Business

06 Nov 2020; MEMO: The Saudi authorities have decided to exclude five professions from the amendments to the sponsorship system aimed at improving the contractual relationship between Saudi employers and expatriate workers.

The five professions include: private driver, guard, domestic worker, shepherd and gardener.

06 Nov 2020; MEMO: Iran believes the US government no longer can “control what’s happening in the world” or show other countries how to protect citizens’ rights, the Iranian foreign minister said on Thursday during a visit to ally Venezuela.

Speaking two days after the US presidential election, Mohammad Javad Zarif said the era of “Western hegemony had ended” as he praised Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for resisting a US-coordinated campaign to oust him.

New Delhi, Nov 6 (PTI) WhatsApp on Friday said it is rolling out its payments services in India after receiving nod from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

In 2018, the Facebook-owned company had started testing its UPI-based payments service in India, which allows users to utilise the messaging platform to send and receive money. The testing was limited to about a million users as it waited for regulatory approvals to come in.

BEIJING — China has temporarily banned the entry of foreigners from at least eight countries as COVID-19 cases rise in Europe and elsewhere.

Non-Chinese can no longer enter from Russia, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Philippines, India and Bangladesh, even if they hold a valid visa or residence permit for China.

Embassies in those countries have posted online notices in recent days announcing the temporary suspension of entry.

China has enacted strict measures to guard against new infections from abroad.

05 Nov 2020; MEMO: Syrian President Bashar al Assad said billions of dollars of deposits held by his countrymen in Lebanon’s financial sector that was blocked after a major financial crisis were the main cause of Syria’s deepening economic crisis, Reuters reports.

04 Nov 2020; MEMO: Egypt’s Foreign Minister said on Monday that Turkey is not among the countries with which Cairo might cooperate in order to reach a peace deal in Libya, TASS has reported. Sameh Shoukry said that there are parties that support extremism and gangsterism, and have moved foreign militants and terrorists from Syria to Libya.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As the world awaited definitive results from the U.S. presidential election, Chinese investors betting on the re-election of Donald Trump sent shares of a Shenzhen-listed air traffic control software firm soaring on Wednesday.

Wisesoft Co Ltd 002253.SZ, whose Chinese name sounds like "Trump's big win", saw its shares jump as much as 9.8% after early returns showed few signs of a conclusive Democratic victory in U.S. polls, making the stock a rare clear winner on the day.

03 Nov 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas giant, Aramco, reported its third quarter profits with a net profit of $11.79 billion; a 44.6 per cent drop from last year’s $21.3 billion, which is in line with analysts’ expectations.

Aramco said it had maintained a $18.75 billion dividend which will be paid in the fourth quarter of this year, noting that the capital expenditures in the third quarter amounted to $6.4 billion.

02 Nov 2020; MEMO: The cabinet of the United Arab Emirates approved a smaller federal budget for 2021 in a sign that the country is curbing expenditure amid the coronavirus crisis and lower oil prices, reports Reuters.

The budget for next year was set at 58 billion dirhams ($15.8 billion), state news agency WAM reported on Sunday, down from this year’s 61.35 billion dirhams, which was the largest budget since the establishment of the country.

02 Nov 2020; MEMO: Egypt will reopen the Rafah crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

“The terminal will be open in both directions for four days until Thursday,” the Hamas-run ministry said in a statement.

This is the third time for the Egyptian authorities to reopen the Rafah crossing since March.