Heritage comes alive at schools, malls and libraries

April 17, 2012

heritage


Dubai, April 17: Dubai will give visitors and residents a chance to get soaked in its history, culture and arts through a gamut of activities during the annual Heritage Week until April 21.

Visitors take a look at a display at the Falcon Centre in Nad Al Sheba. Along with Dubai Culture, the Architectural Heritage Department of the Dubai Municipality is also holding different activities to mark World Heritage Day on April 18. — KT photo by Kiran Prasad

Under the theme ‘Dubai: Live Our Heritage’, and as part of the global celebrations to mark the World Heritage Day on April 18, the Heritage Week activities will be held at key heritage and cultural locations across the emirate, in addition to the first participation of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority’s newly launched Cultural Centres in public schools. Being organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Dubai Culture will host a range of activities at Al Hudaibiah Primary School for kindergarten students, Al Kuwait Primary School for primary students and Sakina Bint Al Hussain School for secondary classes, which will be the focal points of the educational campaigns as part of the Heritage Week celebrations.

The dedicated Cultural Centres at these institutions aim to highlight the importance of heritage.

An integral part of the Heritage Week programme are the diverse activities comprising workshops, talks, lectures, arts and crafts, among others, held at the historic Al Bastakiya, the cultural nerve centre of the city; The Dubai Mall; Dubai Public Library; Ibn Battuta Mall; Arabian Centre; Hatta National Arts & Cultural Association; and Dubai International Airport.

Salem Belyouha, Projects and Events Director, Dubai Culture, said: “This year, we are focused on promoting Heritage Week through a range of educational activities, which are mainly aimed at instilling the customs of our region in our youth from an early age. Additionally, visitors to Dubai, over the week, as well as residents will be able to obtain first-hand knowledge on the various traditional activities that are part of our Emirati identity. Understanding one’s past is important, as it serves as a reservoir of strength for future growth and development.”

The Cultural Centres will strengthen awareness on Emirati heritage among the students through a series of workshops, panel discussions, performances, games and tours until April 21.

Al Bastakiya will showcase traditional cooking stations, the art of ceramic-making, games, arts and crafts, workshops, theatrical performances, storytelling, lectures on the national animals, and falconry, among others, until April 19.

Dubai Public Library will host lectures on the various aspects of heritage at the Al Twar Public Library, Al Safa Library, and in Hatta Public Library until April 19.

To further promote awareness, a strong focus has also been placed on the shopping malls as locations. The Dubai Mall will host a model heritage village, in addition to competitions, craftsmanship, photography studios and educational sessions. The same activities will also be held at the Arabian Centre and Ibn Battuta Mall until April 21.

Dubai International Airport will give all visitors to the city the opportunity to experience the true essence of the city through Areesh tents, Henna stations, dedicated Coffee & Dates tents, and live craftsmen until April 21.


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News Network
April 22,2020

Dubai, Apr 22: Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry registered 1141 new Coronavirus cases, 172 new Recoveries and 5 new deaths in the last 24 hours by 22nd April 2020 (3:40 PM), Most of  the Corona infected patients are in stable condition, while 82 cases are on critical condition and are being treated in various hospital's Intensive Care Unit, All the confirmed and suspected cases are isolated and are being treated in the country, the Total Covid-19 cases as of Today are as follows
 
Infections : 12772
Recovered : 1812
Deaths : 114
Active Cases : 10846
Critical : 82

-  The Spokesperson of Ministry of Health said Total laborartory tests exceeded 200,000. 

-  You should continue to socialize and stay at home, especially for those aged 65 and over or who suffer from chronic diseases.

-  Half a million field assessments under active survey, 50 government agencies involved in anti-virus efforts, 150 field teams participating in the active examination in the Kingdom.

- The Health Ministry said, Maintaining hand-washing and keeping away from gatherings is an important step, and we should all be responsible.

- Worldwide Covid-19 infection details as of Today (22nd April) are

Infections : 2,580,729
Recovered : 693,093
Deaths : 178,371

- Among the 1141 new infections, most of the cases are on active survey results, 868 cases from new infections are discovered from active survey field testing. The city wise total active cases excluding recoveries and deaths by 22nd April are

Makkah : 2472
Madina : 1944
Riyadh : 1762
Jeddah : 1679
Dammam : 678
Hofuf : 507
Taif : 131
Tabuk : 128
Jubail : 97
Qatif : 73
Buraidah : 46
Khamis Musaith : 44
Khobar : 38
Dhahran : 36
Yanbu : 36
Khalis : 24
Ar Ar : 16
Khafji : 15
Ras Tanura : 12
Zulfi : 11
Onaiza : 9
Al Maqwat : 9
Al Dariya : 8
Al Kharj : 8
Samita : 8
Bisha : 7
Najran : 7
Al Khanfadah : 7
Hail : 6
Al Baha : 6
Sabit Alaya : 5
Muhayil Asir : 5
Ahad Rafidah : 4
Muwiya : 4
Ar Ras : 4
Al Qurayyat : 3
Al Muzilaf : 3
Sharura : 3
Al Jafar : 2
Al Lais : 2
Al Hanakiya : 2
AlMabraz : 2
Al Qawiya : 2
Al Tawal : 2
Al Misan : 2
Al Qariya : 2
Hada : 2
Rabig : 2
Sabia : 2
Saihat : 2
Azam : 1
Al Aiz : 1
Al Bakariya : 1
Al Dawadmi : 1
Al Majmaah : 1
Al Mada : 1
Al Shamli : 1
Al Ala : 1
Al Wajha : 1
Al Arida : 1
Beesh : 1
Diba : 1
Sakaka : 1
Sariban : 1
Sharura : 1
Riyad Al Khabra : 1

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coastaldigest.com news network
August 3,2020

Sharjah, Aug 3: A 24-year-old Indian engineer has fallen to death from the sixth floor of a residential building on Eid al-Adha in the UAE's Sharjah, a media report said on Monday. 

