DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation, Empower, has announced that it has awarded contracts valued at AED62million in the first quarter of the year. According to Empower, the main reason behind the increase in the number and value of contracts is the customers’ growing trust in the district cooling service in terms of its efficiency compared to ...

  Dubai / WAM The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have the main bulk of private equity (PE) investments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2014 at more than 75 percent by value, according to an international report. Emerging only in the late 1990s, MENA’s PE market is still at its infancy compared to other well-established ones, ...

  Sharjah / WAM His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, on Wednesday opened the ninth Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, SCRF 2017, the region’s largest children’s reading event, at Expo Centre Sharjah. Running until April 29, this year’s festival has the theme ‘Discover Beyond’ and features 2,093 cultural, artistic and entertainment activities, ...

  Rabat / WAM A proposal from the UAE to develop innovative plans to help other Arab countries in addressing current economic and financial problems, while boosting economic development, was presented to Arab finance ministers at the eighth ordinary session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Finance, being held in Rabat, Morocco. The proposal can help achieve significant progress in ...

  Dubai / WAM The first branch of the UAE Foodbank opened on Wednesday in the Al Quoz area in Dubai. During the opening ceremony, HH Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the UAE Foodbank Board of Trustees said, “I am extremely proud to see the first branch open only three months after the announcement of the ...

  ISTANBUL / AP Turkey’s electoral board on Wednesday rejected petitions by opposition parties to annul the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers because of voting irregularities. The High Electoral Board announced in a written statement its decision to reject three requests by the opposition following a 10-1 vote. Mehmet Hadimi Yakupoglu, the main opposition Republican People’s ...

  RIYADH / AP US officials say Washington is looking for ways to boost military support to a Saudi-led campaign against Shiite rebel forces in Yemen. The goal is to help the Saudis put enough pressure on the Iran-backed rebels known as the Houthis (HOO’-theez) so that they’re compelled to enter peace negotiations. The Saudis are partnered in their Yemen ...

  KABUL / AP At least 14 Taliban fighters, including the shadow governor of the northern Baghlan province, have been killed in heavy fighting with Afghan forces, officials said on Wednesday. Amir Gul Hussainkhil, the deputy provincial police chief, said Afghan security forces launched a large-scale attack on the insurgents the night before in the western part of the province, ...

  NEW DELHI / AP India’s top court on Wednesday ordered four senior leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to stand trial over a 1992 attack on an ancient mosque that sparked Hindu-Muslim violence that killed thousands. A lower court had earlier dropped conspiracy charges against the four in a case that has languished in India’s sluggish ...

  The only modern president who rivaled Donald Trump in his lack of preparation for global leadership was Harry Truman. Both men took office with little knowledge of the international problems they were about to face, and with worries at home and abroad that they weren’t up to the job. “I pray god I can measure up to the task,” ...