DUBAI: Abu Dhabi-based Arabic newspaper Al-Ittihad has started publishing its weekly Urdu edition to raise awareness about COVID-19 among people of the Subcontinent who understand the language and are currently residing in the United Arab Emirates.
The edition was first brought out on April 26 to serve the Urdu speaking readers among the blue collar workers in the Gulf state.
“Urdu was selected since we wanted to target an important UAE audience,” Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ittihad newspaper, Hamad Al Kaabi, told Arab News on Friday. “Our message is for the residents who speak Urdu, and we want to enhance awareness about the disease among them.”
Al-Ittihad brought out about 100,000 copies of its weekly edition and distributed them among workers class free of cost. The paper published information on COVID-19 and guided readers how to protect themselves from the disease. It also carried articles on different measures taken by the UAE government to contain the spread of the virus.
“We will continue to print the weekly even after the pandemic is over since the publication seeks to serve an important social segment that must get authentic information on burning issues,” Al Kaabi said.
He added that the eight-pager was also promoted digitally for greater outreach.
Al-Ittihad is one of the oldest newspapers in the UAE and was first published 50 years ago. It also prints The National, an English-language daily, which was launched in 2016.
Hassan Sajwani, a prominent Emirati who tweets on politics and counterterrorism, applauded the launch of the Urdu weekly, saying in one of his Twitter posts that it was “imperative to address and engage this large and important segment of UAE population. Well done.”
The UAE is home to over 200 nationalities. Emirates constitute roughly 20 percent of the total population, making UAE home to one of the world’s highest percentage of immigrants.
Indians and Pakistanis form the largest expatriate groups in the country, constituting 28 percent and 12 percent of the total population, respectively.
UAE newspaper launches Urdu edition to raise COVID-19 awareness
https://arab.news/pjkvc
UAE newspaper launches Urdu edition to raise COVID-19 awareness
- Al-Ittihad is one of the oldest newspapers in town and it also publishes an English daily
- The new publication seeks to target blue collar workers from Pakistan and India who read and understand Urdu
Israel’s daily pauses fall short of easing Gaza suffering: UK
- Food airdropped over besieged territory
- 38 Palestinians, 3 Israeli soldiers killed
LONDON, GAZA: Israel’s decision on Sunday to pause military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and allow new aid corridors falls short of what is needed to alleviate suffering in the enclave, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.
Lammy said in a statement that Israel’s announcement was “essential but long overdue,” and that access to aid must now be urgently accelerated over the coming hours and days.
“This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those desperately suffering in Gaza,” Lammy said. “We need a ceasefire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered.”
FASTFACT
Lammy said that access to aid must now be urgently accelerated over the coming hours and days.
The Israeli military said the “tactical pause” in Gaza City, Deir Al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas with large populations, would increase humanitarian aid entering the territory. The pause runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily until further notice.
Jordan said it carried out three airdrops over Gaza, including one in cooperation with the UAE, dropping 25 tonnes of food and supplies on several locations.
“Whichever path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Despite the annouoncement of temporary pauses, Israeli strikes killed at least 38 Palestinians from late Saturday into Sunday, including 23 seeking aid.
An airstrike on a Gaza City apartment killed a woman and her four children. Another strike killed four people, including a boy, his mother and grandfather, in the eastern Zaytoun neighborhood.
US President Donald Trump said Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after moves by Israel to pull out of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas militant group.
Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly “hardened” up on the issue.
“They don’t want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in southern Gaza on Sunday, the military said, a day after confirming another soldier had died of wounds sustained last week.
The two soldiers, aged 20 and 22, served in the Golani Infantry Brigade’s 51st Battalion.
Israeli military sources said they were killed when their armored vehicle exploded in the city of Khan Yunis.
Two Palestinian families in Jerusalem self-demolish their homes to avoid Israeli fines
- Israel denies building permits to Palestinians in Jerusalem in most cases, while it carries out planned expansion of Jewish settlements in the city
- In the case that Israeli authorities carry out the destruction, the families will be required to pay for the cost of the demolition, which could vary and may total hundreds of thousands of Shekels
LONDON: Two Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem have self-demolished their homes to avoid steep financial penalties imposed by the Israeli municipality for building without a permit on Sunday.
Israel denies building permits to Palestinians in Jerusalem in most cases, while it carries out planned expansion of Jewish settlements in the city and the occupied West Bank.
