Women’s camel beauty contest makes debut in Saudi Arabia

For first time, women allowed to take part in prestigious King Abdelaziz Festival; previously a men-only affair in conservative kingdom

One participant says staging a contest for women ‘is a big step forward’

Agence France-Presse
Published: 9 Jan, 2022

Camels during the sixth King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, 161km from the capital Riyadh. The festival this weekend has, for the first time, introduced a round for female camel owners. Photo: AFP

Saudi women, in a first for the conservative kingdom, have paraded their camels in a beauty pageant for the prized ‘ships of the desert’.

“I hope today to reach a certain social standing, inshallah (God willing),” said Lamia al-Rashidi, 27, who took part in the weekend contest in the Rumah desert northeast of the capital Riyadh.

Camels are showcased in a parade during the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival. For the first time female camel owners can showcase their animals. Photo: AFP

The event formed part of the prestigious King Abdelaziz Festival, was previously a men-only affair.

“I’ve been interested in camels ever since I was little,” said Rashidi, whose family owns 40 camels.

“Once this event was opened to women, I decided to participate,” said the young woman, wearing a black face covering and with a colourful shawl over her shoulders.

Saudi camel owner Lamiaa al-Rashidi, 27, talks to reporters about her participation in the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival. Photo: AFP

The top five in the field of about 40 participants in the women’s event went home with total prize money of one million riyals (about US$260,000).

The camels’ beauty is judged on several criteria, but the shape and size of the lips, neck and hump are the main attributes.

In December, several participants were disqualified because their animals had undergone Botox injections.

WHAT A BUNCH OF CUTIES

Camels at the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival this weekend. Photo: AFP

In a parade at the event on the red sand track of Rumah, women in black on horseback rode ahead of men in white robes on camels as male musicians, some with swords, danced to the beat of drums.

The oil-rich Gulf state adheres to a rigid interpretation of Islam, but since the rise to power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, some restrictions on women have been lifted as the country opens up with sweeping reforms.

The shift has enabled women to get behind the wheel and take part in mixed-gender settings, even as a rigorous crackdown on dissent remains in place.

“Women have always been an integral part of Bedouin society. They owned and looked after camels,” said Mohammed al-Harbi, a manager of the festival.

Saudi ‘cameleers’ and horsewomen take part in a parade during the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Women’s participation was in keeping with “the historical heritage” of Saudi Arabia, he said.

Munira al-Mishkhas, another participant, said: “Camels have been a part of us for a long time, but staging a contest for us (women) is a big step forward.”

At just seven years old, Malath bint Enad was the youngest contestant and her animal won third prize.

Her proud father, a 35-year-old camel dealer who said he owns more than 200 beasts, was very pleased with the entrance of women.

“This will increase enthusiasm for the festival and increase the value of the camels,” said Enad bin Sultan, clad in traditional costume and red-and-white keffiyeh headdress.

The 40-day festival, which kicked off last month, is an annual Bedouin event that lures breeders from across the Gulf with total prize money of up to US$66 million.

Fire at Bangladesh Rohingya camp leaves thousands homeless


Thousands of people were left homeless after a fire gutted parts of a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, police said on Sunday.

© - A fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh raced through shelters, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless

About 850,000 of the persecuted Muslim minority -- many of whom escaped a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar that UN investigators concluded was executed with "genocidal intent" -- live in a network of camps in Bangladesh's border district of Cox's Bazar.

"About 1,200 houses were burnt in the fire," said Kamran Hossain, a spokesman for the Armed Police Battalion, which heads security in the camp.

The fire started at Camp 16 and raced through shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless, he said.

"The fire started at 4:40 pm (1040 GMT) and was brought under control at around 6:30 pm," he told AFP.

Abdur Rashid, 22, said the fire was so big that he ran for safety as his house and furniture were engulfed by the blaze.

"Everything in my house was burnt. My baby and wife were out. There were a lot of things in the house," he said.

"I saved 30,000 taka (350 dollars) from working as a day labourer The money was burnt in the fire.

"I am now under open sky. I lost my dream."

In March last year, 15 people died and about 50,000 were left homeless in Bangladesh after a huge fire destroyed Rohingya homes in the world's biggest refugee settlement.

Mohammad Yasin, 29, bemoaned the lack of fire safety equipment in the camps.

"Fire occurs here frequently. There was no way we could put out the fire. There was no water. My home is burnt. Many documents, which I brought from Myanmar, are also burnt. And it is cold here," he said.

Bangladesh has been praised for taking in refugees who poured across the border from Myanmar, but has had little success finding them permanent homes.

str-sa/dva

AFP

Tourists question blizzard tragedy in scenic Pakistan town

As unprecedented snowfall thawed at a popular Pakistan mountain resort on Sunday, rescued tourists were found reckoning with the deaths of 22 fellow travellers in a frozen traffic jam.


© Aamir QURESHI Stuck in their cars overnight after a blizzard in Pakistan, 22 people died from the cold or carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes
© Provided by AFP Twenty-two people died in an enormous traffic jam caused by tens of thousands of visitors thronging a Pakistani hill town to see unusually heavy snowfall

"We didn't get any type of alert from society, from the government, from Google, from the news, from the weather," said 18-year-old Duaa Kashif Ali, a tourist from Islamabad.

