Dubai / Emirates Business As part of its efforts to support and promote the UAE’s Year of Giving, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has announced that it has expanded its activities under the national framework to its representative office in Baku. During a visit to the city’s Foreign Languages Gymnasium, representatives from the Chamber’s Azerbaijan office donated educational …

  ASTANA / AP Syria’s government envoy and a rebel leader traded barbs as talks between the Mideast country’s warring sides got underway in Kazakhstan on Monday in the first face-to-face meeting between the Damascus government and rebel factions fighting to overthrow it. The gathering in Astana, the Kazakh capital, is also the start of a new effort to end …

  CAIRO / AP The Egyptian army says extremists have killed five soldiers in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the latest casualties in a yearslong struggle to control the area’s northeast. In a statement released early Monday by the military spokesman, the army expressed its condolences to the soldiers’ families and described the attackers as “enemies of the nation.” Military officials, …