Dubai / WAM The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and Nawah Energy Company (Nawah) say that their most recent marine environmental survey off the coast of the Barakah nuclear energy plant has shown the presence of several marine species as a result of the artificial reef which was created there in 2014. The results reveal that a diverse and abundant ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The National Media Council (NMC) presented 22,000 books to the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development (MoCKD), in line with the initiative launched by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to mark 2016 as ‘The Year of reading’. Mansour Al Mansouri, Acting Director of the NMC, said His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed ...

  Damascus / AFP A string of bomb attacks hit across mostly government-controlled areas of Syria on Monday, killing several dozen people including at least 35 in President Bashar Al-Assad’s coastal stronghold of Tartus, state media said. At least 48 people died in the multiple blasts, with dozens also wounded in the double bombing outside of Tartus city, which is home ...

  Aden / AFP A possible US drone strike killed seven suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in central Yemen, a security official said. The official said a missile fired by what was “probably an American drone” hit an apartment building in the Al-Wadi area of Marib province, east of the capital Sanaa, killing seven people late Sunday. The United States, which rarely acknowledges ...

  Tunis / AFP Libyan politicians began on Monday two days of UN-brokered talks in Tunis to discuss power struggles and extremist threats that are undermining stability in the oil-rich country. The members of the Libyan Political Dialogue signed in December 2015 a political agreement that established the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). But nine months on, the GNA led ...

  Seoul / AFP North Korea test-fired three ballistic missiles into the sea on Monday, South Korea said, in a new show of force as world leaders meet at the G20 summit in China. The missiles were fired into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) from the North’s Hwangju county at around 0300 GMT, a spokesman for Seoul’s defence ministry ...

  Kabul / AFP At least 24 people were killed and 91 wounded on Monday in a Taliban double suicide bombing in central Kabul during late afternoon rush hour, the latest assault on the Afghan capital. The carnage near the defence ministry came as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide summer offensive against the US-backed government. The two bombers on ...

  Hong Kong / AFP A new generation of young Hong Kong politicians advocating a break from Beijing became lawmakers for the first time on Monday in a result likely to rattle China. It was the biggest poll since mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014 failed to win concessions on political reform, leading to the emergence of a slew of new parties ...

  Mumbai / AFP India’s outgoing central bank chief Raghuram Rajan warned countries against a rush to low interest rates as his tenure as governor of the Reserve Bank of India came to an end. Rajan, who famously predicted the 2008 global financial crisis, told the New York Times that central banks across the world would find it hard to ...

  Tehran/ AFP Two private Iranian banks will open branches in Munich, officials confirmed on Monday, as the Islamic republic looks for ways around ongoing barriers to international financing. The central bank announced late on Sunday that Middle East Bank and Sina Bank would set up in Germany’s Bavaria state, following a visit by local economy minister Ilse Aigner to ...