Berlin / AFP European Parliament President Martin Schulz said on Sunday the EU must make no concessions to Turkey over human rights but voiced confidence in a deal with Ankara to manage the refugee crisis. Under the controversial agreement, Turkey is due to take back illegal migrants from EU member Greece from Monday, when it will also start an orderly ...

Sydney / AFP Australia opposes Donald Trump’s suggestion that Japan and South Korea should develop nuclear weapons since this would “add considerably” to the risk of regional conflict, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Sunday. The Republican presidential front-runner had declared he would withdraw US troops from both countries and allow them to develop their own nuclear arsenals. But Turnbull said ...

Baku / AFP Azerbaijan on Sunday announced a unilateral ceasefire after the worst violence over disputed Nagorny Karabakh in more than two decades, but Armenian forces said clashes were continuing despite international appeals to stop fighting. “Azerbaijan, showing good will, has decided to unilaterally cease hostilities”, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said in a statement, warning it would “liberate all (Armenian) occupied ...

Belgrade / AFP An explosive device was thrown and automatic weapons were fired at a sports hall in northern Kosovo on Sunday some 12 hours before Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was due to visit, Serbian media reported, adding that there were no casualties. The blast occurred outside a hall at Zubin Potok at around 3:00 a.m as workers were ...

Sydney / AFP The last asylum-seeker children in Australian mainland detention have been freed, the government said on Sunday, although dozens of others are still being held on the remote Pacific island of Nauru. Under Canberra’s harsh immigration policy, asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are turned back or sent to Pacific camps in Nauru and Papua New ...

China’s intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), offers a snapshot of the political intrigue taking place within the regime of President Xi Jinping. The MSS has replaced two vice ministers within the last four years, after reports of political infighting and scandal. The current minister is said to be a figurehead, with the real power held by a ...

International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recommendations to adopt policies that support research and development to promote innovation could play a pivotal role in reversing the global economic slowdown. Such recommendations could be implemented through structural reforms in labour and product markets that take innovation into account. “Fiscal policy can play an important role in stimulating innovation through its effects on research ...

Shannon Tiezzi SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS China’s State Grid Corp. has unveiled an ambitious blueprint for creating a global electricity network. As Wall Street Journal reports, on Wednesday State Grid chairman Liu Zhenya outlined the $50 trillion plan, which calls for long-range transmission lines to create a world grid that heavily incorporates wind and solar energy from the Arctic and ...

When Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff walked down the ramp at the presidential palace in Brasilia the other day, she might have been a national hero. “There will be struggle, there will be resistance,” a gruff-voiced leader of the homeless workers’ movement announced, turning the announcement of a new federal housing initiative into a political rally. “This bogus coup attempt will ...

For years, in news rooms across the region, reporters and editors have argued about the merits of sending teams of journalists and photographers to cover the annual ASEAN summits. Interest is in a state of constant decline even as costs escalate. A major problem is rarely do ASEAN gatherings offer news that would be considered worthy for the front pages ...