JAKARTA / AP Asylum seekers who have been in Indonesia for years rallied in the capital on Monday urging the UN refugee agency to speed up the process of resettling them in third countries. Dozens of people from war-torn nations including Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia called on the UNHCR to accelerate their resettlement, expressing concerns that they could ...

  BERLIN / AP Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting her Bavarian conservative allies in a show of unity following a long-running argument over migrant policy, setting the scene for a joint campaign for German elections in September. Bavaria’s Christian Social Union has dominated its southeastern state for decades and is traditionally an important source of national election votes for the ...

  TOKYO / AP In his debut abroad as the first retired general to lead the Pentagon in more than half a century, Jim Mattis found that in Japan and South Korea his experience in uniform is seen as an asset. Not everyone who knows Mattis well in the US shares that view, but he clearly was an instant hit ...

  BEIJING / AP A highly accurate Chinese ballistic missile capable of threatening U.S. and Japanese bases in Asia has made its latest appearance at recent Rocket Force drills. The medium-range DF-16 featured in a video posted last week on the Defense Ministry’s website showing the missiles aboard their 10-wheeled mobile launch vehicles being deployed in deep forest during exercises ...

  SEATTLE / AP Dozens of tech companies, including behemoths like Apple, Google, and Facebook, are siding with Washington state and Minnesota as they fight President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. The companies filed briefs late Sunday with a federal appellate court saying the Trump executive order hurts ...

  BOSTON / AP A tiny liberal arts college in Massachusetts has created a refugee scholarship in response to President Donald Trump’s order on immigration and refugees and is calling on other colleges to do the same. Wheaton College in Norton announced the offer after the Republican billionaire issued his Jan. 27 executive order, suspending America’s refugee program and halting ...

  Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Monday announced he will be leading a Q&A Session to examine the revival of the development process in the Arab World. The session will take place during the fifth edition of the World Government Summit (WGS) 2017. During ...

  Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) chaired the board of directors’ meeting. HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Deputy Chairman of ADFD, was also present. The board reviewed a ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union (GWU), Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF) and President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, has stressed the need to establish an effective mechanism to develop sustainable means of communication, while maintaining a safe internet environment. The changes that occurred in ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The ‘Year of Giving’ will provide opportunities to build strong long-term partnerships between the public and private sectors through various programmes and agreements, according to ministers and officials. They stated that government support for both sectors will promote the likelihood of success for private sector initiatives, as well as transform limited community programmes to more comprehensive ...