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Dialogue best way to promote peace, security: Saudi Shoura chief

Arab News
October 17, 2017

St. Petersburg, Oct 17: Shoura Council President Abdullah Al-Asheikh said that the Kingdom, under the leadership of King Salman, believes in dialogue as an effective means to achieve security, peace and prosperity.

Al-Asheikh delivered his speech at the 137th International Parliamentary Union (IPU) assembly in Saint Petersburg, Russia, under the theme “Promoting Cultural Pluralism and Peace Through Inter-Faith and Inter-Ethnic Dialogue.”

Al-Asheikh said the Kingdom is seeking to spread a culture of dialogue locally, regionally and internationally, in order to reinforce and promote coexistence, respect, and global peace.

He highlighted the Kingdom’s great efforts espoused by the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue, including periodic meetings to discuss local issues.

The establishment of the King Salman Center for International Peace in Malaysia and the King Salman Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Austria are a result of the Kingdom’s strong belief in the human capacity to make the world a more peaceful place, he said.

He called for concerted international efforts to fight terrorism, issue more laws and regulations against terrorist attacks, fight the terrorist mindset and its financing sources, and create a list of all terrorist organizations and states that support them.

“The Kingdom has never missed a chance to fight terrorism. It even organized the Arab-Islamic-American Summit focusing on ways to eliminate terrorism, and established the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (Etidal) in Riyadh,” he said.

Concerning local and international issues, Al-Asheikh confirmed that the Palestinian cause remains one of the Kingdom’s priorities. He called for just and comprehensive peace in Palestine in accordance with international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

On the war in Yemen, he stressed that the Kingdom is aware of the suffering of the Yemeni people caused by Houthi militias.

The Kingdom will not waver in its determination to stand beside the Yemeni people, he said. The aid the Kingdom has provided to Yemen in the past few years has reached more than $8 billion allocated through the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid and UN organizations, he added.

Al-Asheikh also said that the Kingdom supports a political solution in Syria.

King Salman also allocated $15 million to help the Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar, and communicated with the Bangladesh government to reopen border crossings for them.

The UAE requested the inclusion of an emergency item in the assembly sessions: The Rohingya humanitarian crisis.

At the 137th IPU Assembly in St. Petersburg, a new president will be elected for a three-year term. The candidates are: Gabriela Cuevas Barron from Mexico and Ivonne Passada from Uruguay.

The IPU has more than 171 Parliament members from around the world and works through an executive committee and four permanent committees: Peace and international security; sustainable development; finance and trade; democracy and human rights; and UN affairs.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) (ADCB.AD) is letting go hundreds of employees, sources said, the latest in a round of lay-offs by regional banks as pressure mounts to cut costs amid lower oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.

The UAE’s third-biggest lender is laying off 400 employees, two sources familiar with the matter said, after it had committed to not cutting staff because of the crisis.

In a statement, a spokesman said ADCB had pursued efficiency over the last decade by managing out its lowest underachievers after regular reviews, while ensuring talent was deployed in high-growth areas, such as digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.

The sources said the cuts would involve ADCB’s consumer business and several in top management were among those being let go. One source said the bank was looking to close 20 branches.

In March, ADCB had declared, “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

UAE banks have been hit by government measures to rein in the spread of the virus, forcing many businesses to shut temporarily.

Last week, Dubai’s largest bank, Emirates NBD, reported a slump of 58% in profits. In June, sources told Reuters the bank started a new round of hundreds of lay-offs.

In May, ADCB reported a fall of 84% in first-quarter net profit as it took impairments of $292 million on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr.

It was a major lender, with an exposure of about $981 million, to NMC Health, which went into administration this year after months of turmoil following questions over financial reporting.

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Agencies
May 2,2020

Doha, May 2: Twenty-three staff at a hospital in Qatar were injured when tents being used to boost capacity in response to coronavirus collapsed in a fierce storm, local media reported Friday.

Winds of up to 72 kilometres per hour (45 miles per hour) caused two temporary tent annexes at Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital in Qatar's Industrial Area to collapse on Thursday, the Gulf Times reported.

No patients were hurt and most injuries to staff at the facility, 20 kilometres south west of central Doha, were minor, the daily added, citing the health ministry.

During the gale-force winds on Thursday, a Qatar Airways Boeing 787 on the ground was blown into a nearby Airbus A350 at Doha's Hamad airport causing minor damage but no injuries, the airline said in a statement.

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The Industrial Area is a gritty, densely-populated district that is home to mostly migrant labourers and has been the epicentre of Qatar's outbreak. 

Tens of thousands of residents were quarantined in the area after cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed among the community in mid-March.

Qatar -- home to hundreds of thousands of foreign labourers working on projects linked to the 2022 World Cup -- has reported 12 deaths and 14,096 cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

The hospital's executive director Hussein Ishaq said the incident was being treated "very seriously" and that an investigation had been launched.

Hospital staff had "helped ensure that no patients were injured and were safely transferred to other hospitals", he said, quoted in the Gulf Times.

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News Network
May 6,2020

A massive fire engulfed a residential tower in UAE's Sharjah last night. The building has been identified as one Abbco Tower in Al Nahda.

According to the latest inputs, Sharjah Civil Defence teams rushed to the spot and evacuated all residents. 

Firefighters managed to douse the blaze after several hours. The building in question is reportedly a 48-storey structure. Officials are yet to reveal the cause of the fire.

All residents of the building were evacuated while seven incurred minor injuries during the evacuation and were treated at local hospitals, reported the United Arab Emirates' local media.

More details are awaited as this is a developing story.

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