Dubai / WAM Expo 2020 Dubai joined the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) to launch an exciting new photography competition for young people across the GCC, aged 16 to 25. The competition will run until September 30 and the winners will be announced at the 2016 edition of YouthConnect, to be held in Dubai ...

  Brussels / AFP NATO said on Wednesday Turkey’s membership of the military alliance is “not in question” following the failed coup in July and stressed its “very clear position” of continued support for Ankara. “Turkey’s NATO membership is not in question,” spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement issued in response to “speculative press reports”. “NATO counts on the ...

  Sanaa / AFP Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched fresh air strikes on Shiite rebels across Yemen on Wednesday after the alliance said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles fired at southern Saudi Arabia. The increased violence comes after UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait between representatives of the government and Houthi insurgents ended without a breakthrough. A statement from the coalition ...

  Baghdad / AFP A fire tore through the maternity ward of one of Baghdad’s largest hospitals on Wednesday, killing at least 11 premature babies, medical and security sources said. Health ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Rudeini said the blaze at the Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad was started by an electrical fault just after midnight (2100 GMT Tuesday). “Twenty-nine women patients ...

  Nusa Dua / AFP Charities that send financial aid to trouble spots sometimes have the funds “hijacked” by militant groups to carry out attacks, an international counter-terrorism meeting was warned on Wednesday. A report by Indonesian and Australian authorities detailed the risk faced by non-profit organisations. It also urged countries in the region to cooperate more closely to halt ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is preparing to unveil a slew of new anti-terror measures, reports said on Wednesday, after two attacks in July claimed by the IS extremist group. The new measures to be announced Thursday include speeding up the expulsion process for asylum seekers convicted of crimes, Bild daily reported, quoting anonymous security ...

  Bloomberg EON SE posted a first-half loss after taking 3.8 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in charges linked to the listing next month of its Uniper unit. Its shares slumped the most in more than six weeks. The impairments and contingency losses for its power stations burning fossil-fuel and natural gas storage assets led to a net loss of 3.03 ...

  London / AFP British workers on the Eurostar cross-Channel rail service will strike for seven days this month, including over a public holiday weekend, in a dispute over hours, a union said on Wednesday. Fifty-five members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will begin the action this Friday, which the company said would see a maximum of ...

  Prague / AFP European energy heavyweight CEZ said its net profits for the first half of 2016 had fallen by 10 percent against a year ago due to a drop in energy prices. The Czech state-run power group, which ranks among Europe’s top electricity exporters, earned 13.8 billion koruna (511 million euros, $566 million) on sales of 98.9 billion ...

  Paris / AFP French industrial production dropped for a second straight month in June, statistics bureau Insee said Wednesday, alarming analysts who had been looking for a modest increase. Output fell 0.8 percent in June, after dropping 0.5 percent in May, with oil refining posting the largest single decline after strikes in France’s oil industry. Connor Campbell, an analyst ...