Morning Minutes: What will make headlines, May 4, 2016

Sembcorp is expected to announce its financial results for the first quarter. PHOTO: REUTERS

Good morning! Morning Minutes is a round-up of stories that will break on Wednesday, May 4, and which we think you'd be interested in.

It appears on weekdays, available by 7am.

Sembcorp to report Q1 financial results

Sembcorp Industries will report its first quarter financial results on Wednesday (May 4). - LEE XIN EN

IE Singapore to hold Global Trader Dialogue

International Enterprise Singapore is holding the Global Trader Dialogue on Wednesday (May 4), during which it will share plans for a new manpower training programme for the international trading sector targeting mid-career professionals. - MARISSA LEE

German Foreign Minister to hold talks with Syria's opposition leader

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (pictured) will be holding talks in Berlin with Syria's main opposition leader on May 4, 2016. PHOTO: AFP

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will hold talks in Berlin on Wednesday (May 4) with Syria's main opposition leader as a two-month-old ceasefire hangs by a thread.

The discussions, which will also involve French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and the United Nations' envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, will focus on "how a reduction of violence... in Syria can be achieved", the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday (May 3).

European Commission to declare Turkey's visa liberalisation

Migrants at a Turkish coastguard station in Dikili after a failed attempt at crossing to the Greek island of Lesbos, on April 6, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

The European Commission is expected to declare on Wednesday (May 4) that Turkey has broadly met the criteria for visa liberalisation and to ask EU governments and the European Parliament to waive its visas by the end of June.

Liberalising visa rules for Turkey, a Muslim country of 79 million people, is a contentious issue among EU states, but Brussels is pushing ahead to keep a migration accord in place that should help ease Europe's worst migration crisis since World War Two.

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