Ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh for Armenia sit in a truck at the Lachin checkpoint controlled by Russian peacekeepers and Azeri border guards. EPA
Ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh for Armenia sit in a truck at the Lachin checkpoint controlled by Russian peacekeepers and Azeri border guards. EPA
Ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh for Armenia sit in a truck at the Lachin checkpoint controlled by Russian peacekeepers and Azeri border guards. EPA
Ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh for Armenia sit in a truck at the Lachin checkpoint controlled by Russian peacekeepers and Azeri border guards. EPA

Almost 30,000 refugees flee to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh


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More than 28,000 of Nagorno-Karabakh's 120,000 ethnic Armenian residents have fled to Armenia, the Armenian government has said.

They began fleeing this week after their forces were routed in the operation by Azerbaijan's military. At least 200 ethnic Armenians and dozens of Azeri soldiers were killed.

On Tuesday, hundreds of cars and buses filled with people and their possessions lined up along the mountain road out of Azerbaijan.

As part of a ceasefire deal, separatists have agreed to surrender their weapons.

The enclave is a part of Azerbaijan that had been beyond Baku's control since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Some Armenians fled, packed into the back of open-topped lorries, others on tractors. Grandmother-of-four Narine Shakaryan arrived in her son-in-law's car, with six people packed inside, Reuters reported.

The 77km drive took 24 hours, she said, and they had not eaten any food.

"The whole way the children were crying, they were hungry," Ms Shakaryan said at the border, carrying her three-year-old granddaughter, who she said had become ill during the journey. "We left so we would stay alive, not to live."

Fuel stations were full on the way out of the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

A satellite image shows a long traffic jam of vehicles along the Lachin corridor. Maxar Technologies/Reuters
A satellite image shows a long traffic jam of vehicles along the Lachin corridor. Maxar Technologies/Reuters

Karabakh's ombudsman said the death toll in the explosion and fire at a fuel depot on Monday had risen to 68, with a further 105 people missing and nearly 300 injured. A total of 68 were taken to medical institutions in Armenia.

The authorities have given no explanation for the blast.

USAID head Samantha Power, in the Armenian capital Yerevan, called on Azerbaijan "to maintain the ceasefire and take concrete steps to protect the rights of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh".

Ms Power had earlier handed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a letter of support from US President Joe Biden. She said Azerbaijan's use of force was unacceptable and that Washington was looking at an appropriate response.

Ms Power urged Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to honour his promise to protect ethnic Armenian rights, fully reopen the Lachin corridor that connects the region to Armenia and let in aid deliveries and an international monitoring mission.

Mr Aliyev has pledged to guarantee the safety of Karabakh's Armenians, but said his iron fist had consigned the idea of the region's independence to history.

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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

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1 Adam Yates (GBR) Mitchelton-Scott 4:42:33

2 Tadej Pocagar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:03

3 Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) Astana 0:01:30

4 David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ

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6 Diego Ulissi (ITA) UAE Team Emirates  0:01:56

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2 Tadej Pocagar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:07

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4 David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:40

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6 Wilco Kelderman (NED) Team Sunweb)  0:02:06

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Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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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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Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, which can lead to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.

There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E.

Hepatitis C is mostly transmitted through exposure to infective blood. This can occur through blood transfusions, contaminated injections during medical procedures, and through injecting drugs. Sexual transmission is also possible, but is much less common.

People infected with hepatitis C experience few or no symptoms, meaning they can live with the virus for years without being diagnosed. This delay in treatment can increase the risk of significant liver damage.

There are an estimated 170 million carriers of Hepatitis C around the world.

The virus causes approximately 399,000 fatalities each year worldwide, according to WHO.

 

Updated: September 27, 2023, 6:28 AM