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Sydney / AFP The last asylum-seeker children in Australian mainland detention have been freed, the government said on Sunday, although dozens of others are still being held on the remote Pacific island of Nauru. Under Canberra’s harsh immigration policy, asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are turned back or sent to Pacific camps in Nauru and Papua New ...

Paris / WAM Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, has recently participated in the G20 high level seminar on international financial architecture held in Paris under the slogan “From Nanjing to Paris”, where speakers addressed the most important evolutions of the international monetary system, including the IMF’s recent decision to include official currency of the ...

Syria / AFP Syrian troops have found a mass grave containing the bodies of 42 people executed by IS extremists in Palmyra, as Washington warned the group’s leader will eventually “taste justice”. IS has in recent months claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Brussels and Paris, but has lost ground in Syria and Iraq. Days after Syrian troops backed by ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The percentage of debtors among UAE family heads in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has declined during 2015 for the second consecutive year to reach about 19.9 per cent on average from its previous rate of 24 per cent in 2014, according to the National Family Status Observatory’s 2015 report. Issued by the Department of Economic ...

Tokyo / Bloomberg Sharp Corp.’s President Kozo Takahashi and Foxconn Technology Group’s Chairman Terry Gou formally signed a rescue deal on Saturday, ending a takeover drama that spanned four years of often difficult negotiations. Takahashi and Gou, flanked by the flags of Taiwan and Japan, shook hands in front of more than 300 reporters gathered at the Osaka-based company’s Sakai ...

Sharjah / WAM The most effective ways of enhancing business between Sharjah and Portugal were high on the agenda at a key meeting organised by Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) in collaboration with AICEP Portugal Global Trade and Investment Agency. More than 50 business stakeholders attended the premium roundtable event, which was held at Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and ...

Greece / AFP Greece on Saturday demanded “explanations” from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after Wikileaks said the lender sought a crisis “event” to push the indebted nation into concluding talks over its reforms. IMF officials, in an internal discussion, allegedly voiced exasperation with Greece on its slow pace of reform, complaining Athens only moved decisively when faced with the ...

Bloomberg Benchmark Treasuries logged their best week since January even as data pointed to U.S. job-market strength. The rally shows traders are betting the Federal Reserve is focusing more on the struggling global economy than on data back home, according to Aaron Kohli of BMO Capital Markets. Treasuries are off to their best annual start since 2008 as slowing economies ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, one of the world’s most sustainable urban developments, will undergo significant expansion over the next five years driven by its emergence as a hub for R&D and the commercialisation of clean technologies. “Around 35 percent of the planned built-up area will be completed over the next five years — up from ...

Istanbul / AFP Turkish authorities on Saturday raced to set up reception centres to process Syrian and other migrants two days ahead of the implementation of a hugely controversial deal with the EU for them to be sent back from Greece to Turkish soil. Turkey is due to start receiving migrants who crossed the Aegean Sea for EU member Greece ...