A total of 2,769 balloting units (BU) for EVMs arrived from Bharath Electronics Limited, Bangalore, on Thursday and are kept at Victory Playground in Chaderghat.
A day after an auto rickshaw driver-cum-butcher was butchered to death by his friend Mohammed Abdul Kaja, Mirchowk police, during the investigation, found that the victim and accused had an argument a day before the murder too.
Standup comedy, slam poetry along with a glimpse of virtual reality (VR). This is not a sneek peek of a cultural event, but an awareness campaign launched by administrators and volunteers, on exercising their right to vote on December 7.
Reiterating that the BJP is totally against reservations on religion basis, Union home minister Rajnath Singh has asked the political parties not to scare the minorities away. “The BJP is opposed to giving reservations based on caste, creed and religion.
Water and sewage woes continue to haunt residents in many localities within GHMC limits.For voters, drinking water supply and provision of a proper sewage network is still a distant dream.
A 40-year-old factory worker died in a brutal assault after two women accused him of following them, on Tuesday night at Subhash Nagar.Jeedimetla police said Raja Kumar was returning home on his cycle at 11 pm.
The US is very close to a trade deal with China, President Donald Trump has said, but remained noncommittal to its final outcome ahead of his meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Argentina on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit. Trade and tariffs have been topics of increasing tension between the US and China.
At the same time, the US special counsel's probe of possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia raised domestic suspicion over any efforts towards accommodation with his Kremlin counterpart.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said he was optimistic that some who remain unaccounted for will turn up alive, but he also left open the possibility that "bones or bone fragments" of additional victims could turn up as evacuation zones are reopened to civilians.
The rocks, collected by Soviet Luna-16 Mission in 1970, went for nearly double the $442,500 last paid for them by present-day US sellers in a Sotheby's Russian space history sale in 1993. They were originally the property of Nina Ivanovna Koroleva, widow of former director of Soviet space program, who was given them in honor of her husband's work.
The US has put on hold its discussions with Sri Lanka on its potential participation in an American aid initiative on poverty reduction due to the disruption in the country's democratic process following the ouster of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, a senior official has said.On the white board in the office of Washington Redskins chief operating officer Brian Lafemina, you could find these words: "We have to do the right thing for 1,000 days and people are going to believe us."
Well, at least this was on Lafemina's white board at one time.
Now? ...
from www.washingtontimes.com stories: Sports Columns https://ift.tt/2DPTpUy
BEIRUT: The squabbling residents of a dilapidated building at risk of collapse serve as an allegory for Lebanon's political and religious divisions in a new drama by satirical playwright Georges Khabbaz.
The play "Only If" is intended to portray the country's problems while urging its people to love each other, said Khabbaz, who wrote and directed it as well as acting in it.
"The play talks about a lot of contradictions and struggles in our Lebanese societies, about the sectarian conflicts, the system's conflicts," he said.
Lebanon's 1970-1990 civil war splintered the country along sectarian lines and opened fissures within its Christian and Muslim communities. It still shapes Lebanon's politics.
The play comes to the stage at a time when political parties have failed to agree on a new coalition government more than six months since an election despite pressing economic problems.
"Lebanese people love life and place the will to live above all consideration, but at the same time circumstances come against them - security, economical etcetera," Khabbaz said.
The recent bout of political paralysis has prompted fears of economic crisis. Politicians have cited the urgent need for a government to be formed but have been unable to clinch a final deal.
In Khabbaz's play, the building's inhabitants cannot agree on how to save it.
At one point, it satirises foreign influence in Lebanon with a man trying to buy the building, his efforts supported or opposed in turn by shifting groups among the residents.
"There is nothing else to talk about in Lebanon than these subjects. There is nothing that unites us other than we all love similar things, love to have fun, we love to progress," said Maria Jazra, a pharmacist who was in the audience for a recent performance.
"But unfortunately, in our heads we are still not programmed for progress," she said.
LONDON: To enter the London store of celebrated Egyptian jeweler Azza Fahmy is to pass into a world of opulence, glamor and, lets face it, wealth. The glitter of the gems, the gleam of the gold… This is a whole other level of bling.
Azza Fahmy has been showcasing Middle Eastern style to the world for almost 50 years. Fans of her creations include Middle Eastern celebrities such as Lebanese TV presenter Raya Abirached and international stars Rihanna and Joss Stone. There are 17 Azza Fahmy shops in Egypt, Jordan and Dubai. Her first outside the Middle East opened this year in London.
