Hua Hin / AFP Thai authorities on Saturday hunted for culprits behind a wave of bombings targeting popular holiday destinations, as businesses braced for the economic fallout from the attacks on the crucial tourism industry. The kingdom was on edge after 11 small bombs and a series of suspected arson attacks exploded across five southern provinces on Thursday night and ...

  Arbil / AFP The nephew of the governor of a key province where Iraqi forces are battling the IS group has been gunned down in the country’s north, officials said on Saturday. The shooting in Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil came just hours after Nowfal Al Aqoub, the governor of Nineveh, made controversial remarks about children being fathered by IS ...

  Islamabad / AFP Six crew members of a Pakistani government helicopter which crash-landed in Afghanistan’s volatile east have been released, an official said on Saturday, after they were taken hostage by the Afghan Taliban. The crew “was released in an inter-tribe exchange on the Pakistan-Afghan border (and) arrived in Islamabad today,” foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement. ...

  Aden / AFP Iran-backed rebels convened Yemen’s parliament on Saturday in defiance of the internationally recognised government, prompting condemnation from President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. The session in rebel-held Sanaa was the first in almost two years, and comes after the Houthis rejected a UN peace plan and appointed a council to run the country. Parliamentary sources said 91 lawmakers in ...

  Seated in his office here, wearing neither a necktie nor a frown, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is remarkably relaxed for someone at the epicenter of a crisis now in its second year and with no end in sight. But, then, stress is pointless when the situation is hopeless. Besides, if you can ignore the fact that self-government is failing ...

  Brazil, it is often and not quite fairly said, is the country of the future and always will be. As the Olympics focuses global attention on the country, it’s worth exploring the various ways in which this maxim is — and may not be — true. The puzzle with Brazil is neither its successes nor its failures, but rather ...

  Macy’s incoming CEO is starting off strong. He’ll need to get stronger. The department store said it would close 100 stores, or 14 percent of the 728 stores it currently operates. (Not included in the closings are the 100 or so Bloomingdales and Blue Mercury stores it also owns.) This announcement marks a sizable acceleration in store closings — ...

  As the world reels under economic unpredictability and the market volatility grows, wisdom lies in tapping the benefits of Islamic economy. The Islamic bonds (sukuks) issued by UAE banks are being ranked as one of the world’s best-performing instruments. We will see rapid expansion of Islamic finance as more and more customers are added to the already huge and ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) launched its ‘Business Intelligence System’ – a smart scheme that aims at fully boosting the chamber’s digital transformation process for all its transactions and inquiries, in a move to exploit digital and technical technologies providing cutting-edge support to administration decisions and corporate reports’ preparations within inspiring a new ...

  Dubai / WAM Dubai’s master developer Nakheel announced that it has awarded an AED1.5 billion construction contract for its Al Khail Avenue mall, and said it plans to add a 252-room hotel to the retail hub. The contract to build the billion retail, dining and entertainment complex in Dubai’s Jumeirah Village district was awarded to the UAE-based Dhabi Contracting LLC, ...