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Mahmoud Abbas lambasts Trump's decision on Jerusalem

Agencies
December 7, 2017

Mahmoud Abbas has lambasted the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying the Palestinian leadership refuses to acknowledge President Donald Trump's contentious move.

Calling Jerusalem the "eternal capital of the State of Palestine", the president of the Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday the US could no longer be a mediator in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

His comments were in response to an earlier announcement by Trump during which he said the US was formally recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and would begin the process of moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

"This is a reward to Israel," Abbas said in a televised address, adding that Trump's move encouraged Israel's "continuing occupation" of the Palestinian territories.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian leaders called for three days of rage against the move.

The status of Jerusalem has ignited tensions between Israelis and Palestinians for decades.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem at the end of the 1967 War with Syria, Egypt and Jordan; the western half of the holy city had been captured in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem effectively put the entire city under de-facto Israeli control. Israeli jurisdiction and ownership of Jerusalem, however, is not recognised by the international community.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

"The decision by President Trump will not change the reality of the city of Jerusalem and will not give any legitimacy to the Israelis on this issue," said Abbas.

"We will achieve national independence."

'Dangerous decision'
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Trump "has disqualified his country from any possible role in the peace process" and "destroyed any possibility of peace" between Israelis and Palestinians.

"He's pushing this region towards chaos [and] violence," Erekat told Al Jazeera.

He said the PLO Central Council would likely convene to discuss what next steps for the Palestinians.

He said its "meaningless" to have a Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital.

The only option remaining for Palestinians, Erekat said, "is to fight for equal rights" between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the area of historic Palestine.

"This is the most dangerous decision that any US president has ever taken," he said.

Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, said Trump was "playing with fire".

"Those who celebrate Trump's declaration here in Israel, are the ones who will do everything to prevent order and peace, and to advance the settlements as well as supporting the occupation, while trying to strangle the just national aspirations of the Palestinian people," Zahalka said in a statement.

Echoing Netanyahu
Commenting on Trump's speech, Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said Trump had reiterated "point-by-point" previous statements by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister.

"Trump was a parrot, repeating after Netanyahu in terms of everything that we know today about Israel's position on Palestine," he said.

"There is something dramatic new in what Trump said this evening, wrapped up in a language of peace and civility.

"In fact, this was a declaration of war against the Palestinian people and their rights, and against the international community and its commitment to international law and to a two-state solution."

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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
July 2,2020

With the launch of the Emirates Mars Mission less than a couple of weeks away, the spacecraft that will carry the UAE's Hope Probe to outer space has already been fuelled, it was announced today.

At a virtual briefing by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) today, the media was informed that scientists are busy giving finishing touches to the Hope Mars Mission, which will give mankind a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere once the UAE's indigenous probe reaches the Red Planet's orbit in 2021.

As the monitoring continues, final charging of the batteries is also ongoing, scientists said.

The space engineers averred that with this mission, the momentum in the region for space awareness will continue not only among young Emiratis but also among other youngsters in the Arab world.

The Hope Probe is scheduled to take off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre on July 15 at 00:51:27 UAE time.

The first Arab space mission to the Red Planet remained on track despite the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The spacecraft will provide the first global pictures of the Martian atmosphere and data will be shared freely with over 200 research centres across the world. It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.

450 engineers, technicians and experts are involved in the project.  This comprises of 12,000 tasks in 6 years and entails 5.5 million working hours.

It includes 200 new technologies and 15 scientific partnerships with global universities and institutions.

The spaceship will travel 495 million km. It has a cruise speed of 121,000km/hour.

MBRSC is responsible for the execution and supervision of all stages of the design, development and launch of the Hope Probe. The UAE Space Agency is funding and supervising procedures and necessary details for the implementation of this project. After its launch in mid-July and following a journey of several months, the probe is expected to enter the Red Planet's orbit in 2021, coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of the Union.

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News Network
May 25,2020

May 25: A total of 241 Indians including 136 people who were jailed in Kuwait would return to the country soon, a senior minister said on Sunday.

The other 105 people were stranded in Bangladesh, Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said.

"Altogether 136 people from Tripura and Assam, who are at present in jail in Kuwait for violating that country's laws, would be deported. They will reach Guwahati between May 27 and June 4 in a special flight," Nath told reporters.

He said the matter has been officially informed by the Kuwaiti government, but the reason for their imprisonment is not known.

"We had requested the Kuwaiti authorities to drop the Tripura residents here. However, they informed us that the flight would land in a single airport," the minister added.

Nath said 105 residents of Tripura, who are stranded in different places of Bangladesh will return to the state through the Agartala-Akhaura integrated check post on May 28.

"They would be taken to institutional quarantine and swabs of all the passengers would be collected for COVID-19 test," Nath said.

If the report of their samples tests negative, they would be allowed to leave the facility and remain under 14 days of home quarantine. And those who test positive would be hospitalized, he said.

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