What is clear is that this is a business conceived, run and driven by women. There is Azza herself, now 74, but still chairman and creative director. Her elder daughter, Fatma, 38, is managing director, and younger daughter Amina, 35, is head of design.
However, Fahmy is the first to acknowledge the debt she owes to the master craftsmen of Kham El Khalili, Cairo’s old jewelry quarter.
Making jewelry was not her first choice of career, she reveals. After studying interior design she designed textiles and ceramics and illustrated children’s books. “But it didn’t fulfil me,” she says. “I would get bored. If you love something, you don’t get bored.”
In the late 1960s, Cairo hosted its first international book fair. In the German section, Fahmy found the book that would change her life.
“It was a book on medieval jewelry and I opened it on a page that showed earrings shaped like donkeys made using a technique called granulation, which is lots of little balls soldered together. My heart was beating really fast and I knew: ‘This is what I want to do.’ At the time I was working for the government, doing political illustrations, and my monthly salary was 19 Egyptian pounds. The book cost 17 pounds, but I bought it because I believed it was going to change my life.”
She had found her purpose, but now she needed the skills. And she realized the people who could teach her what she needed were not in the classroom but in the souk.
Back in the late 1960s, a woman requesting to be apprenticed to a silver- or goldsmith was highly unusual. “It still is,” says Fahmy. “But they accepted me right away. They were very happy that someone like me, a person with a university degree, appreciated and respected their skill.” She trained while working full time.
After only a month, she sold her first five rings for 45 pounds (“a fortune”). She rented a little showroom once a week to display her wares. One of her best customers was the head of the British Council, who arranged for her to study at the Cass School of Art (now part of London Metropolitan University) in London.
Fahmy completed the two-year course in six months, studying nine different disciplines. “Useful is too small a word. It was transformative,” she says.
With a loan of 15,000 Egyptian pounds, Azza opened her first gallery in 1983. The rest, as they say, is history.
She finds inspiration in her country’s rich history. “When I started, the Europeans were the elite, but in Egypt we have the legacy of ancient Rome, ancient Greece, the Graeco-Romans, the Copts and then the Islamic period. Why look abroad?”
The London outlet has proved popular with Middle Eastern visitors, but shop manager Kris Betlem tells of four ladies from Texas who flew in to London for a rock concert that was canceled at the last minute. So they went shopping instead and spent over $50,000 in 40 minutes.
Fahmy now produces five collections a year, consisting of anything from six pieces to 20. The label also accepts bespoke commissions. Each gemstone is personally selected by Amina.
Traditionally, jewelry in the Middle East not only denoted social standing but was also a way of keeping one’s wealth in portable form.
“People bought jewelry by weight, not for the design. That’s why women wore lots of gold bangles,” Amina explains. “We have shifted perceptions by charging for the expertise and craftsmanship, but people still ask how many grams of gold in a piece.”
Fahmy has continued studying with craftsmen in Florence and has no intention of retiring. “And she wonders why she’s tired,” says Fatma.”She never stops.”
Fahmy will have none of it: “To this day I am hungry for education,” she says. “I will never stop learning.”
This book provides students and researchers a hands-on introduction to the principles and practice of data visualization.
It explains what makes some graphs succeed while others fail, how to make high-quality figures from data using powerful and reproducible methods, and how to think about data visualization in an honest and effective way.
Data Visualization builds the reader’s expertise in ggplot2, a versatile visualization library for the R programming language, according to a review on the Princeton University Press website.
Through a series of worked examples, this accessible primer then demonstrates how to create plots piece by piece, beginning with summaries of single variables and moving on to more complex graphics.
Topics include plotting continuous and categorical variables; layering information on graphics; producing effective “small multiple” plots; grouping, summarizing, and transforming data for plotting; creating maps; working with the output of statistical models; and refining plots to make them more comprehensible.
The UAE will mark National Day on Dec. 2, but the entire country begins celebrations on Nov. 28. Here are ways to join in the fun.
The big ticket
“This Is Zayed. This Is the UAE,” billed as this year’s main event on Dec. 2, is a visual show with performances by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and traditional musicians at the Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Firework displays
The UAE’s skies will be lit up by multiple firework displays on the big day. Dubai’s La Mer is hosting one, with live music from various Arab stars, including Fouad Abdul Wahed and Mohammed Al-Shehhi.
