Washington / AFP President-elect Donald Trump again cast doubt on a US intelligence finding that Russia meddled in the US election through computer hacking, a conclusion that led to US sanctions against Moscow. “Well, I just want them to be sure, because it’s a pretty serious charge, and I want them to be sure,” Trump told reporters at his …

  Hong Kong / AFP Thousands of protesters, chanting “Sovereignty belongs to the people!” marched through Hong Kong on New Year’s Day to protest at the government’s legal bid to unseat some pro-democracy lawmakers. The four popularly elected legislators, who led the rally, were the latest targets of a government move which pro-democracy parties describe as a witch hunt.It came after …

  Seoul / AFP South Korea’s impeached President Park Geun-Hye on Sunday repeated denials of involvement in a snowballing corruption scandal and said rumours have been “getting out of hand”, Yonhap news agency reported. “Rumours, stories and broadcasts have been distorted and false information has been getting out of hand,” she was quoted as telling reporters at the presidential Blue House. …

  Kano / AFP One person was seriously injured when a suicide bomber aged around 10 blew herself up in a New Year’s Eve attack in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, witnesses and aid workers said on Sunday. The girl approached a crowd buying noodles from a food vendor in the Customs area of the city around 9:30 pm on …

  Nairobi / AFP Burundi’s environment minister was shot dead in the capital Bujumbura early Sunday, police said, the first killing of its kind since the country was plunged into political turmoil two years ago. Emmanuel Niyonkuru, 54, the country’s water, environment and planning minister, was killed shortly after midnight, according to a tweet sent by police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye. The …

  Sharjah / Emirates Business Under the theme ‘A World as Big as Your Imagination’, the spirit of children’s collaboration has shone through in the artwork submissions received for the forthcoming Sharjah Children Biennial (SCB). Sharjah Children Centres announced receiving a total of 792 artworks from 1,663 children representing 27 Arab and foreign nationalities for the fifth edition of SCB. …

  Sharjah / Emirates Business University Hospital Sharjah (UHS) conducted its first cochlear implant procedure on an eight-year-old girl who was born with hearing difficulty, giving her the ‘gift of hearing’. After a two-week break to recover from the operation, the girl returned to the hospital for a follow up where the cochlear implant was activated for the first time …

  Dubai / Emirates Business Starting Monday, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) shall begin monitoring the recently announced decrees which mandates private sector establishments, employing 500 plus workers, to hire at least one Emirati jobseeker for an occupational health and safety officer position. Secondly, companies engaging over 1,000 workers must hire a minimum of two data entry …

  Sharjah / Emirates Business More than a dozen inmates at the Punishment & Correctional Institution Department in Sharjah participated in a highly engaging and innovative technology workshop built around the Arduino programming system, recently organised by Sharjah Department of eGovernment (DeG) in collaboration with Sharjah Police G.H.Q. An ‘out of the box’ rehabilitative activity designed and conducted by DeG’s …

  Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai has once again mesmerised the world with a magnificent New Year’s Eve fireworks spectacle by Emaar Properties, bidding farewell to 2016 and welcoming in 2017 in resplendent style. Hundreds of thousands of spectators from all over the world joined the celebrations in Downtown Dubai, Emaar’s mega-development in the heart of the city, centred around …