A man who is known for bringing bad luck to Fifa World Cup teams this year by wearing their flags has been inundated with thousands of requests from Moroccan fans to wear a France jersey for Wednesday night's match.
Previous World Cup tournaments have featured psychic animals, such as Paul the octopus in 2010 or Achilles the cat in 2018, predicting the results.
This year, however, it's Mohammed Al Hajri, 31, from Oman — an actor and social media influencer known as ‘Mjomba' — who has been successful in predicting the match losers by bringing bad luck to whichever team's colours he adorns.
Dubbed the World Cup’s "jinx mascot" on social media, every team he has supported so far has lost their match.
On Tuesday, Mr Al Hajri posted on Instagram that he would be supporting Croatia and went to the stadium dressed in the red and white football shirt. Croatia lost to Argentina 3-0.
He arrived in Doha from Oman for the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador wearing national dress and a purple scarf. The hosts ended up losing 2-0.
Mr Al Hajri went to Saudi Arabia v Argentina match wearing Messi’s number 10 jersey and Argentina ended up losing 2-1 in one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history.
Dismissing it as a mere coincidence, he returned to Oman.
He arrived back in Qatar for the England match against Senegal wearing the African nation's colourful red, green and yellow colours on top of his national dress. Senegal lost 3-0.
“I didn’t know I’m jinxed until that point,” Mr Al Hajri said in a post on his Instagram account.
His followers also noticed that the team he was cheering for was losing their matches and so Mr Al Hajri decided to cheer on the team he wanted to lose.
“I bought a dress with a Korean flag from Souq Waqif to cheer for South Korea against Brazil. After 37 minutes, Brazil scored four goals,” he said on social media.
“There was a Moroccan fan beside me and told him what happened and he begged me not to come to the stadium for Morocco v Spain match.”
Mr Al Hajri wore the Spanish colours and went to the stadium with the Moroccan fans and the jinx worked again — the game ended 0-0 but Morocco went through on penalties.
His videos and pictures have gone viral on social media and drawn more attention at the global event because of his humorous delivery in his videos.
For the Brazil v Croatia quarter-final, he wore the South American side's famous gold and green colours. The match ended 1-1 but Croatia advanced on penalties.
As an Argentina fan, he decided to change his allegiance in colours to the Netherlands for their quarter-final which they lost on penalties.
“Moroccan fans asked me to wear Portugal for their match in the quarter-final and I did. The curse happened again and Portugal lost,” he said.
Several tweets in recent days show Mjomba being approached by Moroccan fans after the Portugal match and asked to wear the French colours for their match on Wednesday.
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Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
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4. Change passwords periodically as a precautionary measure
5. Never share authentication data such as passwords, card PINs and OTPs (one-time passwords) with third parties
6. Track bank notifications regarding transaction discrepancies
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About Tenderd
Started: May 2018
Founder: Arjun Mohan
Based: Dubai
Size: 23 employees
Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital
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Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
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Investment: $745,000
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Started: 2019
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Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
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Current number of staff: More than 150
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Director: Jon M Chu
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The lowdown
Badla
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Director: Sujoy Ghosh
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Tomorrow 2021
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What is hepatitis?
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, which can lead to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.
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People infected with hepatitis C experience few or no symptoms, meaning they can live with the virus for years without being diagnosed. This delay in treatment can increase the risk of significant liver damage.
There are an estimated 170 million carriers of Hepatitis C around the world.
The virus causes approximately 399,000 fatalities each year worldwide, according to WHO.
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The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct from the UAE to Los Angeles, from Dh4,975 return, including taxes. The flight time is 16 hours. Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Aeromexico and Southwest all fly direct from Los Angeles to San Jose del Cabo from Dh1,243 return, including taxes. The flight time is two-and-a-half hours.
The trip
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Opening day Premier League fixtures for August 9-11
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Admission: Free
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Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan
The top two teams qualify for the World Cup
Classification matches
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The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
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According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
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Wenger's Arsenal reign in numbers
1,228 - games at the helm, ahead of Sunday's Premier League fixture against West Ham United.
704 - wins to date as Arsenal manager.
3 - Premier League title wins, the last during an unbeaten Invincibles campaign of 2003/04.
1,549 - goals scored in Premier League matches by Wenger's teams.
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Dubai Bling season three
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Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
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Hunting park to luxury living
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