Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai Wholesale City (DWC), the largest wholesale hub in the world, is organizing a visit to China that targets Chinese investors in a number of major cities, including Yinchuan, Yiwu, Shanghai, and Beijing. A delegation from Dubai Wholesale City, headed by its CEO, Abdulla Belhoul, will hold meetings with government and private organizations in China, to ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business As part of its commitment to sharing its experiences and best practices in smart education, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) recently discussed prospects for joint cooperation with a high-level delegation from Toyota Communication Systems (TCS), a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp. specializing in systems development and integration. The visiting delegates commended HBMSU’s prestigious global ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business DarkMatter, an international cyber security firm headquartered in the UAE, through the endorsement and support of the Emirates Authority for Standardisation & Metrology (ESMA), and the UAE’s National Electronic Security Authority (NESA), is set to host the next scheduled meeting of the global Information Technology (IT) security standards body, the International Organisation for Standardisation ...

  Aleppo / AFP Hundreds of wounded civilians were stranded in rebel-held areas of Syria’s Aleppo on Saturday after the UN said security concerns had prevented evacuation convoys even as Russia extended a ceasefire into a third day. The unilateral “humanitarian pause” in the Syrian army’s devastating Russian-backed assault on the opposition-controlled east of the city has largely held since it ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned the EU on Saturday not to forget that Turkey has alternatives to the bloc, whose ties with Ankara have become increasingly strained.He did not say what the alternatives were could be but closer relations between Russia and Ankara has caused concern in the West. “Turkey always has alternatives. Europe should ...

  Dubai / AFP Bahrain will auction the confiscated assets of the main Shiite opposition in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom after it was dissolved over terrorism-related charges, a judicial source said on Saturday. An administrative court on Thursday ordered the auctioning of Al-Wefaq’s assets to be held on October 26, the source said. The group’s dissolution in July drew strong ...

  Kirkuk /AFP Security forces battled for a second day on Saturday with IS gunmen who infiltrated Kirkuk in a brazen raid that rattled Iraq as it ramped up an offensive to retake Mosul. A day after the shock attack on the Kurdish-controlled city, extremist snipers and suspected suicide bombers were still at large, prompting Baghdad to send reinforcements. Special ...

  Baghdad / AFP US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to review the six-day-old offensive to retake Mosul, the IS group’s last major stronghold in Iraq. He will meet commanders from the 60-nation coalition which is led by the United States and assists Iraqi forces in their drive against the extremists. Carter is also due to ...

  Aden /AFP Fierce gun battles erupted overnight between Yemeni rebels and pro-government forces along the border with Saudi Arabia despite a three-day ceasefire due to end late Saturday, military officials said. Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition fighting in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi also bombed suspected Houthi rebel missile launchers east of the capital Sanaa late Friday, a ...

  Jerusalem / AFP The parliamentary chairman of Israel’s ruling coalition has called for a rights group chief who condemned Israeli settlement construction at the United Nations to be stripped of his citizenship. David Bitan, a leading member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, told Israel’s Channel 2 TV late Friday that he was “examining the legal possibility” ...