Harriersand / DPA Claus Hartmann works with enormous logs of up to 4 metres in length. First he traces out his design on the wood and then he takes a chainsaw and begins to cut out the head and shoulders of a figurehead for a ship. After a week of work in his garden on the river island of Harriersand ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Mubadala Development Company and the HNA Group, a global Fortune 500 company specialising in tourism, logistics and financial services, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand investment collaboration between the two sides. Following a series of senior leadership meetings in Abu Dhabi, the companies agreed to explore co-development and co-investment opportunities across a range ...

  WEST PALM BEACH / AP Throngs of Cubans began streaming to Havana’s iconic Revolution Square to pay tribute to Fidel Castro on Monday, kicking off an emotional, week-long farewell to the divisive Cold War titan. Mourners, many of whom had lined up before dawn, began filling the square as soon as it opened with a salvo of 21 cannon ...

  Astana / AFP A court in Kazakhstan on Monday convicted two men of sowing unrest around a controversial land reform and sentenced each to five years in jail. Max Bokaev and Talgat Ayan were both arrested in April as protests against proposed land code amendments rippled across the vast Central Asian country, threatening the 27-year rule of strongman President Nursultan ...

  Beijing / AFP China has lodged a diplomatic protest with Singapore after a shipment of Singaporean military armoured vehicles being brought back from Taiwan was seized in Hong Kong, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Monday. Beijing stated its opposition to “any form of official exchanges with Taiwan, including military exchanges and cooperation”, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters, ...

  Berlin / AFP Francois Fillon, frontrunner to become France’s next president, has sparked unease in Germany with his friendly attitude toward Russia, which could make him an uncomfortable ally for Chancellor Angela Merkel. Fillon secured the nomination of the French conservative Republicans on Sunday with a resounding victory over his more moderate challenger Alain Juppe. Opinion polls currently predict that ...

  Nicosia / AFP UN envoy Eden Barth Eide held separate talks with rival Cypriot leaders on Monday to try to revive peace negotiations after “very high hopes” of a breakthrough were dashed last week. “What we are working on is to see how we can re-establish the momentum we had, but this has to be a decision made by ...

  London / AFP Britain’s anti-EU party UKIP elected former history lecturer Paul Nuttall as its new leader on Monday to take over from Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage, a political ally of US President-elect Donald Trump. Nuttall promised to unite the party — a driving force behind Britain’s vote to leave the EU—which has been under threat from bitter infighting and ...

  London / AFP Poland’s prime minister called on Monday for a Brexit “compromise” and said Europeans in Britain and Britons in Europe should not be “made to feel like hostages” as she kicked off a landmark trip to London. Britain’s shock vote in June to leave the European Union sparked fear among the 800,000 Poles living in Britain, particularly ...

  Dubai / WAM Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Abu Dubai Future Energy Company (Masdar), for the 800MW third phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The agreement was signed by Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State and Chairman of Masdar, and Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & ...