Ras Al Khaimah / Emirates Business Emaar Properties PJSC signed an agreement with Al Marjan Island (AMI), a leading waterfront master developer in the UAE, to develop 2 million sq ft mixed-use projects including high-end residential, hospitality and retail components in Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah. Ras Al Khaimah’s first man-made project, Al Marjan Island has a ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business The Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG), the technology arm of the Smart Dubai Office (SDO), organised a training workshop on the Happiness Meter in collaboration with the Dubai Department of Economic Development’s (DED) Dubai Service Excellence Scheme (DSES) launched in 2002. The Happiness Meter was unveiled by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business As part of its efforts to build the capabilities of the next generation of Emirati scientists, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced its call of the Research Grant Program. The program aims to promote research and studies related to space science in the UAE. Those from the UAE community willing to participate in ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business “Horouf,’ the innovative educational imprint of Kalimat Group, a publishing house dedicated to printing and distributing quality children books in Arabic, will hold a winter camp for children. Titled ‘Shitaa Bil Arabi’ (Winter in Arabic), the event, which has been established to offer youngsters fun and educational activities throughout the winter holidays, will take place ...

Aleppo / AFP The last residents hoping to leave rebel-held Aleppo waited in the snow on Wednesday as delays hit an evacuation that will leave Syria’s army in full control of the devastated city. An AFP correspondent in the government-held neighbourhood of Ramussa—through which thousands of evacuees have passed in recent days—saw no convoys leaving the last pocket of opposition-controlled ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkish authorities were on Wednesday looking into claims the alleged mastermind of the failed July coup was involved in the assassination of Moscow’s ambassador, but the Kremlin warned against jumping to conclusions. Monday’s murder of Andrei Karlov stunned Russia and prompted warnings of retribution from the Kremlin. But both sides responded by vowing to step up ...

  Baghdad / AFP The IS group is “indiscriminately” attacking civilians who refused to retreat along with the extremists in the Iraqi city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the last IS-held city in Iraq more than two months ago, and have pushed the extremists out of several neighbourhoods on ...

  Most presidents wait until inauguration before sparking their first foreign policy crises. Donald Trump has a month to go and he has already wandered into two — one with China and one with Russia. How will these foreign challenges shape Trump’s early months in office? His freewheeling style seems to have discombobulated China, which has some unexpected benefits. But ...

  As India continues its scorched-earth campaign against cash, the question baffling many analysts is why a country so unfamiliar with digital payments would outlaw 86 percent of its currency, the most-favoured method of settling transactions. Sample the following three factoids from a study led by Tufts University researchers: Fewer than 10% of Indians have ever used any kind of ...

  A little over a year ago, Poland’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) swept to power promising to challenge the political elite, restore national control of the country’s affairs, and realign government with traditional conservative values. Since then concerns have grown, at home and in Europe’s capitals, that Poland has taken a wrong turn. The government’s most recent moves do ...