Saudi legend Mohammad Noor announced in EA SPORTS FC 25 hero team
Updated 13 August 2024
Saudi Arabia
RIYADH: Saudi football legend Mohammad Noor has been included in a team of heroes for the upcoming EA SPORTS FC 25 release, the game maker annouced.
The retired player’s inclusion will mark the third time a Saudi player has been included in the set, officially called the Ultimate Team, which are usable game cards featuring retired players.
Noor spent the majority of his career with Al-Ittihad Club and is renowned for his illustrious career and numerous accolades.
His tenure at the Jeddah club is marked by his pivotal role in securing back-to-back AFC Champions League titles in 2004 and 2005. Representing the Green Falcons, he participated in multiple AFC Asian Cups and World Cups, contributing significantly to the national team's successes on the international stage.
EA SPORTS FC 25 has featured legendary players from the world’s game as in-game Heroes, including Saudi players Sami Al-Jaber and Saeed Al Oweiran. Noor’s addition continues this tradition, celebrating the rich history of Saudi football and its impact on the global stage.
SPORTS FC 25 is due to be released on Sept. 27, 2024.
Nightlife now rules in Iraq’s former Daesh bastion
Mines had to be cleared before homes, infrastructure and roads could be rebuilt to allow hundreds of thousands of people to return to what is now a metropolis of 1.5 million people
Updated 3 min 41 sec ago
AFP
MOSUL, Iraq: If they had tried to do this a few years ago, the group of Iraqi women enjoying a night out in Mosul would probably have risked severe punishment.
The northern city was under the harsh rule of the Daesh group until the terrorists were ousted from their last major Iraqi bastion in 2017.
Seven years later, Mosul’s streets truly come alive at nightfall, and residents are rediscovering the art of having a good time.
Amira Taha and her friends have come to a restaurant with their children, to enjoy food and live music — complete with crooners — on a night out that would have been unthinkable under Daesh rule.
“There has been enormous change in Mosul,” Taha tells AFP. “We now have freedom and nights out like this have become common” because of “the very stable security situation.”
The city has new restaurants to go to, pleasure cruises on the river Tigris, and amusement parks that draw families keen to take advantage of the newfound stability.
Dressed in an electric blue suit, the 35-year-old mother says “people wanted to open up (to the world) and enjoy themselves.”
On the stage, three Iraqi singers in suits and slicked-back hair take it in turns to entertain the diners with Iraqi and Arab pop songs.
The orchestra includes an electric organist, a violinist, and a musician playing the darbouka, a goblet-shaped drum.
When the terrorists took Mosul in 2014 they imposed a reign of sheer terror.
Music was banned, as were cigarettes. Churches and museums were ransacked, and Daesh staged public stonings and beheaded perceived wrongdoers.
Even after Mosul was retaken in 2017 in a destructive and lengthy fight by Iraqi and international coalition forces, it took several years for its citizens to emerge from years of trauma.
Entire neighborhoods were devastated, and reconstruction became a lengthy process.
Mines had to be cleared before homes, infrastructure and roads could be rebuilt to allow hundreds of thousands of people to return to what is now a metropolis of 1.5 million people.
In the past, Taha says, “people would go home, shut their doors and then go to bed” because of fears over security.
But now, all around her on the restaurant’s lawns, families are seated at most of the tables.
Sometimes the men and women puff on water pipes as their children clap and dance.
Overlooking the restaurant is a brand new bridge spanning the Tigris, a proud symbol of a Mosul being reborn.
Other cities in Iraq are in a similar situation, enjoying a return to normality after decades marked by war, sectarian violence, kidnappings, political conflict and extremism.
Ahmed — who goes by only his first name — opened a restaurant called “Chef Ahmed the Swede” in June, after spending “half of my life” in Sweden and taking a gamble.
Now he serves between 300 and 400 diners every day, Ahmed tells AFP.
“I’d always dreamt of coming back and starting my own business,” says the proprietor, who is in his forties.
“People want to go out, they want to see something different,” he says.
At Ahmed’s, diners can choose from dishes inspired by Scandinavian and European cuisines, alongside old favorites such as pastas, pizzas and grilled meats.
Khalil Ibrahim runs an amusement park on the banks of the river.
“The city has seen radical changes over the past few years,” he says. “We’ve gone from destruction to reconstruction.”
Friday is the first day of the weekend, and the evening is pierced by the happy shrieks and laughter of children in dodgem cars, the Ferris wheel and other attractions.
“People used to go home early,” Ibrahim tells AFP. “But now they’re still arriving even at midnight.”
His park opened in 2011, but it was “completely destroyed” in the war.
