DUBAI / WAM Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Small and Medium Enterprises and the Al Habtoor Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The MoU constitutes an understanding of collaboration between Al Habtoor Group and Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development where the Al Habtoor Group will give priority business to members of Dubai SME proving they can …

  Belgrade / AFP Aleksa Konstantinov was one the brightest maths students in Serbia this year but like many Balkan youngsters he immediately left for a US university after finishing school. Bosnian neurologist Sanina Babic Ribic was either laughed at or told she needed “political or some other support” to get a job after she graduated. She moved to Germany …

  Soroti / AFP When power goes out in the rural town of Soroti in eastern Uganda, store manager Hussein Samsudin can only hope it won’t go on so long it spoils his fresh goods. Another shop owner, Richard Otekat, 37, has to pay a neighbour hourly to use his generator during blackouts as he can’t afford to buy one himself, …

  Dubai / WAM In implement to the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai on Sunday directed the formation of the Higher National Committee for the Year of Giving initiative, which would include five Ministers as members and …

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE, led by President His Highness, continues its confident progress to further bolster its humanitarian and economic leadership, while embracing generous giving as an approach, said His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Saturday. The declaration of 2017 as …

  Abu Dhabi / WAM A new council has been formed to reinforce the UAE’s policies and strategies on climate change, environmental and sustainable development. The UAE Council for Climate Change and Environment was constituted on Sunday by Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment through a Ministerial Decision No (795) of 2016. The council will develop …

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Zayed Giving Initiative (ZGI) launched the world’s first state-of-the-art mobile city for humanitarian and charitable work as part of a series of initiatives it plans to roll out in the Year of Giving in 2017. “The word’s first makeshift city for humanitarian work was launched in consistence with President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s …

  Bob Gates has worked in senior national-security positions for the last five presidents, Republican and Democratic. So it’s noteworthy — and to me, encouraging — that he is advising President-elect Donald Trump, too. Gates, a former defense secretary, CIA director and deputy national security adviser, spoke with me by telephone on Wednesday about the advice he’s giving Trump and …

  Few Italian operas come as epic as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA. Thanks to an ill-timed and hubristic takeover as well as some questionable accounting practices, the 544-year-old pillar of Siena is on the brink of an ignominious nationalization. The final act, though, will drag on. One Italian official presented the outline of Monte Paschi’s rescue to …

  The imminent failure of Italy’s third-largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, is finally bringing the country’s long-festering banking crisis to the center of European leaders’ attention. This may be a blessing in disguise, offering the best chance yet to achieve a lasting solution — and even strengthen the European Union. Italy’s financial woes have been years in the …