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Flights delayed as dense fog takes over UAE

KT
March 29, 2019

Dubai, Mar 29: Thick fog has disrupted several flights at Dubai International Airport on Friday morning.

"Fog has affected some flights from at Dubai International Airport," the Emirates said in a statement on Twitter.

Emirates has urged passengers to check their flight status on its website for the latest information regarding their flights.

Thick fog covered parts of the UAE , reducing visibility to less than 500 metres at several places.

Fog was reported in different parts to the country, including Al Dhafrah area, Al Shawamekh in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah,  Umm Al Quwain and in Abu Dhabi-Dubai road.

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) cautioned commuters to be extra careful when travelling during these conditions.

The unstable weather the country has been experiencing in the past couple of days is due to a trough of low atmospheric pressure, resulting in rainfall of different intensities over scattered areas of the country, the NCM said in its forecast.

Meanwhile, the NCM said it will cloudy across the country today, with humidity increasing by the evening. Winds will be Light to moderate northeasterly to easterly winds, may become fresh during day time, with a speed of 20 - 30, reaching 38kmph. Sea will be Slight to moderate in the Arabian Gulf and in Oman Sea.

Rain to continue till weekend

If you have plans to spend some time outdoors this weekend, don't forget to pack your umbrellas and other protective gear as there is a chance of light to moderate showers until Saturday, according to the UAE weather bureau.

Following a night of thunderstorm and rain lashing most parts of the country on Wednesday, Dubai residents woke up to dark skies on Thursday. People going to work had to face light showers as they set out for the day.

On Wednesday, the Jumeirah area in Dubai recorded the second highest amount of rainfall at 11.6mm while Abu Dhabi's Ras Ghanada was the wettest after receiving 12mm of rain.

Heavy traffic was reported on major thoroughfares and the Dubai Police said that 110 traffic accidents were reported due to the heavy rain in the emirate from Wednesday 12 noon until 10am on Thursday.

The Dubai Police also received as many as 3,385 emergency calls but there were no serious injuries. "We have urged motorists to keep a safe distance between cars and adjust their speed to the weather conditions. They are also advised to allow extra time for their journey and check their planned route. It's also highly advisable to slow down as rain makes roads slippery," Colonel Turki bin Fares, director of command and control centre at the Dubai Police, said.

Based on Khaleej Times' monitoring, the country has been receiving rain since the last six months, with February's average rainfall of 9mm higher than the 5.6mm recorded in the same month last year.

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News Network
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: A heart-broken father who lost his 19-year-old son in a tragic car accident during Christmas last year has sponsored the repatriation costs of 61 Indians stranded in the UAE.

 The special flydubai repatriation flight, chartered by the All Kerala Colleges Alumni Federation (Akcaf) volunteer group, of which he is a member of, departed from Dubai to Kochi on July 25 carrying 199 passengers.

 On this particular flight, I sponsored 55 air tickets," said TN Krishnakumar, a sales and marketing director. He had lost his son Rohit Krishnakumar in a car accident, which also claimed the life of the teen's friend, Sharat Kumar (21).

"All passengers who were registered with the Indian missions were also asked to register on the Akcaf volunteer group website. Each passenger was further vetted, after which we made home visits to ensure that all the applicants were genuinely in need of financial support and repatriation," he said.

Commenting on what inspired him to dedicate himself to community work, Krishankumar said: "When a situation like this comes up, you realise there is no meaning in money. I invested everything I made into my son, and that had crashed in front of my eyes. He was a third-year medical student at the University of Manchester in the UK and had returned home for a vacation when the accident took place. Since then, I have been involved in a lot of social activities. If I do not do this, there is no meaning to my existence."

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Krishnakumar said the group has supported thousands of individuals in need of help. "We supported unemployed people with several hundred bags of grocery kits and other necessary items. We also supported Covid-19 patients by transferring them to the medical facility in Warsan, etc.," he said.

"I come from a very middle-class family. I got a scholarship to study in college, and I studied with the help of taxpayers' money. I have always wanted to give back to society. I have grown immensely in life and now is my time to give back.," he added.

Krishnakumar also sponsors the education of over 1,000 academically gifted school children in Kerala's government-aided schools. He is a life trustee at the College of Engineering Trivandrum Alumni Galaxy Charitable Trust and an active participant towards various educational causes.

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Agencies
July 20,2020

Riyadh, Jul 20: Saudi Arabia's King Salman has been admitted to a hospital in the capital, Riyadh, for medical tests due to inflammation of the gallbladder, the kingdom's Royal Court said Monday in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The statement said the 84-year-old monarch is being tested at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The brief statement did not provide further details.

King Salman has been in power since January 2015. He is considered the last Saudi monarch of his generation of brothers who have held power since the death of their father and founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz.

King Salman has empowered his 34-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as his successor. The crown prince's assertive and bold style of leadership, as well as his consolidation of power and sidelining of potential rivals, has been controversial.

With the support of his father, Prince Mohammed has transformed the kingdom in recent years, opening it up to tourists and eroding decades of ultraconservative restrictions on entertainment and women's rights as he tries to diversify the Saudi economy away from reliance on oil exports.

The prince has also detained dozens of activists and critics, overseen a devastating war in Yemen, and rounded up top members of the royal family in his quest for power.

The Saudi king has not been seen in public in recent months due to social distancing guidelines and concerns over the spread of the coronavirus inside the kingdom, which has one of the largest outbreaks in the Middle East.

He has been shown, however, in state-run media images attending virtual meetings with his Cabinet and held calls with world leaders.

King Salman, who oversees Islam's holiest sites in Makkah and Medinah, was a crown prince under King Abdullah and served as defense minister. For more than 50 years prior to that, he was governor of Riyadh, overseeing its evolution from a barren city to a teeming capital.

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News Network
July 20,2020

Abu Dhabi, Jul 20: The United Arab Emirates launched its first-ever interplanetary Hope Probe mission to Mars from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre at 01:58 a.m. (local time) on Monday.

"United Arab Emirates (UAE) launches its first mission to Mars, the 'Hope Mars Mission' from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center," UAE Space Agency said on its Twitter page.

The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars orbit in about 200 days from now and then begin its mission to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, WAM news agency reported.

Once it enters Mars' orbit in the first quarter of 2021, the Hope probe will mark the UAE's 50th anniversary.

The probe will travel 493 million kilometres into space in a journey that will take seven months, and will orbit the Red Planet for one full Martian year of 687 days to provide the first truly global picture of the Martian atmosphere.

The Hope probe will be the first to study the Martian climate throughout daily and seasonal cycles. It will observe the weather phenomena on Mars such as the massive famous dust storms that have been known to engulf the Red Planet, as compared to the short and localised dust storms on Earth.

It will also examine the interaction between the upper and lower layers of the Martian atmosphere and causes of the Red Planet's surface corrosion, as well as study why Mars is losing its upper atmosphere.

Exploring connections between today's Martian weather and the ancient climate of the Red Planet will give deeper insights into the past and future of Earth as well as the potential of life on Mars and other distant planets.

The Hope Mars Mission is considered as the biggest strategic and scientific national initiative announced by UAE's President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2014. The UAE will be the first Arab nation to embark on a space mission to the Red Planet in a journey that contributes to the international science community as a service to human knowledge.

The interplanetary mission is the first by any West Asian, Arab or Muslim majority country.

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