PARIS // President Francois Hollande travels to Algeria this week on a symbolic trip seeking to end simmering resentment over French colonial rule and to persuade its leaders to back an armed intervention to oust Islamists in Mali.
But he faces an uphill battle on both counts during the two-day state visit that comes as the resource-rich north African state marks 50 years of independence.
Mr Hollande will have a dozen government ministers in tow when he arrives Wednesday to hold meetings with Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, make a speech in parliament and give a talk at a university in the city of Tlemcen.
"We hope that the visit of Francois Hollande will mark a new stage in our bilateral relations which are expected to deepen," said Mr Bouteflika last week.
Officials in Paris have also been talking up the trip, dubbing it a "historic" moment in relations that remain thorny half a century after a bloody war of independence ended 132 years of French colonisation.
The two states are bound together by a network of human, economic and cultural ties, with more than half a million Algerians living in France and hundreds of thousands of others holding French nationality.
Algeria is an important supplier of oil to France, hundreds of French businesses operate there, and France is its top trade partner. The north African state is also a strategic partner in France's fight against Islamic extremists.
But the past still casts a long shadow over France's links with Algeria.
Efforts to draw up a "Treaty of Friendship" in recent years have failed, mostly because Algeria insists France must first make an act of official repentance for the torture and massacres its troops carried out in colonial days.
Mr Bouteflika said, after Mr Hollande's election victory over Nicolas Sarkozy in May, that "only an objective reading of history" would allow France and Algeria to overcome the "painful" legacy of the past.
Last month, his government made a fresh demand for France to admit its massacres, while the country's foreign minister said he hoped Mr Hollande would deliver "the clarifications the Algerian people are waiting for".
Mr Hollande in October recognised the "bloody repression" of Algerian protesters by police in Paris in October 1961, which historians say killed dozens, possibly hundreds.
But he is unlikely to go much further during his trip to Algeria.
"History must serve to build the future and not to prevent it," he said last month. His aides say that he is prepared to take a lucid look at the past but is not going to take the road of official repentance.
The second major issue Hollande will tackle during the Algeria trip is Mali.
The west African regional bloc ECOWAS wants to deploy a 3,300-strong intervention force to drive out Islamists who have seized half the country. The bloc is being backed by western powers who fear the zone could become a haven for terrorists.
Algeria, the regional powerhouse which shares hundreds of kilometres of border with Mali, is seen as key to any military operation but has long adhered to a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of another state.
It did not oppose a UN resolution authorising the possible military intervention if dialogue fails, but Mr Bouteflika said he favoured a "negotiated political solution between the Malian government and rebels who clearly distance themselves from terrorist and criminal activity".
THREE
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Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPowertrain%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle%20electric%20motor%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E201hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E310Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBattery%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E53kWh%20lithium-ion%20battery%20pack%20(GS%20base%20model)%3B%2070kWh%20battery%20pack%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETouring%20range%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E350km%20(GS)%3B%20480km%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh129%2C900%20(GS)%3B%20Dh149%2C000%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Medium-sized chocolate eggs
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury’s Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg.
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)
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature
By Marion Rankine
Melville House
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League last-16, second leg:
Real Madrid 1 (Asensio 70'), Ajax 4 (Ziyech 7', Neres 18', Tadic 62', Schone 72')
Ajax win 5-3 on aggregate
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Match info
Uefa Nations League A Group 4
England 2 (Lingard 78', Kane 85')
Croatia 1 (Kramaric 57')
Man of the match: Harry Kane (England)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Strait of Hormuz
Fujairah is a crucial hub for fuel storage and is just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond.
The strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction. Almost a fifth of oil consumed across the world passes through the strait.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, a move that would risk inviting geopolitical and economic turmoil.
Last month, Iran issued a new warning that it would block the strait, if it was prevented from using the waterway following a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major Iranian oil importers.
Company%C2%A0profile
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Tottenham 0-1 Ajax, Tuesday
Second leg
Ajax v Tottenham, Wednesday, May 8, 11pm
Game is on BeIN Sports