A key official in the Assad government was buried in the Dahdah cemetery in central Damascus on Saturday after dying from injuries suffered in a car crash.
Luna Al Shibl, 48, special adviser to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, was an influential figure in the country's political arena, often accompanying the president on foreign visits and directing the country's media narratives.
Mourners gathered in a private, low-key ceremony attended by her husband Ammar Saati, a former government official, children and other relatives.
Ms Al Shibl had been in intensive care at Al Shami hospital after sustaining “severe injuries” in a car crash near Damascus, on Tuesday, state news agency Sana reported.
The Syrian Presidency announced her death, saying in a statement: “Al Shibl succumbed to her injuries after the car she was in veered off the road and was subjected to several collisions, leaving the adviser with fatal injuries.”
The release then expressed condolences to her family, and said she had been “in recent years, director of the political and media office at the presidency and then adviser”.
Ms Al Shibl, originally from the Syrian Druze-majority province of Sweida, was a presenter for Al Jazeera when the Qatari media outlet began to cover the Arab Uprising in Syria. She left and returned to Damascus.
The adviser was a central proponent of the government's media policy during the last decade, often lauded as one of the key architects of the state’s defence mechanism on the global airwaves.
In September last year, she travelled with Mr Assad on his first state visit to China since 2004.
Ms Al Shibl first found fame on the world stage as a government official at the 2015 Geneva conference, where she was seen sitting, smiling behind Syria's foreign minister at the time, Walid Al Mouallem.
Her presence in Geneva was seen as a boost for Damascus, adding a dynamic and sharp element to the country’s diplomatic representation.
One government employee who had worked with Ms Al Shibl said: “She was a driving force behind the government's media strategies over the last decade and one of the more influential figures who helped the Assad government secure victory in the harder years of the war. She was smart and popular.”
Another who had worked directly for her told The National: “Shibl was a defining pioneer of the government’s media, running the day-to-day management of the state media apparatus, and everything from Assad’s appearances to the election.”
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Dubai Rugby Sevens
November 30-December 2, at The Sevens, Dubai
Gulf Under 19
Pool A – Abu Dhabi Harlequins, Jumeirah College Tigers, Dubai English Speaking School 1, Gems World Academy
Pool B – British School Al Khubairat, Bahrain Colts, Jumeirah College Lions, Dubai English Speaking School 2
Pool C - Dubai College A, Dubai Sharks, Jumeirah English Speaking School, Al Yasmina
Pool D – Dubai Exiles, Dubai Hurricanes, Al Ain Amblers, Deira International School
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LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Real Sociedad v Leganes (midnight)
Saturday
Alaves v Real Valladolid (4pm)
Valencia v Granada (7pm)
Eibar v Real Madrid (9.30pm)
Barcelona v Celta Vigo (midnight)
Sunday
Real Mallorca v Villarreal (3pm)
Athletic Bilbao v Levante (5pm)
Atletico Madrid v Espanyol (7pm)
Getafe v Osasuna (9.30pm)
Real Betis v Sevilla (midnight)
Stage result
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It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
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