The electrical engineer, identified with his single name Sumesh, hailed from the south Indian state of Kerala.

He lived in a building in Al Dhaid in Sharjah, from where he fell to death on Friday, the report said, adding that he was apparently talking over the phone and threw it down minutes before the incident.

Sumesh, who came to the UAE a year ago, worked as a designer in Sharjah's Muwaileh area. His roommates said that he had some "personal issues" that had been "bothering him for some time", according to the report.

"It was Eid al-Adha and our cook had made biryani for us. We were all cracking jokes and having a good time. In fact, even Cuckoo (Sumesh) was also laughing with us. He seemed happy. Nobody had anticipated this. I did sense a few times that something was troubling him and I even asked him about it, but he brushed it off," the report quoted his roommate Dileep Kumar as saying.

Shans KF, another roommate, said Sumesh was to travel to India for his annual leave but could not because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The police have launched an investigation and moved the body to the forensic lab for an autopsy.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Dubai, Jan 6: Iran announced a further rollback of its commitments to the troubled international nuclear accord Sunday amid anger over the US killing of a top commander which also prompted Iraq's parliament to demand the departure of American troops.

While vast crowds gathered in Iran's second city of Mashhad as Qasem Soleimani's remains were returned home, the Tehran government said it would forego the "limit on the number of centrifuges" it had pledged to honour in the 2015 agreement which was already in deep trouble.

The announcement was yet another sign of the fallout from Friday's killing of Soleimani in Baghdad in a drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump, which has inflamed US-Iraqi relations and among the rival camps in Washington.

Iran's 2015 nuclear accord with the United Nations Security Council's five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany has been hanging by a thread since the US withdrew unilaterally from it two years ago.

European countries have been pushing for talks with Iran to salvage the deal, inviting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif to Brussels for talks, but the prospect of progress seemed remote after the government's statement on Sunday night.

"Iran's nuclear programme no longer faces any limitation in the operational field", said the statement.

This extends to Iran's capacity for enriching uranium, the level of enrichment carried out, the amount enriched, and other research and development, it said.

"As of now Iran's nuclear programme will continue solely based on its technical needs," it added.

Europe urges Iran to rethink

Until now, Iran has said it needs to enrich uranium up to a level of five percent to produce fuel for electricity generation in nuclear power plants.

Tehran said it would continue cooperating "as before" with the International Atomic Energy Agency but the leaders of Germany, France and Britain reacted by urging Iran to rethink its announcement.

"We call on Iran to withdraw all measures that are not in line with the nuclear agreement," Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a joint statement.

The European leaders also urged Iran to refrain from taking "further violent actions or support for them."

"It is crucial now to de-escalate. We call on all the players involved to show utmost restraint and responsibility."

The Europeans have been among the chorus of voices urging restraint in the aftermath of the drone strike which killed Soleimani, the veteran commander of the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations.

But as his remains were paraded through the streets of Mashhad, cries of "Revenge, Revenge" echoed through the streets while mourners threw scarves onto the roof of the truck carrying his coffin.

Soleimani's remains had been returned before dawn to the southwestern city of Ahvaz, where the air resonated with Shiite chants and shouts of "Death to America".

Some 5,200 US soldiers are currently stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State jihadist group.

But the government could be poised to demand they leave after a vote in the Baghdad parliament where caretaker prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi joined 168 lawmakers -- just enough for quorum -- to discuss a motion to force US troops.

"The parliament has voted to commit the Iraqi government to cancel its request to the international coalition for help to fight IS," speaker Mohammed Halbusi announced.

The cabinet would have to approve any decision but the premier indicated support for an ouster in his speech.

'Iraqi people want the US'

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacted by saying he would "take a look at what we do when the Iraqi leadership and government makes a decision" but indicated that he felt American troops were still welcome.

"We are confident that the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there to fight the counterterror campaign," Pompeo said on Fox News.

Two rockets hit near the US embassy in Baghdad late Sunday, the second night in a row that the Green Zone was hit and the 14th time over the last two months that US installations have been targeted.

Pompeo defended the decision to kill Soleimani while insisting that any further US military action against Iran would conform to international law.

Trump triggered accusations that he had threatening a war crime by declaring cultural sites as potential targets in a Tweet on Saturday night.

Zarif drew parallels with the Islamic State group's destruction of the Middle East's cultural heritage following Trump's tweets that sites which were "important to... Iranian culture" were on a list of 52 potential US targets.

"We'll behave lawfully," Pompeo told the ABC network.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been leading the backlash against the Soleimani strike, an operation that Trump only officially informed Congress about after the event.

But Trump made light of the calls for him to get Congressional approval in the future, saying such notice was "not required" -- and then saying his tweet would serve as prior notification if he did decide to strike against Iran again.

"These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any US person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner," Trump wrote.

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