Second phase of Saudi Crown Prince Camel Festival begins
Updated 25 August 2018
Arab News
The second phase of the Crown Prince Camel Festival kicks off on Saturday in Taif, after a one-week pause due to Eid Al-Adha.
Ten racing rounds of 2-4 km will take place over the course of two days. The first phase witnessed the participation of camel owners from all over the Gulf.
Participants said the festival’s timing and location are appropriate in terms of the temperature, and they praised the Saudi Federation of Camels for ensuring its success.
The festival includes a number of competitions, including one for photographers for a prize of SR90,000 ($23,998), and another for commentators for prizes amounting to SR125,000.
The festival aims to enhance the camel heritage in Saudi, Arab and Islamic culture.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza kill at least 20 people, Palestinian medics say
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry till date
Updated 51 sec ago
AP
Palestinian medics say Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people.
One of the strikes overnight and into Monday hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people, including two children. That’s according to the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, which received the bodies.
Hospital records show another six killed in a strike on people securing an aid convoy and another two killed in a strike on a car in Muwasi. One person was killed in a separate strike in the area.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah said three bodies arrived after an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Israeli military says it only strikes militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians. It said late Sunday that it had targeted a Hamas militant in the humanitarian zone.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Around 100 captives are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry says women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
PESHAWAR: A religious winter festival celebrated by the Kalash people in the northwestern Pakistani district of Chitral has concluded after featuring rituals, traditional dance and other festivities for two weeks, provincial tourism authority said on Monday.
The Kalash are a group of about 4,000 people, possibly Pakistan’s smallest minority, who live in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, where they practice an ancient polytheistic faith.
They come together each year in December to celebrate the two-week Chawmos festival after the community finishes fieldwork and stores cheese, fruit, vegetables and grains for the year.
The festival features various rituals, animal sacrifice, dance, songs and feasting, preserving the Kalash culture and attracting a number of tourists to Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The religious Chawmos festival of the ancient Kalash Valley has concluded,” Mohammad Saad, a spokesperson for the KP Tourism Authority, said in a statement.
“The festival continued from Dec. 8 in the three valleys of Bumburet, Birir and Rumbur.”
The picture shared by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority on December 23, 2024, shows men wearing animal masks participate in the two-week Chawmos festival in the northwestern Pakistani district of Chitral. (kptourism/Facebook)
The Kalash community’s religion incorporates animiztic traditions of worshipping nature as well as a pantheon of gods, and its people live mainly in the three Kalash valleys of Bumburet, Birir and Rumbur.
The Chawmos festival is celebrated to welcome the new year, with the Kalash people indulging in religious practices and distributing vegetables and fruit among each other, according to the official.
The picture shared by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority on December 23, 2024, shows a man applying henna at the Chawmos festival in the northwestern Pakistani district of Chitral. (kptourism/Facebook)
The festival was attended by a large number of domestic and foreign tourists who were fully facilitated by the provincial tourism authority.
The picture shared by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority on December 23, 2024, shows Kalash tribespeople and tourists participate in the two-week Chawmos festival in the northwestern Pakistani district of Chitral. (kptourism/Facebook)
Sudan is suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies since conflict broke out in April 2023
Updated 41 min 35 sec ago
AFP
NAIROBI: The situation on South Sudan’s border was “completely overwhelming” as thousands flee war-torn Sudan each day, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned Monday.
The medical charity said up to 5,000 people were crossing the border every day. The United Nations recently put it even higher at 7-10,000 daily.
Sudan is suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies since conflict broke out in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced.
An MSF emergency coordinator in Renk town, near a transit center holding some 17,000 people according to the UN, said they were working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide care.
“But the situation is completely overwhelming and it’s not enough,” said Emanuele Montobbio.
Facilities had been expanded to accommodate the arrival of war wounded, he said, but they were unable to treat everyone.
“Over 100 wounded patients, many with serious injuries, still await surgery,” Montobbio said.