From 1991 to 2018, Israeli authorities approved only 16.5 percent of building permits in Palestinian neighborhoods, while the remaining permits were issued for Israeli neighborhoods in West Jerusalem and settlements, according to the organization Peace Now.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate said that the Quraan family was forced to demolish their home in the Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Halawanis also demolished their residential building, comprising six housing units, in Beit Hanina, located north of Jerusalem. As a result, around 30 individuals, including children, have been left without homes.
In the case that Israeli authorities carry out the destruction, the families will be required to pay for the cost of the demolition, which could vary and may total hundreds of thousands of Shekels.
The Jerusalem Governorate said that this is part of an Israeli “systematic policy of displacing” Palestinians from the city.
“Palestinian families in occupied Jerusalem are frequently denied building permits by Israeli authorities, leaving many with no legal option but to build without authorization,” it added.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have criticized Israel’s home demolition policy in Jerusalem as “discriminatory.”
Since Israel attacked Gaza in October 2023, authorities in Jerusalem have demolished 623 houses and other commercial facilities belonging to dozens of Palestinian families.
Sudan’s paramilitaries launch parallel govt, deepening the crisis
- The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by then-President Omar Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur
CAIRO: A paramilitary group and its allies in Sudan said they formed a parallel government in areas under the group’s control, which are located mainly in the western region of Darfur where allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity are being investigated.
The move was likely to deepen the crisis in Sudan, which plunged into chaos when tensions between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, exploded into fighting in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.
The RSF-led Tasis Alliance appointed Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of the paramilitary group, as head of the sovereign council in the new administration. The 15-member council serves as head of the state.
The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by then-President Omar Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur. The Janjaweed were accused of mass killings, rapes and
other atrocities.
In the current war, the RSF has been accused of numerous atrocities. The Biden administration slapped Dagalo with sanctions, saying the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide. The RSF has denied committing genocide.
The alliance spokesman Alaa Al-Din Naqd announced the new administration in a video statement from the Darfur city of Nyala, which is controlled by the RSF and its allied Janjaweed.
Mohammed Hassan Al-Taishi, a civilian politician who was a member of a military-civilian sovereign council that ruled Sudan following the 2019 overthrow of Al-Bashir, was named as prime minister in the RSF-controlled government.
Rebel leader Abdelaziz Al-Hilu, who commands the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) which is active in the southern Kodrofan region, was appointed as Dagalo’s deputy in the council. The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the ruling party of neighboring South Sudan.
The announcement came five months after the RSF and its allies signed a charter in February in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, with the aim of establishing a parallel government in RSF-controlled areas.
At the time, many countries, including the US, rejected the RSF efforts and condemned the signing by the paramilitary group and its allies of what they called “transitional constitution” in the Kenya-hosted conference.
The Foreign Ministry of the internationally recognized government in Khartoum condemned the announcement in a statement. It called it a “fake government” and urged the international community to not engage with the RSF-led administration.
The RSF-led move was likely to deepen the division in Sudan. Yasir Arman, a rebel leader, said the move is likely to prolong the conflict and divide Sudan between two rival administrations.
Syria expected to hold parliamentary election in September, official says
DAMASCUS: Syria is expected to hold its first parliamentary election under the new administration in September, the head of the electoral process told state news agency SANA on Sunday.
Voting for the People’s Assembly is expected to take place from September 15 to 20, added the official, Mohammed Taha.
Iraqi police clash with paramilitary fighters who stormed government building
- PMF fighters burst into the building during an administrative meeting, causing panic among staff who alerted police
- Security sources and three employees at the scene said the fighters had wanted to stop the office’s former director from being replaced
BAGHDAD: A gunbattle erupted in Iraq’s capital on Sunday between police and fighters from a state-sanctioned paramilitary force that includes Iran-backed groups, killing at least one police officer and leading to the arrest of 14 fighters, authorities said.
The clash broke out in Baghdad’s Karkh district after a group of fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) stormed an Agriculture Ministry building as a new director was being sworn in, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd Al-Shaabi, is an umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitary factions that was formally integrated into Iraq’s state security forces and includes several groups aligned with Iran.
According to the Interior Ministry, the PMF fighters burst into the building during an administrative meeting, causing panic among staff who alerted police.
Security sources and three employees at the scene said the fighters had wanted to stop the office’s former director from being replaced.
A statement from the Joint Operations Command, which reports directly to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, confirmed that the detainees were PMF members and had been referred to the judiciary. At least one police officer was killed and nine others were wounded, police and hospital sources said.
Sudani ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the incident, the command said.
The arrested fighters belong to “PMF brigades 45 and 46,” the statement added. Both brigades are affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, according to Iraqi security officials and sources within the PMF.
