A red flag warning of shark sightings flutters over tourists on the beach at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
A red flag warning of shark sightings flutters over tourists on the beach at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
A red flag warning of shark sightings flutters over tourists on the beach at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
A red flag warning of shark sightings flutters over tourists on the beach at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Egypt closes Red Sea resort beach after two women die in shark attacks


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Two women, an Austrian and a Romanian, were killed in separate shark attacks off Egypt’s Red Sea coast to the south of the resort city of Hurghada.

Authorities ordered the beach to be closed for three days after the 68-year-old Austrian tourist was attacked on Friday at Sahl Hasheesh, a high-end holiday spot famous for its pristine seawater and golden sandy beaches.

The body of a Romanian tourist in her late forties was discovered hours later, local sources told Reuters.

They said the attacks occurred with 600 metres of each other.

Egypt's Environment Ministry said on Sunday that a team of experts was trying to establish “scientific” reasons for the attacks.

A video clip posted online, purportedly of the attack on the Austrian tourist, shows holidaymakers watching from a pier as a shark attacks a woman close to the beach.

The authenticity of the clip could not immediately be verified.

Fatal shark attacks are uncommon on Egypt's Red Sea coast.

In 2020, a Ukrainian boy lost an arm and an Egyptian tour guide a leg in a shark attack.

A Czech tourist was killed by a shark off a Red Sea beach in 2018, three years after a German tourist died in a shark attack.

In 2010, a spate of shark attacks killed one European tourist and maimed several others in Sharm El Sheikh, a popular resort on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, across the Red Sea from Hurghada.

Egypt's Red Sea resorts are among the country's major beach destinations and are popular with European tourists. Divers are drawn by the steep drop-offs of coral reefs just offshore that offer a rich and colourful sea life.

Authorities have in recent years sought to revive the vital, labour-intensive tourism industry, battered by years of instability following a popular uprising in 2011 and later by the coronavirus pandemic and the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Egypt relies heavily on tourism revenue from the Red Sea region, which draws about 65 per cent of all tourists arriving in the country.

The specs
Engine: 2.4-litre 4-cylinder

Transmission: CVT auto

Power: 181bhp

Torque: 244Nm

Price: Dh122,900 

Directed: Smeep Kang
Produced: Soham Rockstar Entertainment; SKE Production
Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sunny Singh, Omkar Kapoor, Rajesh Sharma
Rating: Two out of five stars 

Racecard

6.30pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah Group Two (PA) US$55,000 (Dirt) 1,600m

7.05pm: Meydan Trophy (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,900m

7.40pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (D) 1,200m

8.15pm: Balanchine Group Two (TB) $250,000 (T) 1,800m

8.50pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,000m

9.25pm: Firebreak Stakes Group Three (TB) $200,000 (D) 1,600m

10pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 2,410m

The National selections: 6.30pm: RM Lam Tara, 7.05pm: Al Mukhtar Star, 7.40pm: Bochart, 8.15pm: Magic Lily, 8.50pm: Roulston Scar, 9.25pm: Quip, 10pm: Jalmoud

How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars

Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.

Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.

After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.

Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.

It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.

 

The biog

Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists. 

Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.

Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic 

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What is a calorie?

A food calorie, or kilocalorie, is a measure of nutritional energy generated from what is consumed.

One calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C.

A kilocalorie represents a 1,000 true calories of energy.

Energy density figures are often quoted as calories per serving, with one gram of fat in food containing nine calories, and a gram of protein or carbohydrate providing about four.

Alcohol contains about seven calories a gram. 

HIJRA

Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy

Director: Shahad Ameen

Rating: 3/5

SPECS
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Timeline

2012-2015

The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East

May 2017

The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts

September 2021

Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act

October 2021

Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence 

December 2024

Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group

May 2025

The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan

July 2025

The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan

August 2025

Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision

October 2025

Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange

November 2025

180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE

The President's Cake

Director: Hasan Hadi

Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem 

Rating: 4/5

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Updated: June 12, 2023, 10:57 AM