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Two people were killed on Monday following an Israeli air strike that levelled a residence in the southern Lebanese town of Ainata, Lebanon's state news agency said.
They are the latest casualties in an intensifying border conflict between armed militants, led by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, and Israel.
It was not clear whether the two Lebanese people killed in the strike were civilians or fighters.
The Israeli Electricity Company also announced the death of one of its employees on Monday from critical injuries sustained in Hezbollah’s attack on a convoy near the Dovev military barracks.
The Israeli military vowed on Sunday to "change the security situation in the north [of Israel]" after the attacks, which resulted in at least 14 additional injuries, both military and civilian.
In a separate incident, Israel twice fired artillery at the southern Lebanese town of Yaroun, metres away from where a group of journalists from various outlets were operating.
Only minor injuries were reported.
The southern Lebanese village of Yaroun lies directly across the border from the Israeli town of Dovev, where electricity company employees and Israeli soldiers had been hit in a Hezbollah attack the previous day.
The incident was filmed live by Al Jadeed, a local Lebanese channel. The news anchor could be heard speaking to correspondent Rif Akil over the air, who was on the ground reporting when the artillery struck nearby.
“It’s clear the rocket has fallen just a few metres away from you,” the anchor said as the camera filmed the destruction caused by the strike. “It’s clear this is a direct strike on journalists operating in Yaroun.”
“Yes,” Akil answered as she caught her breath.
The strike on the journalists Monday came exactly one month after Israeli strikes on Reuters, Al Jazeera, and AFP journalists who, clearly marked as press, were reporting on clashes near Ayta al Shaab. Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in that attack.
Hezbollah and allied groups have waged a war of attrition against Israel since October 8, seeking to divert Israel’s focus from Gaza.
The border conflict has escalated significantly since Saturday, when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the southern Lebanese front would “remain a front of pressure”.
Sunday’s significant progression of hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border prompted Israeli army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari to say that Israel will “change the security situation in the north”.
“Lebanese citizens will pay the price of this lawlessness and the decision of Hezbollah to be the protector of ISIS," Admiral Hagari said, comparing Hamas with the extremist group.
He said Hezbollah and the Lebanese government would bear responsibility for the attacks.
Daily clashes have intensified between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel in the past month, as both parties fight a war of attrition while attempting not to be drawn into full-scale war.
Hezbollah has conducted or provided armed groups with cover for daily attacks on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, seeking to prevent Israel from focusing its full attention on its bombardment of the blockaded Gaza Strip.
But the Iran-backed group has not launched a full-scale campaign, despite escalating tension at the border.
Armed Iran-allied groups in Syria, Yemen and Iraq have also attacked Israel, seeking to divert its attention from Gaza.
Israel has also tempered its responses in an attempt to prevent a full-scale confrontation from breaking out and turning into a regional war.
More than a month of violence has claimed at least 90 lives on the Lebanese side, with 72 Hezbollah fighters and at least 10 civilians among the dead.
Members of armed Palestinian groups operating from Lebanon were also among the casualties.
The Israeli army told The National that eight of its soldiers have been killed on the Lebanon-Israel front since the fighting began, but declined to provide numbers for civilian casualties.
After Mr Nasrallah’s speech last week, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that residents of Beirut would pay the price if Israel was dragged into war with Hezbollah.
“What we are doing in Gaza we know how to do in Beirut,” he threatened during a visit to the border region.
“I am saying here to the citizens of Lebanon, I already see the citizens in Gaza walking with white flags along the coast and moving south."
Mr Nasrallah has repeatedly conditioned the end of Hezbollah’s war of attrition on a ceasefire in Gaza – but he also said that “all options are open” on the Lebanese front against Israel, and that every action would be met with an equal and corresponding reaction.
“For every civilian, a civilian,” he promised in his televised speech.
Earlier this month three schoolgirls and their grandmother were killed in an Israeli air strike. Hezbollah promised retribution for their killing.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Day Indian Rs (Dh)
Thursday 500.75 million (25.23m)
Friday 280.25m (14.12m)
Saturday 220.75m (11.21m)
Sunday 170.25m (8.58m)
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