Category: General

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirmed the importance of enhancing cooperative relations to diversify financing mechanisms for research and development and utilize the 21st century’s opportunities.

This aims at creating a future that achieves the aspirations and prosperity for all, Dr. Munir bin Mahmoud El-Desouki, the supervisor of the founding team of the Saudi Research, Development, and Innovation Authority (RDIA), said at the Group of Twenty (G20) Research and Innovation Initiative Gathering (RIIG) Summit held in the Republic of India.

El-Desouki, the head of the Kingdom’s delegation to the summit, affirmed that research and innovation contribute to achieving social and economic progress and sustainable development.

He further said the Kingdom has worked to restructure the research, development, and innovation sector, establishing a supreme committee for the industry headed by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

The Kingdom launched national priorities and aspirations for research, development, and innovation based on human health, environmental sustainability, basic needs, energy and industry, and future economies to achieve growth and prosperity, El-Desouki said.

He stressed that by 2040, the Kingdom’s annual spending on the research, development, and innovation sector would reach 2.5 percent of GDP.

In his speech, El-Desouki also showcased the Kingdom’s projects that aim to diversify resources and improve the overall energy mix by 2030, expecting renewable energy to contribute up to 50 percent of Saudi total energy consumption.

Moreover, he shed light on the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, which serve as an ambitious roadmaps to achieve sustainability and reduce emissions by planting 50 billion trees to protect the planet.

El-Desouki expressed the Kingdom’s appreciation for the Indian G20 presidency for successfully convening this ministerial meeting, which aims to promote a flexible, equitable, comprehensive, and sustainable “One Future” through research, development, and innovation.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

With the aim of enhancing the participatory work of non-governmental organizations, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor announced that it is in the process of holding discussions on the weaknesses, strengths and challenges these organizations face in terms of funding, governance as well as financial and accounting systems.

The discussions will also focus on participatory work, specializations, reality and ambition, in addition to many other points.

In this context, the Ministry called on volunteers, members of unions, institutions, along with all workers and experts in the humanitarian field, who wish, to join these consultations.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Syrian swimming team players Omar Abbas and Joanna Rais won two gold medals in the Arab Sports Games ,which is currently held in Algeria.

Swimmer Abbas won the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle, while swimmer Rais won the gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle.

On Thursday, Abbas won the 400-meter freestyle gold medal, as well as Rais won the 100-meter freestyle silver medal earlier on Friday.

Syria raised its meals into nine, three gold, three silver and three bronze.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

The Syrian national judo team won the third place and the bronze medal in the team competition within the competitions of the Arab Sports Games in Algeria.

The team’s coronation with the bronze medal came after its beat over Palestine 3-2 and Jordan 3-0, and losing to the Algerian team 0-3.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Fayssal Mikdad met with the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua Denis Moncada Colindres during the meeting of foreign ministers of non-aligned countries held in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.

The two sides discussed prospects for enhancing cooperation and coordination among the Non-Aligned Movement countries, particularly in light of the threats and attempts of hegemony and interference in their internal affairs.

Mikdad also met Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik, and discussed regional and global developments and the importance of continuing the struggle toward a multi-polar world built on principles of justice, and equality.

Mikdad met the first deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Gerardo Penalver , with the two sides stressing the need for adhering of the goals and principles of the Non-Aligned Movement and strengthening solidarity among its countries of more than ever before, especially in light of the growing global challenges.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

A conference on cultural heritage, titled “Bridges of Peace” was held Friday in the Italian city of Turin, as part of the activities of the third day of the “Damascene Rose… From Syria to Turin” .

The event is organized by the Royal Museums in Turin and Syrian Trust for Development, in cooperation with Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture.

Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums Hammam Saad alongwith elite Italian archaeologists, including the discoverer of the site of ancient Ebla in Syria Paolo Matthiae who has been awarded the Syrian Order of Merit of the excellent degree recently participated in the conference.

Saad stressed that despite the terrorist war against Syria and the unfair coercive economic measures against the Syrian people, the Syrians remained creative in various fields of life.

Saad reviewed the most important archaeological sites distributed throughout the Syrian geography, explaining that more than 100 archaeological missions of different nationalities were working within these sites.

He pointed out the number of foreign, national and joint missions from 1960 to 2011, indicating that the seasons number of joint missions reached at 673 seasons, and the number of foreign missions reached at 610 seasons, while the number of seasons of national missions reached at 291 seasons.

He also reviewed the latest archaeological discoveries of the mosaic painting in Rastan in Homs province, indicating the importance of its discovery at the global level and the need to establish a museum in the same place.

Consultant expert at the Syrian Trust for Development, Reem Saqr underscored that the Damascene Rose project in Turin built a bridge of friendship and peace between different cultures and nations, expressing her appreciation for the efforts of the Royal Museum, the Fondazione Santagata and all sides that contributed to the success of this important cultural project.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

A number of terrorists were killed along with their leader and others were injured, during the Syrian Arab Army’s response to an attempt by a terrorist group to infiltrate into the Kabana axis in northern Lattakia countryside on Friday dawn.

