Dubai / WAM The UAE’S thriving economy, including its active construction industry, had a positive impact on the nation’s insurance sector, with premiums written in property and liability insurance rising from AED24.9 billion in 2014 to AED27.5 billion in 2015, an increase of 10.4 percent, according to data released by the annual insurance report for 2015. The UAE economy is ...

  Dubai / WAM The Third Global Islamic Economy Summit (GIES) will begin in Dubai on Tuesday, focusing on challenges that face the economy, along with strengthening co-operation in a bid to find sustainable solutions. Themed “Inspiring Change,” the summit will be held under the patronage of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin ...

  Dubai / WAM The Board of Directors of the Dubai Women Establishment (DWE) held a meeting to review the organisation’s 2017-2021 strategic plan. The plan is focused on promoting the skills of Emirati women, and enhancing their capabilities, in line with the UAE’s strategic priorities. The Board also reviewed DWE’s various achievements in the past years and discussed the progress ...

  Port-au-Prince / AFP Haiti began three days of mourning on Sunday for hundreds killed in Hurricane Matthew as relief officials grappled with the unfolding devastation in the Caribbean country’s hard-hit south. Matthew was downgraded Sunday to a post-tropical cyclone after cutting a swath from Florida to North Carolina that left at least 17 dead. As of 1500 GMT, the storm ...

  Washington / AFP White House candidate Donald Trump desperately needs a strong debate performance against Hillary Clinton on Sunday, with stakes sky-high following intense scrutiny of his treatment of women and damaging footage of him making lewd remarks. His unprecedented, outside-the-establishment presidential bid, and the embattled Republican Party with it, was thrown into disarray by his misogynistic comments, with ...

  ADDIS ABABA / AP The Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency effective immediately following a week of anti-government violence that resulted in deaths and property damage across the country, especially in the restive Oromia region. In a televised address on Sunday morning, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said the state of emergency was declared because there has been ...

  Berlin / AFP A bombing targeting Shiites in Baghdad killed at least five people and wounded 21 others on Sunday, Iraqi officials said, an attack claimed by the IS extremist group. The attack struck the Baghdad Jadida area near a tent where Shiite Muslims provide refreshments to passersby as part of annual commemorations of the death of Imam Hussain, a ...

  Vilnius / AFP Lithuanians fed up with economic inequality and mass emigration voted on Sunday in round one of a tight general election, which could oust the governing Social Democrats. Russia’s latest deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to its neighbouring Kaliningrad exclave rattled nerves just a day ahead of the vote. But the reassurance provided by NATO’s beefed up presence ...

  Bloomberg Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections, retaining power by edging the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, according to preliminary results from the Central Elections Commission. The party received 49.3 percent of the vote in the Black Sea country with 26.5 percent for United National Movement, according to the commission website. The Alliance of Patriots of Georgia party exceeded ...

  Beirut / AFP Syrian government forces on Sunday kept up their blistering assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo after a divided UN Security Council failed to agree on a truce to “save” the war-battered city. Regime forces and their allies were advancing street by street in the eastern sector which has been out of government hands since 2012. “Clashes on ...