250 native ghaf trees planted at RAK desert resort to mark International Day of Forests

RAS AL KHAIMAH // Two hundred and fifty ghaf trees were each planted by a different hotel employee in a nature reserve to mark World Planting Day and International Day of Forests.

The Marriott International Associates staff came from more than 30 hotels from across the seven emirates to plant the native trees in Al Wadi Nature Reserve in RAK and to offer their help in a desert clean-up at the start of the Give a Ghaf and Heritage Forest Pilot Project campaigns.

“This is the first time we have done this. We invited all our sister hotels from all the UAE to participate in cleaning the desert and planting Ghaf trees,” said Amit Arora, general manager of Al Wadi Desert.

“The 160 ladies and gentlemen plus 90 staff from Al Wadi planted 250 Ghaf trees. We already have 751, so the total now is 1,001 trees.”

The Give a Ghaf programme, which is about planting seeds in a nursery, was started by Goumbook in 2011 to raise awareness of the UAE national tree, which provides food, medicine and shelter for both animals and humans, said Tatiana Antonelli, the UAE sustainability proponent’s founder and managing director.

“For six years, we have planted over 35,000 seeds in our nursery in Dubai. When they grow, we give these small trees back to the community to plant them in parks, land fields and nature reserves and we have a partnership with Al Wadi where we plant them,” she said.

Heritage Forest Pilot Project, which will plant 4,000 ghafs by 2020 after they’ve grown in the nursery, aims to educate people on how they can live sustainably by planting a tree, Ms Antonelli said.

Cedric Klein, 37, a French director of operations at the Ritz-Carlton in JBR, Dubai, said the desert clean-up and tree-planting was a good deed for staff to undertake.

“I woke up today at 5.30am to be here on time because I was excited about doing something positive, helpful and meaningful for others,” he said.

Wael Farouk, 55, from Egypt, travelled from Dubai to RAK to help make an impact on the environment by planting a tree.

“We are responsible for making a difference for us, our children and the coming generations. It might be a simple task but it has a great impact,” the director of rooms operations and engineering at Marriott Al Jaddaf said.

Gusts of Al Wadi Desert also have the chance to plant their own Ghaf tree in the Heritage Forest when they visit the resort.

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COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Kumulus Water

Started: 2021

Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid

Based: Tunisia

Sector: Water technology

Number of staff: 22

Investment raised: $4 million

2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

Other key dates

Finals draw: December 2
Finals (including semi-finals and third-placed game): June 5–9, 2019
Euro 2020 play-off draw: November 22, 2019
Euro 2020 play-offs: March 26–31, 2020

The specs

Engine: 3.8-litre V6

Power: 295hp at 6,000rpm

Torque: 355Nm at 5,200rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km

Price: Dh179,999-plus

On sale: now

The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet

Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465

Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder

Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km

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The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
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.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

The National's picks

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

The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six

Power: 510hp at 9,000rpm

Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm

Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual

Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km

On sale: Available to order now

Price: From Dh801,800

Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills