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  Bloomberg The Bank of Uganda lowered its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 13 percent, saying slowing inflation gave it room to support flagging growth. Two of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the reduction, while one expected policy makers to keep the benchmark rate at 14 percent. The monetary policy committee has cut the rate by ...

  Dubai / AFP A modest recovery in oil prices falls short of filling budgetary gaps in crude-exporting Gulf countries, the International Monetary Fund said, stressing the need to cut spending. The price of the region’s main commodity has partially rebounded and is hovering around $50 per barrel having hit a 10-year low of less than $30 in January, from ...

  Qayyarah / AFP Iraqi forces prepared to retake the country’s largest Christian town from the IS group on Wednesday, a key milestone in their progress towards the extremists’ main hub of Mosul. News of the move to recapture Qaraqosh sparked jubilation among Christians who had fled the town, with many dancing and singing in the city of Arbil. Launched on ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia has accused Belgium, a member of a US-led coalition fighting extremists in Syria, of killing six civilians in air strikes in the Aleppo region but the claim was swiftly denied by Brussels. “Six people were killed and four people injured to various degrees as a result of bombing that destroyed two homes” in the village of ...

  Moscow / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with the leaders of Turkey and Iraq about battle for Mosul, where Iraqi forces are fighting to oust the IS group, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. Putin “wished the Iraqi army and its allies complete success in their objectives,” the Kremlin said in a statement on his conversations with Turkish ...

  Aden / AFP Heavy fighting rocked Yemen hours before a UN-brokered ceasefire was due to begin on Wednesday, as warring parties come under mounting pressure to end a conflict that has raged for more than two years. The truce will be the sixth attempt to end the bloodshed. Civilians have paid the highest price in a country that was ...

  Donetsk / AFP Thousands of pro-Russian rebels and supporters in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday turned out to bid farewell to notorious rebel commander Arseny Pavlov, who was killed in a weekend bombing. Some 5,000 people queued outside Donetsk’s opera theatre to pay last respects to the 33-year-old Russian, known as “Motorola”, who died Sunday when a homemade device exploded ...

  Kabul / AFP Two Americans including a civilian were killed on Wednesday when a gunman opened fire near a NATO base in Kabul on Wednesday, the military coalition said, with Afghan officials calling it an “insider attack”. No insurgent group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which highlights growing insecurity in Afghanistan as the Taliban step up their ...

  Tehran / AFP Iran said on Wednesday it would accept no US “interference” after Washington demanded the release of a dual national and his 80-year-old father given 10 year sentences for espionage. The State Department demanded the immediate release of Siamak and Baqher Namazi, both Iranian-American dual nationals, after their sentences were announced on Tuesday. But foreign ministry spokesman ...

  Bloomberg Many nations are willing to join OPEC in cutting production to secure a continued improvement in oil prices, said Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih. The minister didn’t name any countries in his speech at the Oil & Money conference in London Wednesday, saying only that negotiations will continue until the scheduled Nov. 30 meeting ...