Istanbul summit seeks to transform aid response

  Istanbul / AFP Global leaders and key NGOs gather in Istanbul on Monday for an unprecedented UN-backed summit aimed at transforming the world’s response to humanitarian crises, despite scepticism the talks will have little impact. With an estimated 60 million people displaced around the world and conflict and climate change posing a growing risk, there is widespread agreement among ...

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6 dead, 500,000 flee as cyclone hits B’desh

Bangladesh / AFP Cyclone Roanu struck the Bangladesh coast on Saturday killing six people and forcing hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes as the storm unleashed strong winds and heavy downpours. Authorities took more than 500,000 people into shelters as the cyclone made landfall just after noon local time (0600 GMT), packing winds as strong as 88 kilometres (54 ...

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Storm kills 8, leaves 4 missing in China

BEIJING / AP Chinese state media say a strong storm that hammered a southern city has left at least eight people dead and four missing. The official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday that all deaths and the missing people were reported in the city of Xinyi, which was hit the hardest by Friday’s storm. The Xinyi government says it is the ...

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‘Smoke on board’ EgyptAir plane before crash

  Cairo / AFP Smoke was detected inside an EgyptAir plane shortly before it plunged into the Mediterranean with 66 people on board, investigators said on Saturday, offering clues but no answers about why it crashed. The Airbus A320 had been flying from Paris to Cairo early Thursday when it plummeted and turned full circle before vanishing from radar screens, ...

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MH17 victim families sue Putin, Russia

  Sydney / AFP Families of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, are suing President Vladimir Putin and Russia for Aus$10 million each in the European Court of Human Rights, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Saturday. The compensation claim was filed with the Strasbourg-based court by Sydney legal firm LHD Lawyers ...

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71 dead as foreign aid reaches flooded Sri Lankan capital

  Colombo / AFP Foreign aid began arriving in Sri Lanka on Saturday, bringing help to half a million people who have been driven from their homes by heavy rains and landslides that have killed at least 71. The heaviest rains in a quarter of a century have pounded Sri Lanka since last weekend, triggering huge landslides that have buried some ...

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Taking the fight to the IS

Amid hedgerows of computer screens in the joint operations center that runs the war against the IS, Marine Brig. Gen. Bill Mullen explains the complex assault that drove the extremist fighters last week from the strategic town of Rutbah at the western edge of Anbar province. The battle showed how the campaign against the IS, which has had a slow ...

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Japan’s currency move needs wariness

  Japan’s plan to tame bullish Yen to sensitise its exports has drawn criticism from G7 ministers’ meeting, which brought together finance ministers and central bank governors from Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and the US, plus leaders from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and European Union. Tokyo’s repeated threats to intervene in forex markets to reverse a ...

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China’s on-again, off-again P2P lending

Sara Hsu SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS China’s peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector has witnessed expansion in recent years, despite periodic clampdowns on excessive risk. This has led to on-again, off-again surges in activity in this shadow banking sector. In some cases, criminal activity has highlighted the perils of borrowing or lending through this industry, but the loan availability for borrowers and ...

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As Obama heads to Vietnam, he must keep human rights in mind

Vu Minh Khanh was in Washington last week to address a congressional hearing. As the wife of the respected Vietnamese human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, she vividly recalled her husband’s ordeal. He has been missing ever since he was arrested last December. She knows he is in police custody but is unaware of his whereabouts and fears for his ...

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