A seven-hour television drive broadcast over hundreds of channels and radio shows has raised $6 billion for earthquake relief efforts in Turkey.
The country's central bank led the efforts, contributing $1.6 billion.
More than half of the pledges and donations came from Turkish banks, including Ziraat Bankasi which pledged $1.54 billion, Vakifbank at $636 million and Halkbank with $371 million, as well as telecoms company Turkcel, Turk Telekom, Turkish Airlines and Borsa Istanbul.
On Thursday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in a joint press conference with Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, urged fellow Nato member states to send more aid.
The number of people killed from the 7.8-magnitude quake in Syria and Turkey is now more than 44,000.
The Turkish fundraising effort came as the UN launched a $1 billion appeal for humanitarian aid, designed to last three months and assist 5.2 million people.
“Turkiye is home to the largest number of refugees in the world and has shown enormous generosity to its Syrian neighbours for years,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday.
“Now is the time for the world to support the people of Turkiye — just as they have stood in solidarity with others seeking assistance.”
The UN's World Health Organisation said areas of northern Syria controlled by rebel militias and extremist groups are “of greatest concern” because of difficulties agreeing on border crossings for aid and the distribution of relief.
Russia and China support the Syrian government’s assertion that aid should be distributed in co-ordination with Damascus.
The countries support a UN resolution allowing aid to be moved from Turkey across a single crossing point, Bab Al Hawa.
The crossing is not under Syrian government control, but Damascus has since authorised the use of several other border routes.
“It's clear that the zone of greatest concern at the moment is the area of north-western Syria,” Mike Ryan, director of the WHO's emergencies programme, told a briefing in Geneva.
“The impact of the earthquake in areas of Syria controlled by the government is significant, but the services are there and there is access to those people.
“We have to remember here that in Syria, we've had 10 years of war. The health system is amazingly fragile. People have been through hell.”
Damascus opposes aid going to rebel-held Idlib, saying it undermines the country’s sovereignty.
Aid agencies called for more crossings to be opened to improve the flow of relief supplies.
An Al Qaeda-linked militant group that controls Idlib, home to nearly one million displaced people, has also obstructed the movement of some aid from government-held territory.
The situation in the north, where more than four million have been displaced by 12 years of war — and are dependent on aid — became more severe after the February 6 earthquake.
Efforts to distribute supplies are being hampered by the effects of the civil war, with at least two attempts to send aid across the front lines into the north-west being disrupted.
At least one aid convoy has reached the area.
'Too little, too late'
During a visit to Damascus after last Monday's quakes, senior WHO officials asked Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to open more crossings on the border with Turkey to ensure aid reaches the area, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
Mr Al Assad authorised two more crossings into north-west Syria on Monday, a move Human Rights Watch described as “too little, too late”.
But Mr Ryan described the opening of the crossing points as a sign that “all sides are stepping back and focusing on the needs of the people right now”.
“It is an impossibility at times to provide adequate health care in the context of eternal conflict,” he said.
“We've seen a huge ramp-up of aid. We've seen the deployment of emergency medical teams.
“We've seen all the things that we need to see in a disaster. But this is not sustainable unless we have a more peaceful context in which this can happen more effectively.”
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Company%20Profile
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Zayed Sustainability Prize
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Specs
Price, base: Dhs850,000
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 591bhp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 11.3L / 100km
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
%E2%80%98FSO%20Safer%E2%80%99%20-%20a%20ticking%20bomb
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How to get exposure to gold
Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.
A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.
Alternatively, BlackRock Gold & General seeks to achieve long-term capital growth primarily through an actively managed portfolio of gold mining, commodity and precious-metal related shares. Its largest portfolio holdings include gold miners Newcrest Mining, Barrick Gold Corp, Agnico Eagle Mines and the NewMont Goldcorp.
Brave investors could take on the added risk of buying individual gold mining stocks, many of which have performed wonderfully well lately.
London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long
However, buying individual equities like these is highly risky, as their share prices can crash just as quickly, which isn't what what you want from a supposedly safe haven.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes.
The car
Hertz offers compact car rental from about $300 (Dh1,100) per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.
The national park
Entry to Mount Rainier National Park costs $30 for one vehicle and passengers for up to seven days. Accommodation can be booked through mtrainierguestservices.com. Prices vary according to season. Rooms at the Holiday Inn Yakima cost from $125 per night, excluding breakfast.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