Free concerts
Live concerts from various Arab icons such as Waleed Al-Shami and Hussain Al-Jassmi will be held in Dubai's Burj Park. The event is also free of charge.
Beachside fun
For a less conventional way of marking the day, #WOWJBR is hosting a weekend full of beachside activities at Jumeirah Beach Residence in Dubai.
Theme-park celebrations
Dubai Parks and Resorts has prepared numerous activities across all its theme parks, including building a four meter-long National Day mosaic out of Lego. And there will be heavily discounted admission starting at AED 47.
La Perle by Dragone
The eye-popping acrobatic performance created by Franco Dragone, known for his work with Cirque du Soleil, is slashing its ticket prices by half from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2. A must-see at The Atrium in Dubai.
BEIRUT: Just over five years ago, the Beirut-based Wanton Bishops — a musical vessel for the creative vision of charismatic frontman Nader Mansour — took the region by storm with their Sixties-Psychedelia-tinged, visceral variety of blues-rock and their critically acclaimed debut album “Sleep With The Lights On.”
After a trip to America to explore the roots of Mississippi blues, the singer-guitarist returned to Lebanon looking to reinvent the Bishops’ sound. 2016’s “Nowhere Everywhere” EP pushed “our blues-induced rock and roll down an ethnic electronic highway,” he said at the time.
Now, the mercurial talent is reinventing himself once more with the cautiously titled “Lastoucha3iran” (I am Not a Poet) — a book of Arabic-language poetry, which he launched on November 7.
An unexpected encounter at the local library first led him to consider publishing his work: “I went in to print off a few of my poems, but, brute that I am, I jam the machine,” he told Arab News. “This old lady walks toward me with such grace, unjams the paper, starts reading, and with a mixture of disdain and admiration looks at me and says, ‘How can such a savage write such beautiful words? You should publish them.’ And so the idea was born.”
His initial impetus to explore writing verse was wrapped in “a healing process from a failed relationship (which) ended up being an introspective exploration that taught me a whole lot about myself, about others, and about our generation in general.”
He’s particularly fond of “Qasaman Bi Allah,” a poem he dubbed an “ultimate anthem of despair, an oath I took to never love anyone else. Now I know it’s not true, but at the time it felt so definite.”
Mansour is clearly liberated by his newfound status as a poet. “I’m claustrophobic, man! You can’t keep me in a cage,” he declared exuberantly.
He dedicates the book to all the members of his generation, he explained: “It resembles them, it talks about them, and to them.”
DUBAI: The Dubai-based Palestinian designer talks us through the piece he created for the exhibition “From RAK to DRAK” as part of Dubai Design Week.
Design Ras Al Khor invited three designers to investigate the community of Ras Al Khor. My task was to look at an advertising and calligraphy shop as a theme to respond to.
I found a tiny shop — Al Arif Advertising and Calligraphy — but they didn’t have a calligrapher; they basically use software. So I was sitting there trying to get some idea of what I could do, and I looked up and saw these religious stickers — ‘Dua’ stickers — very brightly colored, on vinyl, and with a really interesting Islamic design. For me, they were very nostalgic, because if you grew up in the region they are part of your visual language. And it was very interesting to see these designs that originated centuries ago, and have trickled down to this little print shop in this industrial area of Dubai to be printed on plastic. That was an interesting journey. So I wanted to use those designs, but in my own way.
Also, I recently came back from a two-week workshop for Gulf-based designers at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. When I was there, I saw this sakkos — an Orthodox Church vestment from 17th century Iran. And the dialogue between cultures in that piece was interesting to me. So I replicated that garment, but using my traditional artisanal fabric as a base. I applied roughly the same design placement, but with modern interpretations inspired by the stickers. And it was all done using embroidery, because the whole point was to create something handmade.
It’s signed too, in a discreet way, as artisans would, traditionally. I worked with a calligrapher to create the signatures; you have my name; Adnan, the embroiderer; Ibrahim, the calligrapher; and Al Arif, the shop.
With fashion design, you really have to shape your designs in a commercial way. So it sometimes ends up watering down to something that’s not as spectacular as your original idea. Which is fine. That’s the nature of the market. But projects like these are an amazing opportunity to just create for the sake of creating; to really work on the concept without thinking about whether or not it will sell. It was a lot of fun. And it reminded me why I’m doing what I do and why I love it.