“We started again from scratch” with the help of private funding, he says.
As Mosul was still emerging from its terrorist nightmare, another tragedy befell the city.
In 2019 around 100 people, mostly women and children, died when a ferry taking families across the river to a leisure park capsized.
But today, pleasure boats ply the Tigris by night, their passengers admiring the riverbank lights of the restaurants and their reflection in the dark waters.
In small cafes, clients play dominoes or cards as they have a smoke.
“We’re comfortable here. We can breathe. We have the river, and that’s enough for us,” says day laborer Jamal Abdel Sattar.
“Some shops stay open until three in the morning, and some never close,” he adds. “When people got their first taste of security, they began to go out again.”
Hundreds rally in Paris for Iranian women’s rights
The march in solidarity with the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement was attended by Benjamin Briere and Louis Arnaud, two Frenchmen who were arrested and arbitrarily detained in Iran
Updated 25 min 58 sec ago
AFP
PARIS: Hundreds of people marched through Paris on Sunday in support of women’s rights and the opposition in Iran, two years after the death of Mahsa Amini sparked protests against the country’s religious authorities.
A 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, Amini died in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
The march, organized by around 20 human rights associations, took place as 34 women began a hunger strike in a Tehran prison to mark the two-year anniversary of her death.
Chirinne Ardakani, a Franco-Iranian lawyer and member of the “Iran Justice” collective, said that the “sacrifices” made by Iranians opposed to the regime were “not in vain.”
“Everything has changed in Iran,” Ardakani told AFP.
“We’ve gone from an absolutely patriarchal culture, where there was no question of women being able to reveal themselves in the street, to massive support for these women,” the lawyer and activist added.
The march in solidarity with the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement was attended by Benjamin Briere and Louis Arnaud, two Frenchmen who were arrested and arbitrarily detained in Iran.
Iran is accused of arresting Westerners without cause and using them as bargaining chips in state-to-state negotiations, with French diplomats describing these prisoners as “state hostages.”
Briere was eventually released in May 2023, while Arnaud was let go the month after.
“Yes, I was in prison, but it is an immense honor to have been able to live among you, freedom fighters, who shared my suffering,” Arnaud told the crowd, in his first public address since his release.
Three other French nationals are still being held in Iran.
After Amini died in custody on September 16, 2022, the women-led protests which erupted rattled Iran’s leadership that autumn and winter.
But the demonstrations were then crushed by the authorities, with rights group Amnesty International saying security forces used assault rifles and shotguns in the crackdown.
Human rights groups say at least 551 people were killed. Thousands more were arrested, according to the United Nations.
Will new residency rules rob Syrian children in Lebanon of their futures?
Two governorates require children to have a valid residency permit prior to registering for new academic year
The development come as Lebanon itself remains mired in crisis, with the specter of an all-out war looming
Updated 12 min 58 sec ago
Nadia Al-Faour
DUBAI: Authorities in Lebanon are imposing new restrictions that could deny thousands of displaced children access to an education. The measures come against a backdrop of mounting hostility toward war-displaced Syrians who currently reside in Lebanon.
The development comes as hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border show no sign of abating, deepening sectarian divides and compounding the economic and political crises that have kept the country on hold.
This summer, at least two municipalities in Lebanon have announced that Syrian children wishing to enroll at schools in their districts must have a valid residency permit prior to registering for the new academic year.
Al-Qaa municipality in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate issued a statement declaring Syrian students were not eligible to register unless they and their families had legal residency permits issued by the Lebanese General Security.
In a recent interview with Alhurra news agency, Nabil Kahala, the mayor of Sin El-Fil, a suburb east of Beirut, said the measures prohibit Syrians from registering in schools unless they have legal residency.
“It is not enough for a displaced Syrian to have a document proving his registration with the UN,” said Kahala. “We require a residency issued by the Lebanese General Security in order to be able to rent a home, work, and enroll his children in schools.”
Any school that violates this decision “will be reported to the relevant authorities,” he said, stressing that “this measure is not racist, but rather is an implementation of Lebanese laws.”
A stringent Lebanese residency requirement has barred many Syrian children from attending school, depriving them of their right to an education. (AFP)
Due to the red tape and stringent criteria for the renewal of Lebanese residency permits, only around 20 percent of displaced Syrians have valid residency status in Lebanon.
As some 80 percent are unable to obtain these documents, the measures have effectively barred Syrian children in these areas from attending school, depriving them of their right to an education.
Under international law, all children have the right to an education, free from discrimination, irrespective of their immigration or refugee status.
