Moscow accuses Dutch sub of monitoring Med fleet

  Moscow / AFP Russia on Wednesday accused a Dutch submarine of trying to monitor its aircraft carrier and escort vessels in the Mediterranean, denouncing such manoeuvres as “dangerous”. According to the Russian defence ministry, the Severomorsk and the Vice-Admiral Kulakov, two of its anti-submarine ships, had “spotted a submarine from the Dutch navy… which tried to approach the Northern ...

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IS turns to tunnels in last stand for Iraqi town

  Bashiqa / AFP Iraqi Kurdish forces came under heavy fire from a salmon-coloured house on the edge of the IS group-held town of Bashiqa, but when they stormed it, it was empty. “The fiercest resistance was coming from here,” said Corporal Hawkar Weis, pointing to the two-storey house on the eastern side of Bashiqa, which is now under the control ...

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Yemen Army: Operation kills 30 Qaeda suspects

  Aden / AFP An elite Yemeni force backed by Saudi-led coalition air strikes killed 30 suspected Al-Qaeda fighters in the southeast of the country in a 24-hour operation that ended on Wednesday, the army said. The force raided an Al-Qaeda hideout west of the port city of Mukalla on Tuesday in a “very successful” operation that lasted 24 hours, ...

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EU warns Turkey to decide on ‘membership’

  Brussels /AFP The EU warned Turkey on Wednesday that “backsliding” on rights after a coup attempt was putting its membership bid at risk and urged Ankara to decide whether or not to commit. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan however hit back at the “shameless” European Union and challenged it in return to make a final choice on Turkey’s long-stalled application ...

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Australian, Briton on trial over Bali policeman murder

  Denpasar / AFP An Australian woman and her British boyfriend went on trial on Wednesday accused of beating a policeman to death on a popular beach on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. David Taylor and Sara Connor appeared separately in court accused of murdering Balinese policeman Wayan Sudarsa, whose battered body was found on Kuta beach in August. ...

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US voted to ‘make America great again’

  London / AFP Political novice and former reality TV star Donald Trump has defeated Hillary Clinton to take the US presidency, stunning America and the world in an explosive upset fueled by a wave of grassroots anger. The Republican mogul immediately pledged to unite a deeply divided nation. But global markets had already plunged into turmoil and the long-standing ...

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Climate diplomats push back against Trump victory

  Marrakesh / AFP Stunned participants at UN climate talks in Marrakesh insisted on Wednesday that climate change denier Donald Trump cannot derail the global shift to clean energy, although some called his victory in US presidential elections a “disaster”. Trump “cannot prevent the implementation” of the landmark Paris pact, inked in the French capital last December, said Segolene Royal, ...

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Putin welcomes Trump as anxious world confronts new reality

  Brussels / AFP Vladimir Putin was the first global leader to welcome Donald Trump’s stunning election victory, which left much of the rest of the world anxious at the prospect of the businessman and reality-TV star at the helm of the world’s biggest economy and most powerful military. Putin sent a congratulatory telegram to Trump, and said later at ...

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Low oil price means now is the time to invest, says Al Mazrouei

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Oil companies that invest during the current downturn in oil prices stand to profit the most when supply and demand comes back into balance, according to the UAE’s Energy Minister, His Excellency Suhail Mohamed Faraj Al Mazrouei. Speaking on the sidelines of His Excellency’s Q&A discussion at ADIPEC’S VIP Programme on the UAE’s future ...

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Wintershall spuds first offshore well at Shuwaihat field

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Germany’s oil and gas producer Wintershall has spudded the first offshore well at Abu Dhabi’s sour gas and condensate field Shuwaihat, it said. Wintershall successfully completed the first onshore drilling at Shuwaihat together with its partner ADNOC and the Austrian OMV in July, 2015. After compiling and analyzing the data from the onshore field SH-5, Wintershall ...

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