I refer to the front page news article University expels 126 failing students (October 17). These students should file a suit against the university for the reason that the school kept them for seven years and took their money before realising that their grade point averages (GPAs) were not good enough to keep them. How much money did the students' parents spend on their education?
It's true that the students could have raised their GPAs. However, if they didn't in their first three semesters at the university - that is one and a half years of being given warnings - the university authorities should have let them go then and there, not after seven years.
Amna S, Abu Dhabi
Unless the education system is not totally overhauled and revamped, such incidents as expelling 126 students after seven years will continue to crop up.
Ahmad Shah, Abu Dhabi
Let parents judge video games
With reference to the business article Violence to be edited out of games (October 13), I'm not sure why the Government is taking the time to ban video games. The games industry in Europe and especially in the US have dealt with such problems. It is unlikely for parents to allow children to play games such as Mafia II or Dead Rising. Some games are not meant for little children.
In the past two decades, I have noticed that the games industry has already changed. Nowadays all games are rated and most online and multiplayer games have an option to filter bad language. I'm an adult and I can choose what to buy. I don't want "Big Daddy" to tell me what to get or not to get. And parents have a role to play, not the Government.
BA, Abu Dhabi
Iran's role on the international stage
In reference to the article Hero's welcome for Ahmadinejad (October 14), the recent visit to Lebanon of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has indeed become an historical event as it has reinforced his country's unquestionable role in shaping the political landscape of the region in the days to come.
The visit of such a high profile Iranian figure to Lebanon would not have been thinkable until recently in the wake of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese premier, which many in Lebanon and the West had blamed on Hizbollah and Syria, the main allies of Iran in the region.
The visit has turned out to be a clear endorsement that the politics pursued by Iran and its allies are gaining momentum in the region.The warm welcome by Lebanese leaders and the thunderous applause and standing ovations during the speech by Mr Ahmadinejad is a clear message to US and its allies that they should be more realistic and show maturity by stopping their usual policy of intimidation towards others who think and talk differently. Should they claim sincerely that they are pro-democratic, they should come to terms with Iran to bring about peace in this most troublesome area before the ground on which they stand now becomes fully eroded.
Meanwhile, Iran should show more transparency and come out clearly about serious matters which its neighbours, especially Arab countries, feel ill at ease about. These issues involving Iran range from the prolonged allegation of interfering covertly in internal affairs of other nations to its controversial nuclear activities. Iran must address these issues in good faith if it really wants to go ahead with its plan of empowering the people in its neighbourhood against the aggression of Israel.
Abdul Lateef Koladikkal, Abu Dhabi
Call for reform of Security Council
The appointment of India and South Africa as non-permanent
members of the UN Security Council, joining Germany and Brazil, is a long-overdue move that gives a voice to well over a billion people who hitherto have remained silent in international matters of security and world peace.
However, it has also the effect of shining a spotlight on the anachronistic position whereby the US, the UK, Russia, China and France are permanent members, each having the power of veto.
Thus, Britain with a population of 65 million can veto any Security Council resolution, thereby ensuring that a world population of 6.5 billion must bow to its will.
The status quo seems designed to bring the UN into disrepute as a clearly undemocratic body that claims to speak for the international community when, in fact, it speaks for vested political interests.
The solution would appear to be to make the four most powerful and populous countries permanent members - the US, India, China and Russia - but without any power of veto. Only then will we obtain a body that truly represents the international community and one that will decide those vital actions that affect us all by a democratic process.
Michael Halpern, UK
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
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.
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
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
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Name: Brendalle Belaza
From: Crossing Rubber, Philippines
Arrived in the UAE: 2007
Favourite place in Abu Dhabi: NYUAD campus
Favourite photography style: Street photography
Favourite book: Harry Potter
