Berlin / AFP German Chancellor Angela Merkel came under fresh fire over her open-door refugee policy on Monday after her party suffered a humiliating defeat against an upstart anti-migrant populist party in her home state. The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party clinched almost 21 percent in its first bid for seats in the regional parliament of Mecklenburg-Western ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia on Monday launched large-scale military drills on Ukraine’s eastern border and around the Crimean peninsula, in the latest exercises set to rattle Kiev and the West. The defence ministry said 12,500 servicemen are taking part in the drills across its southern military region, which encompasses Russia’s volatile North Caucasus and the annexed Crimea region. The ...

  Dubai / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock market posted its biggest daily gain in four months on Monday as oil prices surged, while shares of Dubai’s property developers rose before a major exhibition for the industry this week. Riyadh’s stock index rose 1.7 percent to 6,204 points, and trading volume grew by more than half, as Brent crude futures jumped ...

  London / AFP London’s stock market fell on Monday on a rallying pound, while eurozone indices rose further after a pre-weekend surge triggered by well-received US jobs data. Around 1015 GMT, London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.25 percent, as the pound jumped above $1.33 in the wake of strong UK services sector activity that further eased concerns ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business On its second year, the Global Grad Show is opening in Dubai from October 24-29 attracting an unprecedented number of student innovators exhibiting their unique designs. The show returns with 145 projects from 50 leading global universities, representing an almost three-fold increase in participation over last year and, for the first time, includes schools from ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business The 35th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), taking place from November 2-12 has announced that 2016 is set to be another record-breaking year. The organisers of the third largest book fair in the world have revealed that its total exhibition area for publishers has been already sold out, with two more months ...

  Siddhartha Bhattacharya / Special To Emirates Business The Era of Data Chaos has arrived. Businesses in UAE need a better way to face the mountains of data created every day. Depending on the industry, your company possesses between 1 million and 12 million gigabytes of information. Most of that data is unstructured. Of course, this makes document management chaotic. ...

  Bloomberg The world’s top two crude-oil producers pledged to cooperate to stabilize global markets, while failing to announce any specific measures to bolster prices. “We have a number of tools at our disposal for joint actions,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Monday following a meeting with his Saudi counterpart Khalid Al-Falih at the G20 summit in China. Russia ...

  Bloomberg As speculation swirls over whether oil producers will reach a deal to coordinate output and aid a recovery in prices, Iran says it’s ready to pump more. The OPEC member can raise production to 4 million barrels a day in two to three months from the current daily level of about 3.8 million, Mohsen Ghamsari, director of international ...

  Bloomberg A power struggle between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a senior minister in his Likud party shut down the train line linking two of Israel’s biggest cities for a day, snarling commuters in miles-long traffic jams and bringing hundreds of demonstrators into the streets before service was restarted. Thousands of Israelis starting their work weeks and soldiers returning ...