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DUBAI: Bahrain has repatriated its citizens stranded in Lebanon due to the coronavirus outbreak that shuttered intentional travel, the Bahrain News Agency has reported.
The repatriation comes as the country implements plans to safely return its stranded nationals from a number of countries.
The Embassy of Bahrain in Damascus facilitated the mission in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Lebanese government.
DUBAI: The move of expos from Dubai to Osaka and soon to Riyadh presents a “unique opportunity to shape a decade of global engagement” in the Middle East and Asia, according to Shihab Al-Faheem, the UAE pavilion commissioner general.
The sequence of the three locations “offers continuity for themes such as innovation, sustainability, and cultural dialogue,” Al-Faheem said in an interview with Arab News Japan.
“It also strengthens connections between our countries. The UAE, Japan, and Saudi Arabia each bring distinct strengths and perspectives,” he added. “By working together through these global platforms, we can create long-term partnerships that deliver meaningful outcomes for people and the planet.”
Al-Faheem, who is also the UAE’s ambassador to Japan, said the Osaka-Kansai Expo this year carries special meaning for the Gulf country.
The UAE’s first expo journey began in Osaka more than five decades ago, and the commissioner-general explained that returning to Japan was “an opportunity to continue engaging with the world and to contribute to shaping a future grounded in cooperation and collective progress.”
As the baton was passed from Dubai Expo 2020 to Osaka, Al-Faheem said the most important insight the UAE valued was that of creating experiences that are immersive, inclusive and people focused.
“We also learned that strong logistical planning and a flexible, responsive approach are essential to hosting a successful expo,” he told Arab News Japan. “We believe these lessons will resonate with Japan as it welcomes the world in 2025.”
When it comes to the UAE’s participation in Osaka this year, the country’s pavilion will continue its “immersive and multi-sensory journey” giving visitors a chance to “engage on an emotional and intellectual level.”
The UAE Pavilion’s theme is “Earth to Ether,” which expresses the Gulf country’s journey from a heritage rooted in the land to a future defined by innovation.
With sustainability and technology in mind, Al-Faheem said the pavilion uses eco-conscious materials such as Datecrete and palm-based architectural elements to reflect environmental values.
“The content of the pavilion also showcases our leadership in clean energy, smart healthcare, and space technologies,” the ambassador said.
The architectural design draws inspiration from traditional Emirati structures and uses materials from the date palm. Inside the pavilion, visitors will be able to experience stories that reflect the UAE’s values and vision for the future.
Given that the UAE and Japan have both hosted World Expos, Al-Faheem said that this has allowed the two countries to strengthen “an already deep and multifaceted relationship. These global events provide a powerful platform to showcase shared values and to develop partnerships across sectors such as energy, education, culture, and technology.”
The UAE Pavilion at Expo 2025 is expected to honor the relationship between the two countries and create new opportunities for joint initiatives.
Al-Faheem said he hopes that through the upcoming expo, the UAE will be able to deepen people-to-people ties with Japan and to create cultural and educational exchanges.
Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai will run from April 13 to Oct. 13, with an official opening ceremony on April 12.
NEW YORK CITY: Germany’s Siemens said on Friday that Agustin Escobar, the company’s global CEO for its Rail Infrastructure division, was killed with his family in a New York helicopter crash on Thursday.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Agustin Escobar and his family. Our deepest condolences go out to all of his relatives,” Siemens said.
GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency reported that a pre-dawn Israeli air strike on Friday killed 10 members of the same family, including seven children, in the southern city of Khan Younis.
“Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Al-Farra family home in central Khan Younis,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said.
KHARTOUM: Shelling by Sudanese paramilitaries killed at least 15 civilians in a Darfur displaced persons’ camp Thursday, a medical source told AFP, as fighting for the only part of the region still under regular army control intensified.
Earlier in the day, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced they had captured Um Kadadah, a key town on the road to El-Fasher, the last city in Darfur still in the hands of their regular army foes.
“The Abu Shouk camp was shelled by the RSF with 120mm and 82mm cannons fired inside the camp and the Nifasha market, killing at least 15 people and wounding 25,” the camp’s volunteer emergency department said in a statement.
The densely populated camps for the displaced around the besieged city of El-Fasher have suffered heavily during nearly two years of fighting between Sudan’s warring generals.
The Zamzam camp was the first part of Sudan where famine was declared.
The RSF has stepped up its efforts to complete its conquest of Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum last month.
On Thursday, it said it had captured Um Kadadah.
“Our forces took full control of the strategic town of Um Kadadah,” an RSF spokesman said in a statement, adding that hundreds of members of its garrison had been killed.
There was no immediate comment from the regular army.
The paramilitaries’ advance came after their shelling of besieged El-Fasher killed 12 people on Wednesday, the army and activists said.
The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million since a struggle for power between rival generals erupted into full-blown war in April 2023.
Famine has been declared in parts of the country, including displacement camps around El-Fasher, and is likely to spread, according to a UN-backed assessment.
On Wednesday the United Nations humanitarian office OCHA said conditions in Darfur are rapidly deteriorating.
“In North Darfur state, more than 4,000 people have been newly displaced in the past week alone due to escalating violence in El-Fasher, as well as in Zamzam displacement camp south of the city and other areas,” OCHA said on its website.
The RSF also controls parts of the south.
The army retook the capital Khartoum in late March. It holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa’s third-largest country divided in two.
JUBA: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has replaced its foreign minister with his deputy, Monday Semaya Kumba, state media reported, following a migration dispute with the United States.
No explanation was given for the sacking of Foreign Minister Ramadan Mohammed, which was announced on the state radio station late on Wednesday.
The move follows a row with Washington over Juba’s refusal to admit a Congolese man deported from the US, which led to the Trump administration threatening to revoke all US visas held by South Sudanese citizens.
South Sudan yielded to Washington’s demands on Tuesday and allowed the man to enter the country.
Separately, a faction of South Sudan’s main opposition party said on Wednesday it had replaced its chairman, First Vice President Riek Machar, with an interim leader, Peacebuilding Minister Stephen Par Kuol, until Machar was released from house arrest.
Analysts said the move, which other party members criticized, could allow Kiir to sack longstanding rival Machar and consolidate his power over the government by appointing Kuol.
“President Kiir (would) want people who would agree with him ... so that now the government’s legitimacy will be created,” said Kuol Abraham Nyuon, professor of political science at the University of Juba.
Machar, who has served in a power-sharing administration with Kiir since a 2018 peace deal ended a civil war between fighters loyal to the two men, was accused of trying to stir up rebellion and detained at his home last month.
Machar’s party denies government accusations that it backs the White Army.
This ethnic militia clashed with the army in the northeastern town of Nasir last month, triggering the latest political crisis.
African Union mediators arrived in Juba last week to try to rescue the peace deal but did not appear to have made any immediate progress.
On Thursday, embassies based in Juba, including France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, the UK, US, and the EU, reiterated their call for the immediate release of all political detainees.
“South Sudan’s leaders must meet their obligations and demonstrate that their priority is peace,” they said in a joint statement.
The SPLM-IO said Machar’s detention had effectively voided the agreement that ended the five-year civil war in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. The party later said they were committed to upholding the deal.
The SPLM-IO’s military wing remained loyal to Machar and was “not part and parcel of the betrayers in Juba,” its spokesperson, Lam Paul Gabriel, said in a statement on Wednesday.
