DUBAI / WAM The UAE has maintained its 12th global ranking in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) index, one of the key indicators included in the 2016 Global Innovation Index (GII) revealed earlier this week. The country topped the Arab nations and placed 41st worldwide in overall performance. The TRA undertakes the responsibility to provide the best technologies for ...

  Dubai / EMIRATES BUSINESS HE Sami Al Qamzi, Director General of the Dubai Department of Economic Development and Anan Fakhreddin, CEO of Damas, opened the Damas state-of-the-art production facility in Dubai on Wednesday. The factory opening represents a quantum leap in line with the company’s growth and market expansion strategy.

  DUBAI / WAM Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) launched a business centre at Jafza One, offering state-of-the-art office space to companies at competitive prices. Ibrahim Mohammed Aljanahi, Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer of Jafza, inaugurated the business centre in the presence of Kory Thompson, Country Manager UAE, Oman and Kuwait. The centre, which is managed by Regus, a ...

  Beirut / AFP Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff was stripped of the country’s presidency on Wednesday in a Senate impeachment vote ending 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest economy. Rousseff, 68, was convicted by 61 of the 81 senators of illegally manipulating the national budget. The vote, passing the needed two-thirds majority, meant she was immediately removed from office. ...

  Srinagar / AFP A teenager was shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday as thousands of protesters engaged in fresh clashes with security forces after weeks of deadly violence, police and witnesses said. Paramilitary troops fired live rounds as residents demonstrated against an earlier raid by soldiers searching for protest leaders in the northern village of Nadihal, a police ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday he planned to meet a fugitive Muslim rebel wanted over a deadly siege, promising to ignore an arrest order in an effort to forge peace. The announcement was the latest dramatic attempt by the firebrand leader to end decades-long insurgencies with Muslim and communist rebels that have claimed more ...

  Caracas / AFP Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vowed to jail opposition leaders if they incite violence during upcoming protests seeking a referendum on removing him from power. Maduro, blamed by opponents for a devastating economic crisis, accused opposition leaders of plotting a “terrorist coup” against him before Thursday’s nationwide protests. “We must defeat the coup d’etat without impunity,” he told ...

  Washington / AFP The United States rebuked Israel on Wednesday over what it said was its accelerated building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in the face of mounting international concern. “We are deeply concerned by the government of Israel’s announcement today to advance plans for over 500 new settlement units in the West Bank,” a senior ...

  Tokyo / AFP Surging flood water and mud brought by a devastating typhoon killed nine people in an elderly care home in northern Japan, officials said on Wednesday, after the third storm in two weeks ripped through the country. The bodies were discovered in a riverside care complex half buried in mud, uprooted trees and rubble after Typhoon Lionrock tore ...

  Washington / AFP Donald Trump announced he will travel to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with the country’s president just hours ahead of his much-anticipated Arizona speech on immigration. The Republican presidential nominee’s surprise trip south of the border comes as debate about his immigration policies is reaching fever pitch. Although his visit holds potential political peril, Trump could ...