Only around 20 percent of displaced Syrians have valid residency status in Lebanon, enabling them to attend school. (AFP)
In December 2023, foreign donors including the EU gave the Lebanese government 40 million euros to support the education sector and ensure vulnerable children would continue to have access to schools. The conditions of this aid appear to be going unmet.
“The Lebanese government should ensure all children, regardless of nationality or status, can register for school and are not denied the right to an education,” Michelle Randhawa of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch said in a recent statement.
In an interview with L’Orient-Le Jour on Aug. 13, Lebanese Minister of Education Abbas Halabi said his ministry remained committed to the core principle of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that all children, regardless of nationality or status, would be registered for school.
The Lebanese government has previously imposed laws making it difficult for Syrians to obtain legal status. The UN refugee agency, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, also ceased its formal registration of Syrians in 2015 after complying with a Lebanese government order.
New laws include rules imposed on Lebanese citizens not to employ, shelter, or provide housing to Syrians residing in the country illegally. Those found breaking these rules can face arrest.
It is not just displaced Syrians who are struggling to access basic services in Lebanon. In the throes of myriad crises and without a functioning government, many Lebanese citizens are unable to obtain a decent education.
Since 2019 Lebanese have suffered from a financial meltdown described by the World Bank as one of the planet’s worst since the 1850s. To make matters worse, cross-border skirmishes between Israel and Lebanon-based militant groups have killed at least 88 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also 10 civilians, since the eruption of war in Gaza in October last year.
With more than 80 percent of the population pushed below the poverty line, initial sympathy for the thousands of migrants and refugees who fled violence, persecution, and poverty in Syria has since waned.
The forcible deportation of Syrians has now become commonplace, in defiance of aid agencies who say Lebanese authorities have a duty not to endanger the safety of refugees — a principle known as non-refoulement.
Besides the new set of regulations issued by Lebanese authorities, the increasingly hostile rhetoric of some politicians has also fanned the flames of anti-Syrian sentiment, leading to outbreaks of inter-communal violence.
INNUMBERS
• 470,000 School-aged Syrian refugees in Lebanon registered by the UN.
• 20% Proportion of Syrians living in Lebanon with valid residency status.
In July, Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces political party, called on the Ministry of Education to make schools ask students to provide the appropriate identification papers to register for the new academic year.
Geagea said all foreign students, especially Syrians, should have valid residency permits in order to register.
Dubbing the Syrian children an “existential threat,” the Free Patriotic Movement also issued a statement, saying: “We call on the Ministry of Education and owners of private schools and institutes to immediately stop the registration of any Syrian student in the country illegally.”
Faisal, a Syrian living in Lebanon without a residency permit, has been trying to find a way to enroll his 8-year-old son at school. Back in 2014, when he first arrived in Lebanon, he said services were readily available and the atmosphere more welcoming.
Syrian children run amidst snow in the Syrian refugees camp of al-Hilal in the village of al-Taybeh near Baalbek in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on January 20, 2022. (AFP)
“It was a little easier back then,” Faisal, who did not give his full name to avoid legal repercussions, told Arab News. “There was no hostility as you encounter nowadays. It’s a struggle and I am under constant stress of being found out, then getting deported.”
Faisal says he is able to scrape a meager living by working multiple jobs with Lebanese employers who are willing to defy the law and pay cheap Syrian laborers “under the table.”
He added: “I don’t want my son to grow up without an education and have to end up living like me. I want him to speak languages; I want him to know how to read and write properly; I want him to be able to have a chance at a good life.”
There are around 1.5 million Syrians in Lebanon, according to Lebanese government figures. Of these, the UNHCR has registered just 800,000.
Every year, local and international humanitarian organizations attempt to put pressure on the Ministry of Education to pass some laws to allow more undocumented Syrian children to obtain an education.
Lebanese law, however, is not the only barrier.
According to the 2023 Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, conducted by the UNHCR, the UN Children’s Fund, and the World Food Programme, some of the biggest obstacles to Syrian children gaining an education in Lebanon include the cost of transport, fees and entry requirements, and the impact of poverty on school attendance.
Indeed, many Syrian children are forced to drop out of school in order to work to support their families, while daughters are frequently married off at a young age so that households have fewer mouths to feed.
Those lucky enough to find a school place and who have the means to attend can face discrimination, taunting and bullying from their classmates.
“My son was a joyful, bubbly child growing up, but I noticed he started becoming withdrawn after attending the private school I scrounged to get him enrolled in,” said Faisal. His son was being bullied by his classmates who called him a “lowly Syrian,” he said.
