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Al-Qaryatain / AFP Bassam Dabbas did not think he would survive to see his hometown of Al-Qaryatain retaken when IS group extremists seized control and captured him and hundreds of other Christians. Now, around eight months later, he stands in the charred remains of the Mar Elian church where he once used to pray, and struggles to digest that he ...

New York / WAM “Despite low oil prices, the trend toward lower-cost renewable energy will continue in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as business confidence grows in the sector’s potential and countries adopt increasingly favourable regulations,” said Bader Al Lamki, Executive Director of Masdar Clean Energy. Al Lamki comments came during Masdar’s participation in the Bloomberg New ...

Malaysia / AFP A Malaysian parliamentary report released on Thursday said a state-owned fund linked to Prime Minister NajibRazak made more than $3 billion in unexplained overseas payments and called for the fund’s former CEO to be investigated. The report presented to parliament by its Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which has examined the affair, marked the first time an official ...

SHARJAH / WAM His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member, Ruler of Sharjah and President of Al Qasimia University (AQU), on Thursday opened the first International Conference for the AQU under the theme, ‘Our Identity in our historic and heritage memory.” The conference is jointly organised by the University of Sharjah in association with Sharjah ...

SINGAPORE / Reuters Barclays has agreed to sell its wealth and investment management business in Hong Kong and Singapore to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), as the British lender continues its drive to reduce risk and simplify. OCBC, Singapore’s second-biggest lender, said on Thursday it had agreed to pay $320 million for the units – its second-largest private banking deal since ...

Bloomberg Dutch voters rejected a treaty between the European Union and Ukraine by a resounding margin, in a referendum that exposed the extent of anti-EU sentiment in one of the bloc’s founding members. British campaigners to leave the bloc hailed the news from the Netherlands, as did the leader of France’s anti-EU National Front, Marine Le Pen, and Russian Prime ...

Sunaina Rana / Emirates Business Smart homes technology is undergoing boom across the UAE, but at the same time it brings along many apprehensions. Industry experts have rung the security alarm and asked for the secure upkeep of personal details of the stakeholders. They advised the consumers to stay more vigilant while sharing private data with cyber companies involved in ...

OUR CORRESPONDENT Microsoft has announced that the UAE will be the founding member of a global initiative called ‘Leading Countries of the World in Transforming Education’, a programme that will bring together trend-setting education ministries and high-level leaders from around the world, to collaborate on the future of learning. UAE came up as anundisputed leader when Microsoft looked for regional ...

Bloomberg Improving gender equality would add at least $2.1 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product by 2025, according to a McKinsey Global Institute study, a boost roughly the size of the Texas economy. “We were surprised that there was such a large economic opportunity still at stake” because the U.S. is a relative leader in gender parity, said Kweilin Ellingrud, ...

Copenhagen / AFP Copenhagen police said on Thursday they had detained four people on suspicion of joining the IS group in Syria and seized weapons and ammunition in a search linked to the arrests. All four were suspected of breaking Denmark’s terrorism law while in Syria, and were arrested in the Copenhagen area, police said in a statement without giving ...