DUBAI / Emirates Business Qatar falconers tasted a double triumph in the Fazza Championship for Falconry Tilwah organized by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center (HHC) in Dubai recently. In what turned out to be a family affair, Mohammed Rashid Hamad Al Nuaimi emulated his cousin Nasser by winning the Shaheen Wahish Farkh (GCC) category in style recording the ...

  Ras Al Khaimah / Emirates Business The emirate of Ras Al Khaimah welcomed approximately 60,000 residents and visitors to its Awafi area over the past three weeks during its annual cultural festival, which concluded on Saturday 7 January. The 14th Awafi Festival, which celebrates the UAE’s most northern emirate’s ethnic and cultural heritage, attracted its largest visitation to date, ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Pointing towards possible confrontation, Donald Trump’s selection for secretary of state likened Beijing’s island-building in the South China Sea to a takeover of another country’s territory and spoke of forcing Beijing to fully apply sanctions on North Korea. China will likely be alarmed by former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s Senate confirmation hearing remarks on Wednesday. ...

  PARIS / AP France’s government has quietly backtracked on a policy that allowed children to leave the country without their parents’ permission, after years of complaints from families of radicalized teens who left to join extremist groups. The new rules requiring parental permission go into effect on Sunday, five years after the government lifted the restriction with little fanfare, ...

  WARSAW / AP American soldiers are rolling into Poland, fulfilling a dream Poles have had since the fall of communism in 1989 to have US troops on their soil as a deterrent against Russia. US Army vehicles and soldiers in camouflage crossed into southwestern Poland on Thursday morning from Germany and were heading for Zagan, where they will be ...

  BERLIN / AP Germany’s supreme court has dismissed another challenge to a European Union-Canada trade deal that was signed late last year following tortuous negotiations. The Federal Constitutional Court in October rejected calls from opponents of the trade deal, known as CETA, to issue an injunction forcing the German government to withhold its approval of the pact. It did, ...

  KABUL / AP The US military in Afghanistan said on Thursday that its investigation into a November firefight with the Taliban in northern Kunduz province has shown that 33 civilians died in the raid during which US troops fired on Afghan homes. The probe followed claims that civilian deaths resulted from airstrikes called in to support Afghan and US ...

  SEOUL / AP Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he’ll soon announce whether to run for South Korea’s top job as he returned home and strongly hinted at his political ambitions before hundreds of cheering supporters. Ban’s return will likely heat up local politics as he’s considered as the only major conservative contender in a possible early ...

  HONG KONG / AP Hong Kong’s No 2 government official said on Thursday that she was resigning to prepare for a leadership bid for the southern Chinese city’s top job. Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said she tendered her resignation to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and asked him to submit it to Beijing for approval. Lam, 59, is the third ...

  Havana / DPA When Cuban boxer Julio Cesar de la Cruz bit into his gold medal as he celebrated his triumph at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics earlier this year, Namibia Flores watched enviously on television at home in Cuba. Even though Cuba is a boxing powerhouse and has won more Olympic gold medals than any other country, competitive ...