Russian energy giant Gazprom and Austrian oil and gas company OMV have signed a supplement to a contract in order to increase gas supplies to Austria by 1 bln cubic meters per year.

 

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and OMV CEO Rainer Seele signed the document at their working meeting in St. Petersburg, the Russian gas holding said in a statement.

 

As part of the wider Saudi Vision 2030, the country’s Ministry of Housing has announced the success of building the first house using 3D printing technology in the Middle East.

 

A United Nations special investigator has begun a tour of Britain to examine the impacts of government austerity on the spread of poverty across the country.

 

Estimates suggest that a fifth of people, around 14 million, are living in poverty in the United Kingdom as millions rely on government and charity help to eat and survive. The surge in poverty is mostly blamed on a series of government austerity measures, which began in 2010, two years after the economic recession, to help shrink budget deficit.

 

The UAE Cabinet has announced that on the occasion of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) birthday, a holiday will be officially observed on Sunday, November 18 for all ministries and federal entities.

 

This is in stead of the original date stipulated by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department of the Government of Dubai which is November 20.

 

Normal working hours will resume on Monday, November 19.

 

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With anti-Semitic attacks on the rise in Germany, the country's federation of Jews has suggested tailoring extra integration classes for migrants, who may still be influenced by their home countries' anti-Jewish sentiments.

 

An Egyptian parliamentarian proposed a bill to the House of Representatives banning the wearing of Niqab (full-face veils) in public places and imposing a fine of LE 1,000 ($55) for those who disobey.

 

Al-Masry Al-Youm on Saturday obtained a copy of the proposed bill. MP Ghada Agamy expressed views in October that Egypt’s government should ban the Niqab at government workplaces and follow the steps of the Algerian authorities, which made the same decision a month ago. Agamy didn’t disclose that she was preparing a bill on this.

Eight people were killed, and 16 others suffered injuries in a series of explosions in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, local media reported on Monday, citing a source in local security forces.

 

According to the Al-Arabiya broadcaster, the attacks were carried out late on Sunday.

 

One of the explosions took place in the northern part of the city, in the vicinity of the Aden square, while three others hit the eastern area of Baghdad, and another one hit the south of the city.

 

The opinion that private data isn’t safe on social media “dominates” Russian society as it’s shared by more than a half of the country’s population, a new survey reveals.

Fifty-five percent of those polled said they were certain that user data on social media is accessed by third parties. Some level of confidence that their information is safe was expressed by only 34 percent, with 14 percent saying that their data is “certainly” not misused.

 

Russia on Saturday said it will host international talks on Afghanistan on November 9, with representatives of both the Afghan government and the Taliban, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban have agreed to send delegations to the conference.

 

"It will be the first time that a delegation of the Political Office of the Taliban Movement in Doha will take part in international talks (at) such a level," the foreign ministry's statement said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza stressed that hundreds of patients in Gaza are in danger as the besieged enclave has been suffering from medicine shortages. Around half of the medicines needed are in short supply, according to Palestinian Deputy Minister of Health Yousef Abu-Rish. "This unprecedented situation puts the life of thousands of patients in the Gaza Strip at stake due to the lack of necessary medicines," he said in a statement.