Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. has a clear path to expanding its reach in Papua New Guinea after its rivals said they wouldn’t counter a $2.5 billion bid for gas explorer InterOil Corp. Oil Search Ltd. and Total SA had offered to buy InterOil in May in a deal that valued the company at $2.2 billion. Exxon topped it with …

  Ankara / AFP Turkish authorities on Thursday imposed a three-month state of emergency, strengthening powers to round up suspects accused of staging the failed military coup despite global alarm over a widening purge. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the state of emergency, Turkey’s first in 14 years, shortly before midnight after a marathon meeting of his national security council, …

  Beijing/ AFP Torrential rain lashing northern China in recent days has left nearly 100 people dead or missing, official figures showed. At least 24 people in the provinces of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi have been confirmed dead in a rainstorm that has been pounding the region since Monday, according to figures from the civil affairs …

  Gyeonggi / Emirates Business Man Hee Lee, Chairman of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) was bestowed with the “Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Non-Violent Peace” at the Peace Palace in Gyeonggi, South Korea on July 19. Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Nonviolent Peace, is an international award boasting of renowned past winners, including Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Margaret …

  Dublin / AFP French President Francois Hollande on Thursday urged Britain to begin talks to leave the EU “as soon as possible” and ruled out granting access to the EU’s single market without access by EU workers to Britain. “The sooner these negotiations begin the better, and the shorter they are the better,” Hollande said after meeting Irish PM …

  Bloomberg In his strongest remarks to date on the future of the western military alliance, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said the U.S. would only defend NATO members attacked by Russia after reviewing whether those nations “have fulfilled their obligations to us.” In an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, the billionaire cast doubt on whether he …

  WASHINGTON In the uproar following the attempted military coup in Turkey, relations between Washington and Ankara, already badly strained, appear to be headed for new difficulty. The immediate test will be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s demand that the United States extradite Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish Muslim leader blamed by Erdogan for the coup attempt. Obama administration officials …

  Triumphant Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to consolidate his full authority to weed out those behind the botched coup in Turkey. To accomplish the job, the authorities imposed a three-month state emergency to protect the democracy amid concerns from western allies who call for fair trials. Taking into account these concerns, the authorities were quick to assure them …

  Franz-Stefan Gady SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Indian defense firms could benefit from a recent $38.8 billion Australian-French submarine deal by becoming subcontractors for Australia’s so-called SEA 1000 Future Submarine Program, an Australian official told The Economic Times on July 20. “India and Australia as decided during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia in 2014 have ventured into the areas …

  Aurelia George Mulgan SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS There are both modern and historical parallels to be drawn in the wake of China’s strident rejection of the Hague Tribunal’s ruling on its territorial claims in the South China Sea. In its relentless strategy of using power to expand China’s territory in the South China Sea, the Xi administration has been …