Dubai / Emirates Business Global Village concluded its extremely successful 20th season with the highest ever guest attendance at 5.3 million and business transactions worth AED2.2 billion, and closed to a packed house over its final weekend when more than 90,000 guests attended the park while the Lebanese superstar Nancy Ajram took to the stage a spectacular concert to be ...

CAIRO / Reuters Saudi Arabia and Egypt have signed agreements to specify maritime borders, a cabinet statement said, allowing both countries to benefit from maritime zones that were previously untapped. The agreement was signed during Saudi Arabia’s King Salman visit to Egypt during which several investment projects were announced. The technical drawing of the border include the Tiran and Sanafir ...

CAIRO / Reuters Egypt will reduce spending on fuel subsidies by nearly 43 percent in the 2016/17 budget due mainly to lower global energy costs, officials said on Saturday. Finance Minister Amr al-Garhy told a news conference state energy subsidies would fall to 35 billion Egyptian pounds ($3.94 billion) from about 61 billion pounds in the 2015/16 budget. Consumers reacted ...

Hiroshima / AFP G7 foreign ministers on Sunday began two days of talks in Hiroshima, with John Kerry’s visit to the atom-bombed city—the first-ever by a US secretary of state—overshadowing the broader agenda. Kerry’s landmark trip is seen as possibly paving the way for Barack Obama to become the first serving US president to journey to the thriving metropolis next ...

MUMBAI / AP The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have begun a weeklong visit to India and Bhutan, their second major trip representing the British crown and their first royal tour in almost two years. Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, began their first engagement in India by laying a wreath at a memorial Sunday at Mumbai’s ...

Lima / AFP Three soldiers and a civilian were killed, and seven others wounded, in two attacks by guerrillas in the jungles of central Peru, on the eve of presidential elections. Authorities blamed remnants of the Shining Path communist guerrilla group, which was largely crushed in the 1990s but still has members hiding in the jungle. The three soldiers and ...

New Delhi / AFP A massive fire swept through a temple in southern India on Sunday, killing more than 100 people and injuring scores more after they gathered to watch an unofficial fireworks display. Thousands had packed overnight into the Hindu temple in Kerala state where fireworks appear to have landed on an unexploded stash, triggering a blast, in a ...

Istanbul / AFP The world’s Islamic countries began their annual meeting on Sunday in Istanbul, where they are set to focus on the Palestinian cause, conflicts in member states and combating terrorism. The meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes once again at a time of turmoil in many Muslim nations, with conflicts in Syria and Yemen ...

Brussels / AFP The Brussels-based IS extremists behind the Paris attacks planned a fresh strike in France but targeted the Belgian capital instead as police closed in, the federal prosecutor said on Sunday. The prosecutor also announced that the so-called “man in the hat” Mohamed Abrini had been charged with “terrorist murders” over the attacks in Brussels last month. Suicide ...

As the current presidential election campaign gathers momentum in the United States, a remarkable distrust of free trade and globalization appears to have gained a voice in mainstream politics. Distrust and anger at unbalanced trade has facilitated the rise of Donald Trump, the Republican Party front-runner, and helped Bernie Sanders in his bid to win the Democratic Party nomination. Opposition ...