Abu Dhabi / WAM The Mubadala Development Company, Mubadala, on Sunday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC) to strengthen and expand its community outreach programme. The agreement includes the addition of two community cycling competitions in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, a long-distance running event, the expansion of the Mubadala Football Tournament, to be renamed ...

  Dubai / WAM The Mostaqbal Portal, a knowledge-based initiative launched by Dubai Future Foundation, has established itself as the leading Arab platform to support knowledge and update Arab audiences regarding cutting edge developments in science and future technology. The portal topped the list of Arab science platforms in terms of number of followers, visits, and interactions. The site receives up ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business E-businesses constitute one among the fastest growing businesses in the UAE, with more and more UAE residents and national investing in the e-commerce realm. Currently, UAE leads the GCC in e-commerce growth and in 2015, the number of B2C e commerce in the MENA region reached an estimated height of $15 Billion rising from $9 ...

  Sirte / AFP Forces loyal to Libya’s UN-backed unity government on Sunday pushed into the last areas of Sirte held by the IS group in what was the extremists’ coastal stronghold. The battle for the hometown of Libya’s slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi was launched more than three months ago by forces loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord. ...

  Dhaka / AFP Bangladesh police said on Sunday they were hunting more extremist leaders after shooting dead the suspected mastermind of a deadly cafe attack, on the eve of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s first visit. Security forces stormed a militant hideout outside Dhaka on Saturday, killing three suspected extremists including the Bangladesh-born Canadian accused of organising last month’s ...

  Caracas / AFP Venezuela sent an opposition leader who was under house arrest back to jail and expelled a delegation of Ecuadoran lawmakers, amid rising political tension over a campaign to recall leftist President Nicolas Maduro. Former San Cristobal mayor Daniel Ceballos was abruptly taken from his home before dawn by members of the Venezuelan intelligence services, his wife said ...

  Marawi / AFP Muslim extremists who support the IS group staged a daring jailbreak in the southern Philippines, freeing 23 detainees in the latest in a series of mass escapes, officials said on Sunday. About 50 heavily armed members of the Maute group raided the local jail in the southern city of Marawi on Mindanao island on Saturday and freed ...

  Brasília / AFP The final witnesses in the defense of suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff testified late Saturday in her senate impeachment trial, days before a vote that could permanently remove her from power. Rousseff, 68, is accused of taking illegal state loans to help bridge budget shortfalls and mask the true state of the economy during her 2014 reelection ...

  Rome / AFP Shoddy, price-cutting renovations, in breach of local building regulations, could be partly to blame for the high death toll from this week’s devastating earthquake in central Italy, according to a prosecutor investigating the disaster. As questions mount over the deaths of nearly 300 people, prosecutor Giuseppe Saieva indicated that property owners who commissioned suspected sub-standard work ...

  Detroit / AFP Allegations that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) falsified US sales data are meritless and the company’s financial reports are “totally accurate,” chief executive Sergio Marchionne told reporters. Marchionne said the FCA is cooperating with authorities from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department probing the company’s reporting after it was forced to restate unit ...