Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed awarded for his efforts to preserve Arab history and heritage

Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed awarded for Arab heritage efforts

The National staff

September 1, 2015 Updated: September 1, 2015 11:06 PM

Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed, the President’s Representative and Chairman of the Emirates Heritage Club, has been named “Man of the Arab Heritage” for this year by the Arab Centre for Tourism Media.

The award recognises Sheikh Sultan’s efforts to preserve Arab history and heritage.

Emirati businessman Khalaf Al Habtoor won the award for Best Arab Tourism Investor, while Mohammed Kara of Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister paper of The National, won the award for Best Arab Tourism Journalism. Ministers, officials and others attended the award ceremony.

newsdesk@thenational.ae

Qatar’s art collection on show in Spain

‘Icons of the Nile’ by Chant Avedissian. Courtesy Fundación Banco Santander / Qatar Museums Authority

Arab expressions — Qatar’s art collection on show in Spain

March 31, 2016 Updated: March 31, 2016 03:17 PM

Most of the works in this substantial exhibition of Arab art have been loaned to the Spanish gallery by the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha — 160 artworks in total as well as pieces from other Qatari museums.

About 30 artists are represented, from Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and more. The exhibition includes portraits, sculptures, and video installations.

Crucially, it includes works from artists such as Mona Hatoum, Amal Kenawy and Manal Al Dowayan — people dedicated to examining the challenges facing the Arab world today. It also has pieces from artists outside the region such as Yan Pei-Ming who have focused on the Arab world.

• Looking at the World Around: Contemporary Works from Qatar Museums runs at the Santander Art Gallery in Madrid until June 19. For more information visit www.fundacionbancosantander.com

Toronto designer creates hammock that lets you nap under your desk

Toronto designer creates hammock that lets you nap under your desk

Need a quick snooze, but desktop napping just doesn’t do it for you? The Schnap hammock lets you nap like a boss.

 

COURTESY AQIL RAHARJO

Feeling that 3 p.m. crash? One Toronto student’s desk hammock may just be your saviour.

By: Rebecca Williams Metro Published on Wed Mar 30 2016

If you’ve ever tried to take a nap with your head perched on your desk, then you probably know how awkward and uncomfortable waking up from a desk-top snooze can be.

One Toronto design student has turned this real life struggle into an idea, and invented a hammock that installs cleverly under your desk, to ensure you get some proper shut-eye.

Nineteen-year-old Aqil Raharjo, a second year student at OCAD, has created theSchnap Desk Hammock — “a nap in a snap” — that allows you to curl up under your desk or table for a quick power nap.

Raharjo was inspired by his fellow students, who were all dealing with long hours while working on projects.

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Can you blame Bulgaria’s migrant vigilante ?

Bulgaria’s vigilante migrant ‘hunter’

By Matthew Brunwasser Yambol, Bulgaria

• 2 hours ago
• From the section Magazine

Image copyrightHristo Rusev

A Bulgarian trader in spare parts for buses has become a national celebrity after starting to patrol the Turkish border “hunting” for migrants. Many Bulgarians applaud his vigilante initiative, though others are deeply troubled.

“Bulgaria needs people like me, dignified Bulgarians, willing to defend their homeland,” says Dinko Valev, sipping a fresh-squeezed orange juice in a flashy cafe in his hometown, Yambol, 50km (30 miles) from Bulgaria’s border with Turkey.

Valev, 29, is a beefy semi-professional wrestler with a shaved head and a brusque manner. His left pectoral is tattooed with a cross the size of a T-bone steak.

He became famous overnight last month when national television news carried a report labelling him a “superhero” and detailing a violent encounter with a group of Syrians near the border as he was out riding on his quad bike.

Image copyright Facebook / Dinko Valev

The presenter praised Valev for subduing the group of 12 Syrian men, three women and a child “with his bare hands”.

They can be seen on mobile phone footage filmed by one of Valev’s companions, lying on the ground waiting for police to arrive. Valev can be heard insulting the refugees and saying that they came from Syria “to kill us like dogs”.

“These are disgusting and bad people and they should stay where they are,” Valev tells me in the cafe. He estimates that 95% of Bulgarians support him, describing the migrants as dangerous “terrorists, jihadists and Taliban”.

Environmental conservation efforts to address developmental needs in Arunachal Pradesh

Environmental conservation efforts also have to address the developmental needs in Arunachal Pradesh: Pul

Mar 29, 2016 15:27 IST

#Arunachal Pradesh   #Kalikho Pul   #Modernisation   #NewsTracker   #Pul   #Wildlife Protection Act

Itanagar:  Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul has stressed on the need for striking balance between conservation of environment and development interest.

“Conservation of environment is always our top priority but development interest should also be taken care of,” Pul
said during a meeting with top forest officials on Monday in Itanagar.

The forest officials met him to discuss on the growing conflict between the rights of the people and the conservation created through protected areas, a CMO release informed on Tuesday.

The chief minister pointed out that many protected areas in the state were created through arbitrary demarcation of the forest reserve violating the Wildlife Protection Act.

“The inhabitants in the area were not consulted and their consent was not obtained. Boundaries were demarcated sitting on a table with the lines running across settled villages and towns,” he said.

“As a result many big towns, villages, agriculture and jhum areas have come under the protected areas limiting the scope for taking up development projects,” he said noting that the scope to find possible ways for co-existence between wildlife habitats and human settlement were limited.

“Moreover, many of the protected areas are now barren lands without forest cover and wildlife. It is neither serving the purpose of conservation or development. So these are the areas where we hope to find a middle ground,” said Pul.

On the need to find a middle path, the chief minister said the state has to first address the key issues of development with respect to conservation.

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