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Washington / AFP In a landmark discovery for physics and astronomy, scientists said on Thursday they have glimpsed the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space-time that Albert Einstein predicted a century ago. When two black holes collided some 1.3 billion years ago, the joining of those two great masses sent forth a wobble that ...

NEW DELHI / WAM The United Arab Emirates and the Republic of India exchanged a number of cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding in a number of areas. The exchange ceremonies were witnessed by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and His Excellency ...

NEW DELHI His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has also met with the Indian Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, where he discussed friendly ties and cooperation between the UAE and India as well as ways to promote them in order to achieve common ...

Munich / AFP Russia said on Thursday it was ready to discuss a ceasefire in Syria as foreign ministers gathered in Munich in a bid to kick-start peace talks derailed by the regime onslaught on the besieged city of Aleppo. Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled to the Turkish border as government forces, backed by Russian bombers and Iranian ...

Rome / Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has compared Europe’s recent economic policies to administering drugs to artificially prolong the life of a terminally ill patient. A regular critic of the European Union’s budget deficit rules, Renzi said in an open letter published by La Repubblica on Thursday that austerity economics had resulted in Europe being left behind by ...

Bloomberg Norway’s biggest political party says the country’s giant wealth fund needs to rethink its proposed entry into the $20 trillion infrastructure market. “With what we’re seeing now with economic developments globally, and the short-term cost of that for Norway, it’s time to put the brakes on,” said Torstein Tvedt Solberg, a Labor Party politician who sits on the parliamentary ...

Paris / AFP Jean-Marc Ayrault, who resigned as French prime minister two years ago to take the blame for a sputtering economy, has been rewarded for his loyalty to embattled President Francois Hollande with the foreign affairs portfolio. Seen as a safe pair of hands but with little diplomatic experience — or charisma —the understated Ayrault, 66, will be expected ...

Brussels / AFP NATO launched on Thursday an unprecedented naval mission in the Aegean Sea to tackle people smugglers taking migrants and refugees from the Turkish coast, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. The move follows a request this week by alliance members Germany, Greece and Turkey for assistance in tackling Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War II. ...

Bangkok / AFP Thailand’s pro-democracy “Red Shirt” movement will vote against a new junta-scripted charter in a looming referendum, their leader said on Thursday, a move that could deepen the country’s political impasse. The political play comes a day after the military, which seized power two years ago from a civilian government, said it will hold a plebiscite on their ...

Sydney / AFP Australia said on Thursday it will “carefully consider” if it can help the orphans of an IS extremist and their Sydney-born mother, who both reportedly died in Syria, warning the children could pose a threat later in life. Tara Nettleton, whose husband KhaledSharrouf made headlines in 2014 when he posted an image on Twitter of his then ...