Israel signs major trade pact with Gulf state UAE

DUBAI: Israel signed a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first big trade accord with an Arab state that reduces or removes tariffs and over time targets lifting annual bilateral trade to more than $10 billion. The pact was signed in Dubai by Israel’s minister of economy and industry Orna Barbivai and her counterpart, UAE minister of economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri.

Myanmar: One killed in bomb blast in Yangon YANGON: A bomb blast killed one person and injured nine others in a busy district of central Yangon on Tuesday, a Myanmar police source said. The blast occurred around 3:20pm local time near a bus stop,” the police source said, requesting anonymity. “One man died in hospital and nine others are injured.” No group claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Russia’s Navalny says he faces new criminal case LONDON: Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Tuesday he has been charged in a new criminal case and faces up to 15 more years on top of his existing sentence if found guilty. In posts on social media, Navalny said he had been charged with creating an extremist organisation and inciting hate towards the authorities. The charge comes on top of a nine-year sentence he received in March for fraud and contempt of court, before which he was serving a 2.5-year sentence.

Aim to contain transmission of monkeypox: WHO BERLIN: It is not clear yet whether the spread of monkeypox can be contained completely, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, adding that its goal was to contain the outbreak by stopping human-to-human transmission to the maximum extent possible. More than 20 nations where the virus is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease, with over 300 confirmed or suspected cases mostly in Europe.