RIYADH: The Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) and the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FECC) have agreed a joint strategy to boost economic cooperation between the countries.
The CSC said that a high-level delegation took part in a Saudi-Egyptian Business Forum in Egypt, coinciding with a visit to Cairo by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, during which the development of bilateral economic relations was discussed. Opportunities for cooperation in joint projects in Africa were also explored, along with ways for the two chambers to share their experiences in the areas of technical aid, finance, entrepreneurship and training.
The joint plan also includes the promotion of Saudi tourism in Egypt and a mechanism to help solve problems experienced by investors in both countries, and to enable the participation of Saudi businesses in the Egyptian Investment Conference next February.
The forum was organized under the patronage of Saudi Minister of Commerce and Investment Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qassabi and Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohammad Shaker.
Al-Qassabi praised the Kingdom’s efforts to create a better environment for investment between the two countries, while Shaker said the electricity sector in Egypt is growing at an accelerated rate, which offers many investment opportunities.
CSC Chairman Sami Al-Obaidy said that Egypt represents a major economic opportunity for the Kingdom, and that trade between the two countries grew to about $7.2 billion in 2017.
The Kingdom ranks first in terms of Arab investments in Egypt, with more than 2,900 projects worth more than $27 billion, of which the Saudi contribution exceeds $5.7 billion.
JEDDAH: A picture of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on his tour of Arab states went heavily viral on social media this week. It showed him with Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa along with their delegates standing on the famous steps of the Royal Al-Qudaibiya Palace located in the Bahraini capital of Al-Manama.
It was on the same palace steps that a picture of Saudi Arabia’s founding father, King Abdul Aziz, once stood with his Bahraini brethren, headed by Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, on his third visit in 1939.
The palace has hosted many important political and economic conferences and plays a prominent role in the Kingdom of Bahrain’s foreign affairs. It is also where the Council of Ministers’ weekly cabinet meetings take place.
The Crown Prince’s stop in Bahrain was part of a tour that included Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Tunis, before he travelled to Buenos Aires for this weekend’s G20 summit.
JEDDAH: Majdi Abul-Ela, president of the Egyptian Court of Cassation and president of the Higher Judicial Council, has received a high-ranking Saudi judicial delegation to discuss judicial cooperation.
The Saudi delegation is headed by Judge Salman bin Mohammed Al-Nashwan, president of the Court of Appeal and secretary-general of the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council, and his accompanying delegation at the grand court’s office in Cairo.
The two parties discussed ways in which their countries’ judicial systems could cooperate, and the development of the Saudi judicial system in line with the developments of Egyptian and international laws to achieve justice at a faster rate.
The parties reviewed the history of Egyptian-Saudi relations and exchanged the shield of the two sides. The Saudi delegation is visiting to review all Egyptian judicial systems, especially the Court of Cassation, the cassation office and its technical office.
The meeting was attended by the leaders of the Court of Cassation, from the assistant to the president of the court. The visit will extend over four days.
JEDDAH: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) has stepped up humanitarian efforts in Bangladesh and Yemen.
A team from KSRelief inspected projects implemented in Rohingya refugee camps in the town of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh on Wednesday.
They distributed food rations consisting of rice, cereals and vegetable oil, helping more than 27,000 people and more than 5,000 families.
The initiative, taken in conjunction with the UN World Food Programme, aims to tackle food insecurity and malnutrition within these camps.
The team also inspected bridges and drainage networks built through the center’s relief operations.
KSRelief officials also visited a school for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, where they spoke with pupils about the challenges they face and met with UN officials to evaluate and explore ways to further enhance their joint ventures.
In Yemen, KSRelief signed a contract to provide mobile medical and nutrition clinics worth more than $300,000 in aid of 3,000 displaced people near the country’s Hodeidah port.
More than 20,000 displaced Yemenis have benefitted from KSRelief programs so far, said Abdullah Al-Moallem, the center’s director of health and environmental aid.
The latest initiative is one of many health services operating throughout the country, he added.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia pledged $50 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees, which has been hit by the withdrawal of all US funding.
KSRelief Supervisor General Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said that this grant aims at alleviating the suffering of more than three million Palestinians as well as Palestinians refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in the fields of education, health, relief and protection.
