Dubai / WAM Dubai’s foreign trade in perfumes and cosmetics’ during 2015 hit AED 20.5 billion, according to an official of the Dubai Customs. France was Dubai’s top trading partner in perfumes and cosmetics’ foreign trade, valued at AED3 billion, followed by the USA with AED1.8 billion, Saudi Arabia with AED1.6 billion and the UK and Italy with AED1.1 billion ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (ADWEC or the “Procurer”) announced that pre-qualified bidders for the 350MW Solar PV Independent Power Project located at Sweihan, in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (the “Project”) have been invited to attend a two-day site visit and conference in Abu Dhabi in ...

  JEDDAH / WAM Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, discussed ways to strengthen fraternal ties between the two countries, and the overall regional and international issues of common ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM A technical delegation from Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) visited the Kingdom of Jordan to review the progress of development projects financed by the AED4.6 billion (US$1.25 billion) grant allocated by the UAE government to support development projects in Jordan. The delegation surveyed the progress of Al-Balqa Applied University project and the College of ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Visa (NYSE:V), a global payments technology company, on Monday opened its innovation center in Dubai Internet City (DIC), the region’s largest information and communications technology community. This center will serve the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) regions and is part of a network of new innovation centers that Visa is opening ...

  Vienna / AFP Major powers, including the United States, met in the Austrian capital on Monday to discuss the expanding presence of the IS extremist group in conflict-ridden Libya, just across the Mediterranean from Europe. IS has taken advantage of the chaos left by the toppling and death of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, which led to rival ...

  Baghdad / AP Iraqi security forces and allied fighters launched an operation on Monday to retake the town of Rutba from the IS extremist group, the military said. Special forces, soldiers, police, border guards and pro-government paramilitaries are involved in the operation to retake the Anbar province town, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said in a statement. Tanks and artillery ...

  JAKARTA / AP Rescuers on Monday found the bodies of six university students who were among nearly two dozen who went missing in rain-triggered floods and landslides at a waterfall in western Indonesia, an official said. The disaster occurred on Sunday as more than 70 students were visiting the Air Terjun Dua Warna waterfall in North Sumatra province. Twenty-one ...

  ISTANBUL / AP A Turkish news agency says Turkish shelling and air strikes by the US-led military coalition killed 27 IS militants in Syria. Citing military sources, the state-run Anadolu agency said the militants were killed on Sunday as they were about to fire rockets toward Turkey. The Turkish border town of Kilis has been pummeled in recent months ...

  SEOUL / AFP South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold their first joint military training next month focused on cooperating to detect signs of missile launches from North Korea and trace missile trajectories, a Seoul defense official said on Monday. The drills, set for around June 28, will be held on the sidelines of biennial multinational naval ...