by an immense swath of sea, ice and mountains, 900 kilometres from the nearest city? Julia Luna, 28, is the first woman to spend a winter here on Argentina’s Carlini Base, an Antarctic scientific research site. As a systems engineer, she has one of the most unusual jobs on ...

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Dubai fourth most visited city in world

  Dubai / WAM Dubai attracted 14.9 million overnight visitors in 2016, recording a healthy five percent increase over 2015, and an impressive four-year (2012-2016) compound annual growth rate or CAGR of eight percent since Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched the 2020 tourism strategy. According to the Department ...

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Pink Caravan Ride to carry out ten cancer awareness drive across UAE

  Sharjah / Emirates Business It is that time of year in the UAE when Sharjah-based Friends of Cancer Patients’ (FoCP’s) annual cancer campaign, the Pink Caravan Ride, is back and will carry out a 10-day cancer awareness drive across the seven emirates from March 7-17. This will be the Ride’s the 7th edition under the theme ‘7 Years for ...

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