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Damascus / AFP Syrian forces strengthened their hold on Palmyra on Monday and pushed forward against the IS extremist group after dealing it a major blow by retaking the ancient city. Antiquities director Maamoun Abdulkarim said that with UNESCO’s approval the treasured monuments damaged or destroyed by the extremists could be restored in five years. Government troops and allied militia, ...

DUBAI / WAM Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum unveiled the official logo of Dubai Expo 2020 at an event held at The Dubai Fountain at the Dubai Mall. The logo launch event was attended by Dubai Crown Prince HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, on Sunday met Frank Mollen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UAE. The meeting was attended by Lucille Merks, Deputy Head of Mission at the Netherlands Embassy, and Tareq Al Marzouqi, Director of Government Communication, Minister of Economy. During the meeting, they discussed cooperation between ...

SHARJAH / Emirates Business A new Sharjah Museums Department (SMD) initiative is encouraging local school students to bury themselves in books this year at its line-up of museum libraries. Coinciding with UAE reads initiative, ‘Read at Sharjah Museums’ is a year-long scheme held to mark the UAE leadership’s recent declaration of 2016 as Year of Reading. Hundreds of school students ...

WASHINGTON / AP Bernie Sanders scored three wins in Western caucus contests, giving a powerful psychological boost to his supporters but doing little to move him closer to securing the Democratic nomination. While results in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii barely dented Hillary Clinton’s significant delegate lead, Sanders’ wins underscored her persistent vulnerabilities within her own party, particularly with young voters ...

San Juan / AP Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla warned late on Saturday that he would challenge in federal courts and before the “community of nations” any law that he said would nullify the U.S. territory’s Constitution by concentrating government power in a body not elected by the people. Garcia Padilla was reacting to a draft of a U.S. ...

Emirates Business Property experts, government authorities and real estate developers from the Middle East are reflecting on the last decade of development in the UAE capital as Cityscape Abu Dhabi marks its 10th anniversary edition next month. For the past decade Cityscape Abu Dhabi has gathered industry experts, developers, investors and government officials that have contributed to the development of ...

Damascus / AP Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes drove IS fighters from Palmyra on Sunday, ending the group’s reign of terror over a town whose famed 2,000-year-old ruins once drew tens of thousands of visitors each year. Government forces had been on the offensive for nearly three weeks to try to retake the central town, known among Syrians ...

Makhmur / AFP Thousands of desperate civilians were fleeing fighting on Sunday on the new front opened by Iraqi forces against the IS group south of the city of Mosul. Families crammed in the back of pickup trucks, sometimes bringing dead and wounded with them, emerged from the dust after crossing the front line and were met by Kurdish forces. ...

Idomeni / AFP Hundreds of hopeful refugees flooded back to Greece’s overwhelmed Idomeni camp on the border with Macedonia on Sunday following rumours that the closed frontier would be forced open. The renewed influx came as Greek authorities were trying to evacuate an estimated 11,500 people who were stranded at the squalid camp after Balkan states slammed shut their borders, ...