Wizz Air announces new London Gatwick-Jeddah route
Updated 15 September 2024
Arab News
Wizz Air, Europe’s fastest-growing and most environmentally sustainable airline, has launched a new direct route between London Gatwick and Jeddah, starting on March 31, 2025. This new route underscores Wizz Air’s dedication to expanding its presence in Saudi Arabia, offering travelers more options and affordable fares. Tickets are now available on wizzair.com and the Wizz Air app, with prices starting from $116.99.
Wizz Air’s new London Gatwick to Jeddah route will operate daily all year round, connecting two vibrant cities. This strategic addition to Wizz Air’s network highlights the airline’s commitment to providing affordable and accessible travel options while strengthening ties between Saudi Arabia and the UK.
HIGHLIGHT
Over the past three years, Wizz Air has significantly increased its capacity in Saudi Arabia, introducing numerous new routes and enhancing travel options.
Over the past three years, Wizz Air has significantly increased its capacity in Saudi Arabia, introducing numerous new routes and enhancing travel options, while contributing to the country’s connectivity in line with Vision 2030 and following a partnership agreement with Saudi Tourism Authority to increase connectivity to Europe and boost inbound visitors.
Andras Rado, Head of Communications and Government Affairs, Wizz Air
This route is one of many offerings that will leverage the Airbus A321XLR’s extended range and efficiency, revolutionizing intercontinental travel and making it more accessible than ever before.
“The Airbus A321XLR is the most cost-efficient aircraft of its class and, given the enhanced range capability, it enables Wizz Air to connect the furthest destinations in its network and further expand it, connecting cultures and continents. We’re excited to unlock unbeatable fares for our customers on the newly announced route to London, while offering the most sustainable option for flying,” said Andras Rado, head of communications and government affairs, Wizz Air, during a press conference in Jeddah. “We are already flying several 5-6 hour long ultra-low-cost routes with great satisfaction to our customers, and the XLR (extra-long range) will extend our outstanding value proposition to 7–8-hour long flights.”
We’re excited to unlock unbeatable fares for our customers on the newly announced route to London.
Andras Rado, Head of Communications and Government Affairs, Wizz Air
The new aircraft type, a first in the region, is the most cost-effective in its class, more sustainable due to less fuel burn and designed to operate intercontinental flights of up to 7-8 hours, revolutionizing the long-haul travel market.
“We as an airport are delighted to offer affordable fares for our customers on the newly announced route to London Gatwick while providing the Wizz Air’s new route as an option for traveling to the UK,” said Kimmo Ruotsalainen, general manager of aviation business development, Jeddah Airports Company.
Wizz Air’s investment in Saudi Arabia includes the use of modern, fuel-efficient aircraft, contributing to more sustainable travel. The airline’s carbon intensity is estimated to be at least 30 percent lower than that of other carriers on the same routes, aligning with Wizz Air’s commitment to reducing its environmental footprint.
Since entering the Saudi market, Wizz Air has created more than 1,500 job opportunities in the associated industries.
Gulf Air expands European network with SKY express
Updated 15 September 2024
Arab News
Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, announced a new special prorate agreement with SKY express, the multi-awarded Greek airline. This one-way SPA allows Gulf Air passengers to seamlessly connect onto SKY express flights, opening up new travel opportunities to Greece and beyond.
Specifically, Gulf Air passengers can fly and connect through Athens to 32 destinations across Greece. Under this agreement, passengers traveling from Europe — via key hubs like Rome, Milan, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, and London — can enjoy seamless connections with a single ticket from their city of departure through Athens to Bahrain, and onward to Gulf Air’s extensive network.
This partnership significantly expands Gulf Air’s network and strengthens its presence in Greece and Europe, providing passengers with even more travel options and convenience.
A Gulf Air spokesperson said: “This partnership with SKY express signifies a key step in Gulf Air’s network expansion strategy, broadening our reach and strengthening our market presence in Europe. By connecting our network to SKY express, we’re offering our passengers enhanced travel experiences to Greek destinations with seamless connectivity, and more travel options to choose from.”
Gerasimos Skaltsas, chief commercial officer of SKY express, said: “Our partnership with Gulf Air marks a significant milestone in SKY express’s international expansion, enhancing connectivity for passengers across Greece and global destinations via Bahrain. By offering seamless travel with a single ticket, we are providing a more convenient and comprehensive travel experience. This collaboration brings mutual benefits to both airlines and our passengers.”
This agreement marks another milestone in Gulf Air’s commitment to expanding its network and offering passengers greater flexibility and convenience.
By streamlining connections through the Greek airports included in the SPA, Gulf Air enhances operational efficiency while providing passengers with a wider array of destination choices for passengers.
