Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at a ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in central London. Photo: SPA
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at a ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in central London. Photo: SPA
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at a ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in central London. Photo: SPA
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at a ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in central London. Photo: SPA

Saudi Arabia and UK sign defence co-operation plan


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Saudi Arabia and the UK have signed a military co-operation plan, during a visit to London by Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman.

This aims to develop localised production and strengthen the defence partnership between the two countries, said officials.

The plan was signed at a meeting between Prince Khalid and UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on Tuesday.

“It is a pleasure to sign this plan for defence co-operation, bringing us even closer to one of our most important partners,” said Mr Wallace.

“It is a key milestone between our two nations, as we look to enhance our defence partnership further in support of mutual and regional security.”

Saudi ambassador to the UK Prince Khalid bin Bandar also attended the meeting, along with Saudi Chief of the General Staff Lieut Gen Fayyadh bin Hamed, British Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Wigston, British ambassador to Saudi Arabia Neil Crompton and British military attache to the kingdom, Brig FAJ Piggott.

Britain's Defence Minister Ben Wallace and Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the signing of a plan for defence co-operation in London. Photo: Spa twitter
Britain's Defence Minister Ben Wallace and Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the signing of a plan for defence co-operation in London. Photo: Spa twitter

Prince Khalid later visited the headquarters of BAE Systems in Warton, in Lancashire, northern England.

There he was briefed on BAE's plans, the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, and ways to strengthen the defence company's partnership with the Saudi Armed Forces, which goes back 50 years.

The kingdom is seeking to localise military industries, as part of its Vision 2030 policy to diversify the economy away from oil.

Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Osama Al Zamil, said 2023 would see “a strong start” to the kingdom's national industry strategy.

Saudi Arabia has spent 5.1 billion riyals ($1.35 billion) to boost its military over the past two years, an industry official said on Monday.

Speaking at a forum in Riyadh, Ahmed Al Ohali, governor of the General Authority for Military Industries, said the sector aims to contribute 95 billion riyals to the country's the GDP by 2030.

It also intends to provide 100,000 job opportunities by 2030 — including “40,000 direct jobs for young men and women”, he said.

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4,872 matches 

1,942 teams

116 pitches

76 nations

26 UAE teams

15 Lebanese teams

2 Kuwaiti teams

ELIO

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Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

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Stage 7:

1. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal - 3:18:29

2. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - same time

3. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious

4. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep

5. Cees Bol (NED) Team DSM

General Classification:

1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 24:00:28

2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:35

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4. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:42

5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45

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Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

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Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Walter Goggins
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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

 

House-hunting

Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove

  1. Edinburgh, Scotland 
  2. Westminster, London 
  3. Camden, London 
  4. Glasgow, Scotland 
  5. Islington, London 
  6. Kensington and Chelsea, London 
  7. Highlands, Scotland 
  8. Argyll and Bute, Scotland 
  9. Fife, Scotland 
  10. Tower Hamlets, London 

 

if you go

The flights

Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.

The hotel

Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850

 Events and tours

There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com

For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art. 

More information

For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com

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Label: Warner Records

Number of tracks: 11

Rating: 4/5

The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

At a glance - Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020

Launched: 2008

Categories: Health, energy, water, food, global high schools

Prize: Dh2.2 million (Dh360,000 for global high schools category)

Winners’ announcement: Monday, January 13

 

Impact in numbers

335 million people positively impacted by projects

430,000 jobs created

10 million people given access to clean and affordable drinking water

50 million homes powered by renewable energy

6.5 billion litres of water saved

26 million school children given solar lighting

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Labour dispute

The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.


- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law 

Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

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Updated: December 14, 2022, 11:22 AM`