"It is as if we are not suffering enough from the collapse in the property market, the lack of financing, and the evaporation of our money in both the established and young stock markets," wrote, on Sunday, Dr Sayf al Islam Bin Saud Bin Abdul Aziz in his regular column for the Emirati newspaper Al Ittihad.
"It is as if all the above problems are not enough for the pirates who stalk our tankers and ships, which carry the lifeblood of the world's economies and of our annual budgets."
According to Abdul Aziz, the Arab countries affected by the pirates have several options.
"Either they call for international or Arab intervention, or they send every ship with a bag full of money to pay to the pirates and prevent shipping delays."
But an Arab solution is unlikely because the Arab nations have never been able to agree on anything, Abdul-Aziz wrote.
"A waste of money, time and effort would be the only result if the Arabs decided to discuss a concerted effort to deal with the pirates."
The Palestinian daily Al Hayat al Jadidah ran an opinion piece by Hassan al Batal this Sunday, praising the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Sinoura's decision to establish diplomatic relations with the Palestinians.
"The timing of the Lebanese diplomatic decision constituted a shrewd gesture, because it was issued on the day of the international decision to partition the land of Palestine," he wrote.
"However, its political timing is also significant, because it would not have been issued had it not been for the Syrian-Lebanese agreement to exchange ambassadors and launch bilateral negotiations aimed at demarcating the border between the two countries."
It was no coincidence for the two acts of normalisation affecting Syrian-Lebanese relations and Lebanese-Palestinian relations to proceed in parallel to one another.
"As for the future of Syrian-Palestinian normalisation, it will remain in the realm of brotherly political hypocrisy until Damascus stops toying with Palestinian factions and harbouring Fatah al Intifada and Fatah al Islam, as though it was a game."
"Our colleague Dr Khalaf al Harbi condemned in a recent article the revival of tribalism and the tendency to put the tribe above all else, including the country and its unity," Ali Khafif wrote in his regular column for Saudi Arabia's newspaper Okaz on Sunday.
"We must continue discussing this issue until the problem is corrected and until loyalty to a tribe and tribal identity returns to its natural borders, which do not supersede the unity of the country or loyalty to it."
The media space given to tribal poetry is one factor that perpetuates tribalism, he wrote. "Thus we now have a whole generation that was raised with a strong link to their tribes. This strengthened their identification with their tribe and weakened their loyalty and sense of belonging to their country, which is a very dangerous development."
The existence of citizens who do not belong to any tribe and look down at anything Arab or tribal is another factor. "In both cases, we have the either side feeding on sentiments and emotions that are destructive to the social fabric and weaken national links."
Syria's daily newspaper Teshreen ran an editorial by Ezz al Din Darwich on Sunday warning Barack Obama of the George Bush's insistence on victimising Syria during its last days.
"The conservative and war-obsessed Bush administration, which claims to maintain ties with Heaven, does not want to leave the White House peacefully," he wrote. "One of its top priorities is to punish the countries that resisted its policies and held hawkish positions in the Arab region, namely Syria."
That is why the Bush administration is accusing Syria of developing a nuclear programme and trying impose resolutions via the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"In his last days in office, Mr Bush is devoting considerable time to coming up with accusations against those rejecting his policies and imposing them through America's military and economic might in a primitive way that does not match the status the US should assume," Darwich wrote.
* Digest compiled from www.mideastdigest.com
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter 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 Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
How Beautiful this world is!
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Fly Etihad or Emirates from the UAE to Moscow from 2,763 return per person return including taxes.
Where to stay
Trips on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian cost from US$16,995 (Dh62,414) per person, based on two sharing.
RACE CARD
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm: Meydan Sprint – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (Turf) 1,000m
7.40pm: Curlin Stakes – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (D) 2,200m
8.15pm: UAE Oaks – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,900m
8.50pm: Zabeel Mile – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,600m
9.25pm: Balanchine – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m
10pm: Al Shindagha Sprint – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,200m
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
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Scores in brief:
Day 1
New Zealand (1st innings) 153 all out (66.3 overs) - Williamson 63, Nicholls 28, Yasir 3-54, Haris 2-11, Abbas 2-13, Hasan 2-38
Pakistan (1st innings) 59-2 (23 overs)
The BIO:
He became the first Emirati to climb Mount Everest in 2011, from the south section in Nepal
He ascended Mount Everest the next year from the more treacherous north Tibetan side
By 2015, he had completed the Explorers Grand Slam
Last year, he conquered K2, the world’s second-highest mountain located on the Pakistan-Chinese border
He carries dried camel meat, dried dates and a wheat mixture for the final summit push
His new goal is to climb 14 peaks that are more than 8,000 metres above sea level
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Sunday's games
Liverpool v West Ham United, 4.30pm (UAE)
Southampton v Burnley, 4.30pm
Arsenal v Manchester City, 7pm
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.
'Joker'
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix
Rating: Five out of five stars
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
Our House, Louise Candlish,
Simon & Schuster