Qatar Amir says steps down, hands power to son

Rajan Kurian with wife Berly Rajan Kurian, son Brian, daughter Bella and mother Valsa

Dubai, May 22: A 43-year-old Indian businessman won USD one million (approximately Rs 7.59 crore) in the Dubai Duty Free draw.

Rajan Kurian, who owns a construction business in Kerala, had bought the ticket online.

Mr Kurian said he was grateful for the win, considering the gloomy circumstances prevailing in the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"I will set aside a good part of my win to help the needy. I feel grateful with the win but I need to share it with people who need it," he said. 

Mr Kurian said some of the money will go into growing his business.

"The last few months have been tough with the COVID-19 situation. My business has come to a standstill. This money will be put to good use," he said.

An Indian expat also won a BMW motorbike in the lucky draw held on Wednesday.

A longtime resident of Dubai for 30 years now, 57-year-old Syed Hydrose Abdulla, who works as a public relations officer in a beverages company, had also bought the ticket online.

Paris, Feb 5: Saudi Arabia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus on a poultry farm, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday, February 4.

سجلت الوزارة إصابة بمرض إنفلونزا الطيور H5N8 في أحد مشاريع الدواجن في منطقة الرياض، وتمكنت فرق الطوارئ من السيطرة على بؤرة الإصابة.
وفقاً لمنظمة الصحة العالمية (WHO)،فهذا المرض يصيب الطيور ولا ينتقل للإنسان، وهذه العترة تم تسجيلها في المملكة نهاية 2017م، وتمت السيطرة عليها. pic.twitter.com/DwxIwYyOXv

— المتحدث الرسمي لوزارة البيئة (@MEWAspokesman) February 4, 2020

The outbreak, which occurred in the central Sudair region, killed 22,700 birds, the OIE said, citing a report from the Saudi agriculture ministry.

The other 385,300 birds in the flock were slaughtered, it said.

The case was the first outbreak of the H5N8 virus in Saudi Arabia since July 2018.

Protests condemning the Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank are set to take place in the United States and Europe on the same day prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to begin the process.

The demonstrations will be held on Wednesday in Chicago, San Diego, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Other Western cities will also witness similar protests, including Toronto, Madrid and Valencia.

Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and American Muslims for Palestine are among the pro-Palestinian groups organizing the protests.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, one of the organizers, urged "direct actions and popular mobilizations in [Palestinian] refugee camps, cities and villages," and professed "loyalty to the martyrs" on its call for the events.

Another group, Al-Awda or the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, decried "72 years of genocide, ethnic cleansing and dispossession" of Palestinians.

It also tied their demonstrations to the protests against anti-black racism in the US and beyond.

"We demand the defunding and dismantling of US police alongside the defunding and dismantling of Zionist colonialism and racist Israeli apartheid," Al-Awda said on its website.

Netanyahu has set July 1 as the date for the start of cabinet discussions on the annexation plan.

He has been driven ahead by US President Donald Trump, who unveiled a “peace” plan for the Middle East in January that effectively sidelines the Palestinians altogether.

The plan, which Trump himself has described as the “deal of the century,” envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley. The plan also denies Palestinian refugees the right of return to their homeland, among other controversial terms.

The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.