Berlin / AFP Germany is open to providing protection for Turks who have been “politically persecuted” by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government in its widening crackdown following a failed putsch, a senior German official said on Tuesday. “Critics in Turkey should know that the German government stands in solidarity with them,” Michael Roth, state secretary at the foreign ministry, told Die ...

  Paris / AFP French investigators have identified a Moroccan-Belgian extremist based in Syria as a key plotter of attacks in Paris and Brussels, sources said on Tuesday, announcing a breakthrough in their multi-country probe. Oussama Atar, a 32-year-old believed to be a member of the IS group, was already a suspect in the March 22 attacks on Brussels but ...

  Goma /AFP A young girl was killed and 31 Indian peacekeepers were injured Tuesday in a grenade explosion in Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said. “A grenade exploded regretably killing a girl of roughly eight-years-old… another civilian was injured,” said Bilamekaso Tchagbele, the information chief for the UN’s force in the country. The blue helmets ...

  Hong Kong / AFP Hundreds of lawyers and law students, all dressed in black, marched silently through Hong Kong on Tuesday in protest at a ruling by China which effectively bars two pro-independence legislators from taking office. They snaked peacefully through the city from the high court to the court of final appeal after the unprecedented decision on Monday, ...

  Ramallah/ AFP A museum dedicated to Yasser Arafat, including the room where the Palestinian leader spent much of his final years under Israeli siege, will open on Wednesday ahead of the anniversary of his death. Current Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will formally open the Yasser Arafat Museum next to the gravesite of the fighter-turned-statesman in Ramallah in the occupied ...

  Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, received HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, at his palace in Zabeel on Tuesday afternoon. Sheikh Mohammed welcomed Prince Charles in the presence of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, HH Sheikh ...

Dubai / WAM Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemi, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General of the Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, on Tuesday welcomed HRH The Prince of Wales to the Expo 2020 Dubai site. The Prince of Wales, an advocate of youth empowerment through his Prince’s Trust charity, met with many of Expo’s younger members of staff, and heard ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business It was a ‘ready, set, conserve’ morning, as Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) hosted the Hospitality Sustainability Board Game, the inaugural activity of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Initiative. Created specifically for the hotel industry, the game, held recently at Media One Hotel, engaged industry professionals from across the city, as they ...

  Sharjah / WAM The official hashtag for this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) #SIBF16, has received more than 700 million impressions during the first five days of the fair, with the tag becoming a popular trend through social media sites that include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. SIBF 2016’s total exposure using hashtag #SIBF16 over the course of the ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business According to a recent study by Frost and Sullivan, the total waste generated in the GCC is expected to increase from 94 million MT in 2015 to as high as 120 million MT per annum by 2020. Growing population and industrialisation are viewed as the reason for the increased waste generation. The rise in municipal ...