Women in Saudi should have choice whether to wear abaya robe: Crown Prince

Dubai, July 6: Even as the world’s one of the most sought after tourist destinations is gearing up to welcome foreign tourists from July 7, the authorities have taken necessary measures to prevent the spread of covid-19.

If the foreign tourists want to avoid self-isolation after landing in Dubai International Airport, they have to fetch covid-negative certificates from their home country. The certificate ought to have been issued up to 96 hours prior to the travel.

Those without a cvid-negative certificate, however, will need to undergo a PCR test on arrival at the Dubai airports and self-isolate until they receive their negative results.

"If passengers opt to take the PCR test on arrival in Dubai, they must self-isolate until test results are received. If the test result is negative, passengers can leave the hotel and enjoy the trip as normal. However, if the test result is positive, passengers are asked to follow the advice of the Dubai Health Authority and self-isolate," Emirates said in a statement.

Budget carrier flydubai said if a passenger tests positive for Covid-19, he/she would need to observe a 14-day quarantine. The airline also advised passengers to comply with all the precautionary Covid-19 measures in place in Dubai "including wearing a mask, observing social distancing and washing your hands regularly".

Tourists with Covid-19 symptoms

* If a traveller is suspected to have Covid-19 symptoms, Dubai Airports has the right to re-test to ensure the tourist is free of the virus

*It is mandatory for Covid-positive tourists to isolate themselves at an institutional facility provided by the government for 14 days at their own expense.

Other requirements

*Travel insurance: Tourists must have a travel insurance with Covid-19 cover or declare that they would bear the costs for treatment and isolation if required. "Bring an insurance certificate stating Covid-19 coverage to present at check-in," Emirates said.

*Visa: Referring to visa requirements, Emirates said: "Depending on your nationality you can get a visa on arrival, or you can apply for your visit visa from Dubai Immigration before you travel."

*Health Declaration Form: Tourists need to complete the form that states they are free from Covid-19 symptoms. This must be done before embarking.

*Tracing app: Tourists must download the Covid-19 DXB app and register details. "This is critically important since it facilitates easy coordination and communication with the health authorities if tourists experience Covid-19 symptoms," Dubai authorities had said earlier.

Days after Twitter accounts of several billionaires were hacked to engineer a crypto scam, Twitter on Saturday said it is embarrassed, disappointed and, more than anything, sorry for what happened with some of its high-profile users as attackers successfully manipulated its employees and used their credentials to access internal systems, including getting through the two-factor protections.

In the first detailed summary of the "social engineering attack" via a crypto scam that hit at least 130 users this week, Twitter said for 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account and send Tweets.

"We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken. In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames," the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.

For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account's information via "Your Twitter Data" tool.

This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity.

"We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true. None of the eight were verified accounts," said Twitter.

The company said the attackers were not able to view previous account passwords, as those are not stored in plain text or available through the tools used in the attack.

"Attackers were able to view personal information including email addresses and phone numbers, which are displayed to some users of our internal support tools," informed Twitter.

In cases where an account was taken over by the attacker, they may have been able to view additional information, Twitter added, saying its forensic investigation of these activities was still ongoing.

"We are actively working on communicating directly with the account-holders that were impacted".

The company said it will soon restore access for all account owners who may still be locked out as a result of the remediation efforts.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Twitter crypto scam can be traced back to a group of hackers who congregate online at OGusers.com, a username-swapping community where people buy and sell coveted online handles.

The report said that the Twitter hack is not from Russian, Chinese or North Korean hackers but was done by a group of young people, "one of whom says he lives at home with his mother".

Riyadh, Apr 27: The government of Saudi Arabia has signed a SR995 million (approx. Dh972m) contract with China to provide Covid-19 tests for nine million people in the Kingdom.

The Saudi Press Agency, SPA, reported that the decision came "as a result of a phone call made today (Sunday) between the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Chinese President Xi Jinping."

The contract includes providing necessary equipment and supplies, making available of 500 Chinese specialists and technicians who are specialised in performing tests, establishing six large regional laboratories throughout the Kingdom; including a mobile laboratory with a capacity of performing 10,000 tests per day. Saudi cadres will also be trained to conduct daily tests and comprehensive field tests, under the new agreement

The contract was co-signed by the National Unified Procurement Company and Chinese company Huo-yan Laboratories by Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Advisor at the Royal Court, on behalf of the Government of Saudi Arabia, and Chinese Ambassador to the Kingdom Chen Weiqing, as a representative of the Chinese Government.

The contract is one of the largest contracts that will provide diagnostic tests for the novel Coronavirus.

Tests were also purchased from several other companies from the United States, Switzerland and South Korea, bringing the number of available tests to 14.5 million, covering around 40 percent of Saudi Arabia's population, SPA added.