Day: August 4, 2022

Khartoum, Aug 4, 2022, SPA — The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Sudan and South Sudan Ali bin Hassan Jaafar received, at his office here late Wednesday, the Chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) for the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan Festus Mogae.

During the reception, the tasks of JMEC and its role in implementing the transitional phase were reviewed, as the Chairperson of the Commission briefed the Saudi Ambassador on the progress of implementing the terms of the South Sudan Peace Agreement and the challenges facing the implementation process.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

BRUSSELS– Wildfires raging through Europe this summer have burned the second-largest area on record, even though the region is only halfway through its typical fire season, according to data from the European Union’s Joint Research Centre, Reuters reported.

A dozen European countries have suffered major blazes this year, forcing thousands to evacuate and destroying homes and businesses. Countries including Italy, Spain and France still face extreme fire risk.

Wildfires have burned 600,731 hectares in EU countries this year so far, the data showed. That ranks as the second-highest total for any year since 2006, when records began. In 2017, 987,844 hectares were burned.

This year’s burned area is more than double the size of Luxembourg. No other year in the dataset had seen such a high amount of burned land in Europe by August.

The Mediterranean region’s typical fire season runs from June to September.

Climate change is exacerbating fires, by increasing the hot and dry conditions that help them spread faster, burn longer and rage more intensely. Hotter weather saps moisture from vegetation, turning it into dry fuel – a problem exacerbated by shrinking workforces in some areas to clear this vegetation.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh, August 4, 2022, SPA – Heritage Commission today announced new discoveries at archaeological sites at Farasan Islands located around 40 kilometers away from Jazan City, following excavation works by a joint Saudi-French team in cooperation with the University of Paris 1, which resulted in discovering several architectural phenomena and archaeological pieces dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, as part of the commission’s scientific efforts in the field of survey and excavations of heritage sites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and preserving them as a cultural and economic resource.

The works of the scientific team unveiled rare pieces, including a Roman folded armor made of copper ingots, and another kind of armors known as “Lorica squamata”, which is the most frequently used during the Roman era between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, and this kind represents the rarest piece that the team managed to find, in addition to discovering an inscription of garnet for “Genos”, a famous Roman figure in the history of the eastern Roman empire, as well as finding a head of a small stone statue.

A Saudi-French team had paid reconnaissance and exploratory trips to the Farasan Island in 2005 and identified locations with archaeological indicators, before surveys start on the island in 2011, where previous explorations conducted between 2011 and 2020 led to several architectural and archaeological discoveries that showed that these sites date back to almost 1400 BC.

These works at Farasan Island locations contributed to reaching several archaeological discoveries and unveiled significant sites and provided important insights on the civil role of the historical ports in the southern part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their role in controlling the trade in the Red Sea area and the old marine trade routes.

These archaeological discoveries highlight the civil depth of Farasan Islands and the importance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its strategic location as being a hub for various civilizations, where the Heritage Commission continues its intensified efforts to administrate the components of the cultural heritage and protect and maintain cultural sites, in addition to benefiting from them in the sustainable development process through working under accurate strategies and wide partnerships at the local and international levels.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Abha– The patrols of the security regiments in Assir region have arrested a citizen in possession of (55) kilograms of the narcotic Qat in the Sarat Ubaida Governorate.

The culprit was arrested, legal measures were taken against him, and he was referred to the competent authority.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Tunis, August 4, 2022, SPA — Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and Arab Civil Aviation Organization today held a virtual scientific symposium to unify the project of the unified dictionary for civil aviation terms, with the participation of experts to review the dictionary from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan and Morocco.

During the event, participants discussed several technical terms and chose proper ones.

The project of the unified dictionary for civil aviation terms benefited from previous dictionaries and added new terms and reports of some international organizations, and the dictionary took into consideration matching the international and Arab dimensions in light of developments recognized by aviation organizations.

At the end of the symposium, the experts recommended printing the dictionary and making it available for researchers and interested people.

Source: Saudi Press Agency