Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Airways has signed an agreement with Tourism Australia to be the Official Airline Partner of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards in 2017. Under the agreement, the airline will fly the world’s best chefs and food media to Australia for the programme, a celebration of the best in global gastronomy. The events, in ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business In the presence and under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, and his wife, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed al Qasimi, Chairperson of the ‘Big heart’ Foundation, Chairperson of NAMA Women Advancement Establishment, the second edition of the ‘Investing in the ...

  Aleppo / AFP Dozens of civilians were killed as air strikes flattened residential buildings in rebel-held east Aleppo Monday, despite Western warnings of sanctions against Syria and Russia over attacks on the city. Once Syria’s thriving commercial hub, Aleppo has been ravaged by bombing raids and intensifying clashes as President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces fight to capture opposition-held parts of the ...

  Addis Ababa / AFP Ethiopia has banned access to foreign-based opposition media and restricted foreign diplomats’ travel, in new provisions of a state of emergency. The government declared the six-month state of emergency eight days ago, stepping up its response to an unprecedented wave of protests against its authoritarian rule which has left hundreds dead. New restrictions published in local ...

  Dhaka / AFP Bangladesh said Monday it is fast-tracking trials of Islamist extremists, hours after a senior leader of a militant group was hanged for a 2005 blast that killed two judges. Asadul Islam, also known as Arif, was a senior leader of the banned group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which the government has blamed for a deadly siege on ...

  Al-Shura / AFP Iraqi forces launched an offensive on Monday to retake Mosul and deal a death blow to the IS group’s “caliphate” in the city where it was declared two years ago. Some 30,000 federal forces are leading the offensive, backed by a 60-nation US-led coalition, in what is expected to be a long and difficult assault on ...

  Yangon/ AFP Searchers have recovered 25 bodies from a ferry that sank in central Myanmar and expect to find scores more corpses as workers begin raising the boat from the riverbed, officials said Monday. A total of 154 people have been rescued since the boat sank early Saturday on the Chindwin River about 72 kilometres (45 miles) north of the ...

  Moscow / AFP An unidentified man on Monday blew himself up at the state-owned TV centre in Abkhazia, a tiny Russian-backed breakaway region of Georgia, local officials said. “A man blew himself up on the territory of the TV centre. It was obviously clear that he had a bomb,” Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Abkhaz interior minister Aslan ...

  Malakal / AFP At least 56 rebels and four government troops were killed in heavy weekend clashes in northeastern South Sudan, in a worrying surge of violence in the world’s youngest nation. Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang said on Monday that rebels aligned with former vice president Riek Machar attacked government troops near ...

  Hanoi / AFP Severe flooding in central Vietnam has killed at least 25 people and destroyed thousands of homes, officials said Monday, as the country braced for further destruction with a typhoon barrelling closer. Images from flood-hit provinces showed houses almost completely submerged and people paddling down waterlogged streets following heavy rain that started last week. Four people are ...