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  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. ...

  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 ...

  Beirut / AFP Turkish shelling and air strikes killed at least 40 Syrians on Sunday, a monitor said, in the first significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s intensifying campaign in northern Syria. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the army had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in air strikes as part of its unprecedented operation inside Syria. The bombardments came after Ankara ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) said that this year’s international summer campaign had a positive effect on the tourist numbers in the Emirate. The SCTDA campaign which ran in collaboration with the emirates accommodation sector was run in parallel with the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s summer campaign which promoted the commerce ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Entrepreneurship is a source of economic growth in all parts of the world, and in many Middle Eastern countries it is one of the main economic drivers. Bayt.com, the Middle East’s leading job site, teamed up with YouGov, a pioneer in online market research, to ascertain the current levels of understanding and interest in entrepreneurship ...

  Bloomberg India expects to woo 1 trillion rupees ($15 billion) of investment over five years to double mining output and cut mineral imports. The government’s goal is to fast-track exploration, including upfront payments for discovered deposits when the mines are auctioned, Mines Minister Piyush Goyal said in an interview. The administration will invite foreign companies to participate, he said, ...

  Bloomberg There are at least three good reasons why China is likely to succeed in starting the world’s biggest carbon-trading market when its efforts to limit pollution kick in next year. The government wants to put a cost on emissions of toxic smog to control pollution in industrial cities, starting with Beijing. The market may trade as much as ...

  Bloomberg German Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth warned that the U.K.’s negotiations to leave the European Union “will be very difficult” and that Britain won’t be allowed to “cherry pick” the best that the bloc has to offer. “If the British want full market access but want to limit the access of workers from Germany, France or Poland, they ...

  Bloomberg US President Barack Obama called on Congress on Saturday to step up funding to combat the Zika virus, warning that delay is putting more Americans at risk. Obama’s latest appeal, in his weekly radio address, came the day after the US authorities expressed deepening worry about the spread of the mosquito-borne virus, urging that all donated blood be ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Abu Dhabi Ports, the master developer, operator and manager of the Emirate’s ports and Khalifa Industrial Zone, on Saturday announced a major expansion plan in Khalifa Port. The expansion at Khalifa Port, one of the world’s fastest growing container, bulk cargo and roll-on roll-off vehicle transport ports, will add 1,000 metres of quay wall ...