Bashir Ismail, from Mosmon in Blue Nile state, was recovering in hospital in Renk after an air raid.
“Something hit me in the chest — it was the most painful experience of my life,” he said.
“I was so disoriented that it felt like I had lost my memory.”
MSF South Sudan’s deputy medical coordinator Roselyn Morales said thousands who had crossed faced “critical shortages of food and shelter, clean water, shelter and health care.”
South Sudan is ill-equipped to handle the arrival of thousands seeking shelter from war, with the young country itself battling violence, endemic poverty and natural disasters.
Alhida Hammed fled to Renk after his village was attacked and he was shot in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.
“The houses were blazing, and everyone was running in different directions,” he said.
He now has no shelter and is living under a tree, but does not want to return to Sudan.
“Home is no longer a home — it is filled with bad memories.”
Jordan foreign minister to hold talks with Syria’s new leader
Safadi would meet with the new Syrian leader on Monday as well as with several Syrian officials
Updated 44 min 48 sec ago
AFP
AMMAN: Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi was due in Damascus on Monday to meet with Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Amman said, the latest high-profile visit since Bashar Assad’s ouster.
Jordan, which borders Syria to the south, hosted a summit earlier this month where top Arab, Turkish, EU and US diplomats called for an inclusive and peaceful transition after years of civil war.
Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, has welcomed senior officials from a host of countries in the Middle East and beyond in recent days.
The Jordanian foreign ministry said in a statement that Safadi would meet with the new Syrian leader on Monday as well as with “several Syrian officials.”
This is the first visit by a senior Jordanian official since Assad’s fall.
Government spokesman Mohamed Momani told reporters on Sunday that Jordan “sides with the will of the brotherly Syrian people,” stressing the close ties between the two nations.
Momani said the kingdom would like to see security and stability restored in Syria, and supported “the unity of its territories.”
Stability in war-torn Syria was in Jordan’s interests, Momani said, and would “ensure security on its borders.”
Some Syrians who had fled the war since 2011 and sought refuge in Jordan have begun returning home, according to Jordanian authorities.
The interior ministry said Thursday that more than 7,000 Syrians had left, out of some 1.3 million refugees Amman says it has hosted.
According to the United Nations, 680,000 Syrian refugees were registered with it in Jordan.
Saudi Arabia embassy resumes diplomatic activities in Afghanistan
Afghan foreign ministry welcomes Kingdom’s decision to resume diplomatic operations in Kabul
Saudi Arabia to 'provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people'
Updated 48 min 59 sec ago
Arab News
RIYADH: The Saudi embassy in the Afghani capital, Kabul, resumed its diplomatic activities on Sunday.
"Based on the desire of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the mission of the Kingdom in Kabul starting on December 22," the embassy posted on X platform on Sunday.
The Afghan foreign ministry on Monday welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume its diplomatic operations in Kabul, more than three years after Riyadh withdrew its staff during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“We are optimistic about the possibility of strengthening relations and cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan through the resumption of these activities,” said Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Zia Ahmad in a statement.
“We will also be able to respond to the problems of Afghans residing in Saudi Arabia.”
Riyadh had posted its decision to resume diplomatic operations in Kabul on social media platform X.
“Based on the desire of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the mission of the Kingdom in Kabul starting on December 22,” it said.
Ties between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan date back to 1932 when the Kingdom became the first Islamic country to provide aid to the Afghan people during their ordeals.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia launched numerous projects in Afghanistan through its humanitarian arm KSRelief, focusing on aid relief, health, education services, water and food security.
Riyadh also participated in all international donor conferences and called for establishing security and stability in Afghanistan following years of armed conflicts.
Saudi Arabia withdrew its diplomats from Kabul in August 2021 when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan following the US withdrawal from the country.
However, it said it was resuming consular services in the country in November 2021 and also provides humanitarian aid through its King Salman Relief Center organization.
