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Damascus / AFP Syria’s regime agreed on Tuesday to a ceasefire deal announced by the United States and Russia, but there were widespread doubts it could take effect by the weekend as hoped. The agreement, announced on Monday, does not apply to extremists like the IS group and Al-Nusra Front, putting up major hurdles to how it can be implemented ...

Alkesh Sharma / Emirates Business Instant replies to customer queries always bring brisk business. Dubai-based start-up Brndstr is creating ripples in the industry with its new auto-reply tool which would enable technology entrepreneurs and corporates to promptly interact with their targeted customers, by using intelligent robotic responses. Brndstr is offering a wholesome directory of hashtag and emoji on Twitter platform ...

London / AFP The bosses of more than a third of Britain’s top companies on Tuesday urged voters to keep the country in the European Union, warning that an exit from the bloc would threaten jobs. Some 198 business leaders including Roger Carr, chairman of BAE Systems, BP CEO Bob Dudley and Ron Dennis, chief of F1 team McLaren, wrote ...

Bloomberg With Jeb Bush’s departure from the presidential race on Saturday, a mighty fundraising army scattered. The question the troops face: pick another side or retreat? Bobbie Kilberg chose quickly. A top Republican fundraiser in Virginia, she got the news of Bush’s withdrawal Saturday night over text messages at a dinner. By the next morning, she was giving interviews about ...

Kandahar / AFP Afghan troops have retreated from two districts in the southern province of Helmand, officials said on Monday, a move which highlights the challenge from Taliban fighters in the opium-producing region. “The Afghan army retreated from two army bases in Musa Qala and one base from Nawzad district” on Saturday, provincial governor Khan Rahimi said, leaving no troops ...

New Delhi / AFP Much of New Delhi’s water supply was cut off on Monday after members of an influential Indian caste sabotaged a canal as part of protests seeking preferential treatment that have killed at least 19 people. A representative of the Jat caste said they had called off their week-long protests which saw thousands of troops deployed in ...

Kampala / AFP Uganda’s main opposition leader was held by police on Monday at a police station outside the capital after being taken from his home where he had been under house arrest. Kizza Besigye has rejected the results of Thursday’s election won by veteran President Yoweri Museveni, and called on his supporters to join a protest march to the ...

BERLIN / AFP Ending Europe’s open-borders Schengen agreement would cost EU economies at least 470 billion euros ($520 billion) over a decade, according to a German study published on Monday. The impact on trade flows would also cost major trade partners the United States and China tens of billions of euros each, said the study by the Prognos institute on ...

Washington / AP Russia seeks permission to start flying surveillance planes equipped with high-powered digital cameras amid warnings from US intelligence and military officials that such overflights help Moscow collect intelligence on the United States. Russia and the United States are signatories to the Open Skies Treaty, which allows unarmed observation flights over the entire territory of all 34 member ...

Lisbon / AFP Traditionally a country of emigration, Portugal has offered to take up to 10,000 migrants from countries struggling to cope with the influx, to help maintain its own population. Portugal’s socialist premier Antonio Costa last week sent letters to Austria, Greece, Italy and Sweden—countries that have seen refugees arrive in large numbers—offering to welcome up to 5,800 more ...