LONDON: The UAE has banned rice exports and re-exports for four months, including rice of Indian origin, Emirates News Agency reported on Friday.
“The decision included banning the export and re-export of rice originating in the Republic of India imported into the country, including free zones, after July 20,” the statement said, adding that it applies to all rice varieties.
The UAE, which imports 90 percent of its food, said the ban would cover rice of all varieties including brown rice, fully or partially milled rice and broken rice.

ZURICH: Relations of a US aid worker and American soldiers — all killed or injured by Daesh and Al-Nusra Front — have lodged a legal claim against cement maker Lafarge over payments the French company made to extremist groups.
Last year Lafarge became the first company in American history convicted of bribing a foreign terrorist organization after it admitted paying the two groups to allow it to keep operating in Syria.

LONDON: Firefighters managed to put out a fire in one of the bitumen production unit’s lines at Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery, Kuwait National Petroleum Company said in a statement on Friday.
“The company’s crews were able to successfully extinguish the fire that broke out in one of the lines of the bitumen production unit at the company’s Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery,” said KNPC spokesman Ghanim Al-Otaibi in the statement posted on X.

BEIRUT: Abbas Halabi, Lebanon’s caretaker education minister, said on Friday that the rumored integration of Syrian students with Lebanese students in public schools is “not feasible.”

He added that the ministry intends to continue with the current system, in which Lebanese students attend classes in the morning, while non-Lebanese students — including Syrians — attend in the afternoon.

MOSCOW: Egypt’s president on Friday called on Russia and Ukraine to find “urgent solutions” to allow the resumption of Ukraine grain exports to Africa, after Moscow’s withdrawal led to the collapse of a Black Sea pact.
The Ukraine grain deal was agreed last year and allowed around 33 million tons of grain to leave Ukrainian ports, helping to stabilize global food prices and avert shortages.