“A unit of the armed forces confronted on Friday dawn a terrorist group that tried to infiltrate one of our military points, on the Kabanah axis in northern countryside of Lattakia,” Ministry of Defense announced in a statement.

The statement indicated that the military operation led to the killing and wounding of a number of terrorists, including their leader,nicknamed “Abu Rawaha.”

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Kuwait’s women have been playing, throughout history, their leading and effective role in the country’s development in all fields.

They have overcome challenges and achieved outstanding successes that enabled them get leadership regionally and internationally.

They proceeded with their role in building society until they obtained their political rights on May 16, 2005, when they ran for, and elect, the National Assembly in 2006 for the first time.

In 2008, some 27 women ran for the National Assembly election which helped them gain some experience to get some seats in the National Assembly election in 2009, reports KUNA.

Dr. Masoma Al-Mubarak, Dr. Salwa Al-Jassar, Dr. Assel Al-Awadhi and Dr. Roal Dashti won in the 2009 parliament election that was a great event in Kuwait Kuwait’s females have spared no efforts to participate in building the society to the extent that they made up 59 percent of the country’s workforce, the highest rate globally.

Speaking to KUNA, Maha Al-Baghli, Municipality Council member, said that Kuwait’s women managed to join all fields and get leading posts in the private and public sectors.

Meanwhile, Maali Al-Asousi, an advisor of humanitarian action, said Kuwait’s women have a key role in the society and effective contributions to voluntary and humanitarian action, the recent efforts were their participation in combating the coronavirus.

Economic and political freedom helped Kuwait’s women obtain the most leading posts in the State, she said.

For her part, Alia Johar, a media person, stressed the significant role of Kuwait’s women in enriching literature in the Arab world.

She referred to several contributions of Kuwait’s women in media, despite challenges to prove their excellence and be effective in varied media outlets.

Finally, Bedour Al-Sumait, head of business and professional women federation, said the country’s leadership has backed and encouraged women to practice their effective role and achieve comprehensive development.

This helped them obtain several leading and administrative positions in the country, in addition to judicial, military, economic and diplomatic institutions, he noted.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Friday that the US policy towards Syria affects the entire region, as its military presence on Syrian territory violates international laws.

“The US policy does not restore stability and balance to the situation or to Syria’s territorial sovereignty, and negatively affects the situation in the entire Middle East”, Sputnik quoted Antonov as saying.

“The US military presence on Syrian territory violates international laws, as they occupy certain areas in the country under the pretext of the necessity to carry out anti-terrorist tasks”, Antonov added.

In a relevant context, Antonov said that the accusations leveled by the US Department of Defense against Russia for “unprofessional behavior in Syrian airspace” go beyond the limits of decency, as it is the US that violates the rules of aviation there.

Antonov noted that thode statements and repeated attacks against Russian forces that go beyond the limits of decency lack rationality, and try to distract attention from the fact that the Americans themselves violate air safety rules in the Syrian airspace on a daily basis.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), the Ministry of Interior and the government related entities continue their joint efforts to intensify inspection campaigns against illegal practices in the Labour Market, in order to preserve a competitive, fair, and stable labour market.

LMRA announced it had conducted five joint inspection campaigns which resulted in registering violations related to the Labour Market and Residency laws. The cases were referred for legal action.

LMRA pointed out that four inspection campaigns were carried out in the Capital Governorate, the first with the participation of the Nationality, Passports and Residence Affairs (NPRA) and the Governorate Police Directorate, while the second was coordinated by the Department of Execution of Judgments, the third was with the participation of the Capital Municipality and the Capital Governorate Directorate (Community Police), while the fourth was in coordination with the Social Insurance Organization (SIO).

The fifth was in the Southern Governorate in cooperation with the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Evidence.

LMRA renewed its call to all members of the society to support the efforts of government agencies in addressing illegal labour practices, by reporting violations via the electronic form on the authority’s website www.lmra.bh or by calling the authority’s call centre on 17506055

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Two Palestinians were martyred and others were injured on Friday by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets in Nablus city in the West Bank.

Palestinian Wafa News Agency stated that the occupation forces stormed in large numbers the Old City, cordoned off a house and fired a barrage of bullets at it, causing the martyrdom of two young men, Hamza Makbul and Khairy Shaheen, as well as wounding three others by the occupation fires.

On Thursday, a Palestinian was shot dead by the occupation forces, after carrying out a heroic operation west of Nablus, which resulted in the death of an occupation soldier and the wounding another.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Kurdish sources announced violent Turkish bombing of the Balanda mountains in the Amadiya district, north of Dohuk governorate.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency