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SHANGHAI / Reuters A controversial India-backed giant coal project near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was on Sunday awarded mining leases, but developer Adani said it would not commit to a final investment decision until legal challenges against it were resolved. The Queensland state government said the Aus$21.7 billion (US$16.7 billion) project to build one of the world’s biggest mines was ...

Tokyo / Bloomberg Japan will need economic measures in the second half of the current fiscal year after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will front-load budget spending, according to the vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. Implementing this year’s budget quickly will help address Japan’s weak consumer spending, said Masahiko Komura. “Then naturally there ...

London / Reuters Britain said on Sunday that UK steel producers must be considered for infrastructure and other government contracts involving steel supplies, as part of plans to find a long-term solution to a crisis in the industry. The government is looking for ways to support domestic steel producers after India’s Tata Steel put its loss-making British plant up for ...

RITIKA SHARMA / AJMAN From hospitality to construction and from fashion to tourism and now education — there is no industry that is untouched by the advancements that technology imparts. Being a pioneer in embracing new tech trends, UAE has shown the world how quick and wise adoption of technology makes a difference in all spheres of life. The country ...

Lesbos / AFP Greek and EU authorities on Sunday fine-tuned an operation to expel to Turkey hundreds of migrants denied asylum in a landmark deal slammed by rights groups. Officials declined to comment on the details of the operation, which is believed to begin early Monday from the Greek island of Lesbos where there are over 3,300 refugees and migrants. ...

Sydney / AFP The last asylum-seeker children in Australian mainland detention have been freed, the government said on Sunday, although dozens of others are still being held on the remote Pacific island of Nauru. Under Canberra’s harsh immigration policy, asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are turned back or sent to Pacific camps in Nauru and Papua New ...

Paris / WAM Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, has recently participated in the G20 high level seminar on international financial architecture held in Paris under the slogan “From Nanjing to Paris”, where speakers addressed the most important evolutions of the international monetary system, including the IMF’s recent decision to include official currency of the ...

Syria / AFP Syrian troops have found a mass grave containing the bodies of 42 people executed by IS extremists in Palmyra, as Washington warned the group’s leader will eventually “taste justice”. IS has in recent months claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Brussels and Paris, but has lost ground in Syria and Iraq. Days after Syrian troops backed by ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The percentage of debtors among UAE family heads in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has declined during 2015 for the second consecutive year to reach about 19.9 per cent on average from its previous rate of 24 per cent in 2014, according to the National Family Status Observatory’s 2015 report. Issued by the Department of Economic ...

Tokyo / Bloomberg Sharp Corp.’s President Kozo Takahashi and Foxconn Technology Group’s Chairman Terry Gou formally signed a rescue deal on Saturday, ending a takeover drama that spanned four years of often difficult negotiations. Takahashi and Gou, flanked by the flags of Taiwan and Japan, shook hands in front of more than 300 reporters gathered at the Osaka-based company’s Sakai ...