Archive - Al Arabiya English

Funeral for lost ice: Iceland bids farewell to glacier

Sunday, 18 August 2019

It was a funeral for ice. With poetry, moments of silence and political speeches about the urgent need to fight climate change, Icelandic officials, activists, and others bade goodbye to what once was a glacier. Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurðsson pronounced the Okjokull glacier extinct about a decade ago. But on Sunday he brought a death certificate to the made-for-media memorial. After about 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, children installed a memorial plaque ...

‘May God ruin Trump,’ Tlaib’s grandmother says

Sunday, 18 August 2019

Sitting under an olive tree in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Muftia Tlaib scoffs at the attention she has recently received from the president of the United States. “May God ruin him,” she says. Tlaib is the grandmother of US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, at the center of an affair that has drawn Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together against US Democrats. On Thursday, bowing to pressure from Trump, Israel barred a visit by Rashida Tlaib and fellow ...

Beloved baby dugong ‘Mariam’ dies in Thailand with plastic in stomach

Saturday, 17 August 2019

A sick baby dugong whose fight for recovery won hearts in Thailand and cast a spotlight on ocean conservation has died from an infection exacerbated by bits of plastic lining her stomach, officials said Saturday.Mariam washed up in shallow waters off southwestern Thailand months ago and photos of her nuzzling playfully next to rescuers quickly went viral.The discovery soon after of another orphaned dugong brought the sea cows celebrity status, the attention of a Thai princess -- who named the ...

Boxer charged with allowing pet cougar to escape in Florida

Friday, 16 August 2019

Authorities say a professional fighter allowed his pet cougar escape from his Florida home earlier this year.The Sun Sentinel reported Thursday that 33-year-old Tyrone Spong was charged with offenses including keeping the animal without a permit.Spong is the World Boxing Organization Latino Heavyweight Champion and holds other boxing and kickboxing titles.Parkland residents spotted what they believed was an endangered Florida panther in January.Responding wildlife officers subdued it with a ...

Can Tokyo’s efficient rail system handle Olympic strain?

Friday, 16 August 2019

First, Tokyo Olympic fans will have to find scarce tickets and pay the price. Then there’s the quandary of landing a hotel room with rates that are being inflated due to unprecedented demand. And the summer heat and humidity will be off-putting for some.Then there’s one more hurdle: getting around, or even finding a tiny space to stand on Tokyo’s famously efficient but over-stressed rail system.Japanese professor Azuma Taguchi at Chuo University has researched Tokyo’s ...

Vaping companies sue to delay US e-cigarette review

Thursday, 15 August 2019

A vaping industry group sued the US government on Wednesday to delay an upcoming review of thousands of e-cigarettes on the market.The legal challenge by the Vapor Technology Association is the latest hurdle in the Food and Drug Administration’s years-long effort to regulate the multibillion-dollar vaping industry, which includes makers and retailers of e-cigarette devices and flavored solutions.The vaping group argued that the latest deadline of next May to submit products for review ...

Man dies after competing in California taco-eating contest

Thursday, 15 August 2019

A man died shortly after competing in a taco-eating contest at a minor league baseball game in California, authorities said Wednesday.Dana Hutchings, 41, of Fresno, died Tuesday night shortly after arriving at a hospital, Fresno Sheriff spokesman Tony Botti said.An autopsy on Hutchings will be done Thursday to determine a cause of death, Botti said. It was not immediately known how many tacos the man had eaten or whether he had won the contest.Fresno Grizzlies spokesman Paul Braverman said in a ...

Climbers must be trained to tackle Everest, panel says after deaths

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

Nepal must make training and experience in high altitude climbing mandatory for all climbers on Mount Everest and other high peaks, a government panel said on Wednesday, following the deadliest climbing season in four years. Eleven climbers were killed or went missing on the 8,850 meter mountain in May - nine on the Nepali side and two on the Tibetan side. The Nepali panel - made up of government officials, climbing experts and agencies representing the climbing community - was set up after ...

Ecological disaster on Greek island as fire burns on

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

Firefighters on the Greek island of Evia were still battling Wednesday to contain a fire that has caused massive damage to a pristine mountain wildlife habitat after threatening four communities.“It’s a huge ecological disaster in a unique, untouched pine forest,” said acting regional governor Costas Bakoyannis.The fire that broke out in the early hours of Tuesday on Greece’s second-largest island prompted the evacuation of the villages of Kontodespoti, Makrymalli, ...

Trial starting in defamation lawsuit against romance author Nicholas Sparks

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

The trial is getting underway in a lawsuit that accuses novelist Nicholas Sparks of defaming the former headmaster of a private Christian school he founded in North Carolina.Saul Hillel Benjamin accuses Sparks of telling Epiphany School parents, a job recruiter and others that he suffered from mental illness.The jury in the trial beginning Wednesday in Raleigh will decide whether the private K-12 school in Spark’s hometown of New Bern, the author and the foundation Sparks created to ...