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Vienna / AFP Austria warned on Wednesday that the EU’s future was at stake as it pressed Balkan states, in the absence of an effective common response by the bloc, to reduce the influx of migrants despite fears of a humanitarian crisis. Further undermining the European Union’s hopes to get a grip on the situation, Hungary meanwhile announced a referendum ...

Bloomberg Russian and Syrian warplanes pounded IS positions near Aleppo on Wednesday, a group monitoring the conflict said, trying to regain access to a strategic road whose fall to the militant group set back the allies’ advances before a scheduled truce. IS has tightened its grip on the Syrian military’s only access route to Aleppo, the country’s largest city, according ...

BLoomberg The pound sank below $1.39 for the first time since March 2009, while a gauge of anxiety in currency markets showed traders are preparing for even more extreme moves. Options traders are paying the most to protect against price swings in six months’ time compared with historical volatility since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed during the 2008 credit crisis. ...

DUBAI / WAM Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and in the presence of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, the Global Women’s Forum Dubai, 2016, opened on Tuesday at the Madinat ...

DUBAI / WAM H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, on Tuesday delivered a keynote during the official opening of the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai, in which he stressed that the UAE, as part of its developmental journey, has regarded women as partners in the service of the homeland and nation-building, stressing ...

Beijing / AFP Beijing is installing radar facilities on its artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea, an American think tank has said, in a move analysts warned would “exponentially improve” the country’s monitoring capacities. Satellite imagery of Cuarteron reef in the Spratlys released by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed what appeared to be ...

Kiev / AFP Germany and France on Tuesday urged Kiev to root out corruption and quickly adopt a law on elections in the pro-Russian east that may help resolve Ukraine’s separatist war. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Kiev amid political chaos that has seen ministers in the pro-EU government trade accusations of ...

Riyadh / AFP The leader of Africa’s number one oil producer was in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with analysts forecasting his country’s eventual support for an output freeze to stabilise prices. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is to meet King Salman before travelling on to Qatar. The official Saudi Press Agency reported late Monday that Buhari had landed in Riyadh, where ...

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 ...