"Locals helped us," she told AFP, after emerging from a guesthouse where she waited out the worst snowstorm witnessed by Murree in decades.

The mountain-perch town -- 70 kilometres (45 miles) northeast of Islamabad -- has long been a favourite for tourists, who swarmed to see vistas dusted with fresh snowfall this week.



© Aamir QURESHI The mountain-perch town of Murree has long been a favourite for tourists who swarmed to see vistas dusted with fresh snowfall this week

Roads were jammed with traffic from some 100,000 visitors when a blizzard dumped four feet (1.2 metres) of snow from Friday onwards.

Stuck in their cars overnight, 22 people died from the cold or carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes. Among them were 10 children
.
© Aamir QURESHI Many Pakistanis complained on social media that hoteliers had pushed up prices to capitalise on stranded customers, prompting them to sleep in cars

"People here were literally weeping... when they heard," recalled 47-year-old tourist Kashif Ishaq.

As he spoke, a convoy of hulking heavy machinery cleared the ice-bitten roads behind him, ending two days of snowbound isolation for the satellite village of Ratti Gali.

Ishaq arrived here with his daughter Duaa Kashif Ali on Friday night.

Alongside 13 other family members and friends, they ditched three stranded cars and hiked 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) to where a guesthouse owner took them in.

"The locals really helped us," said Ishaq.

"They offered their services, they offered their homes, they offered their restaurants and hotels free of charge."

- A 'natural' disaster -

In nearby Kuldana, about 5,000 people were taken in at the Army School of Logistics on Friday night.

"It was like a natural disaster," said Major Muhammad Umar. "There was no electricity, no gas, no telephone, nothing working."

Eleven-year-old Arosh Yasir, warming up by a gas fire with his family, said they spent the night in their car on Friday before being rescued the following morning.

"Our food was cold and there was no way back or forward," he told AFP.

"I started crying and praying."

Many Pakistanis complained on social media that hoteliers had pushed up prices to capitalise on stranded customers, prompting them to sleep in cars.

Arosh said on Saturday hotels were "either very expensive or had no space", forcing them into the army camp.

On Sunday afternoon, the rescue effort had largely morphed to a repair and salvage operation, aided by steady sunshine winnowing away snowdrifts.

Workmen clambered mountainside pylons to knock free iced electricity wires, whilst others crowded around open car bonnets trying to coax engines back to life.

Some vehicles still remained abandoned under vast snowbanks, forcing ploughs to slalom the precarious mountain tracks.

Among clear spots in the ice were small scatterings of empty water bottles and snackfood packaging, marking where many tourists spent Friday night in their cars.

"It was my worst experience," said 21-year-old Aafia Ali, a visitor from Karachi among the party taking shelter at Ratti Gali.

Several Pakistani newspapers published scathing articles on Sunday, attacking authorities for failing to close off the area despite ample warning of heavy snow.

That sentiment was shared among those preparing to make their way off the mountain.

"The management of this area, they are responsible for this," said Aafia Ali.

jts/ecl/dva


AFP

Up to 1,000 vehicles stranded, at least 21 dead amid Pakistan snowstorm

By Adam Douty, AccuWeather & Coburn Swem, Accuweather.com

Pakistani army soldiers take part in rescue works after tourists died amid heavy snowfall in Murree, Pakistan, on Saturday. Photo by Pakistan Inter Services Public Relations/EPA-EFE

At least 21 people are dead after a heavy snowfall in northern Pakistan on Friday.

The snow trapped approximately 1,000 vehicles in and around the town of Murree, according to the BBC.

At least 10 children are apparently among the dead.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted that he was "shocked" and that the government would be ordering an inquiry into the incident.

Local authorities have declared the region a disaster zone and a special military mountain unit was called in to help.

More than 4 feet of snow fell in the area of the Murree Hills resort overnight Friday and early on Saturday, trapping thousands of cars on roadways, Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Al Jazeera.

Tourists reportedly rushed to watch the winter snowfall when the tragedy occurred. Many died of hypothermia after being trapped inside their vehicles.


The temperature dropped below minus 17 during the snowfall.

The event took place in Murree, a mountain resort town, located approximately 22 miles north of the country's capital of Islamabad in the mountainous northern region of the country.

The city is a large tourist area, and according to reporting from The New International, as many as 125,000 cars entered the city during the snowstorm which led to severe traffic jams.

The city attracts tourists each winter as people flock to the region to see snow, according to India Today.

"Around 23,000 vehicles have been evacuated safely from Murree. Around 1,000 are still stranded," according to Rawalpindi deputy commissioner.

A strong storm system brought heavy rain and snow across Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwest India late in the week and into the start of the weekend, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.

Observations from Murree show that about an inch of liquid fell in the city from Friday into Saturday.

"Assuming that the majority of this was snow, and using a simple conversion of 10 inches (25 cm) of snow for every inch of liquid, we can estimate that about 10 inches (25 cm) of snow fell," according to AccuWeather meteorologist Tyler Roys.

The same storm brought slightly over 2 inches of rain to Islamabad.

"Given the mountainous terrain across the region and heavier precipitation in nearby Islamabad, it is likely even heavier snow fell in some areas, especially at higher elevations, that led to such significant travel troubles" added Roys.

"There can still be light rain and snow across the region through the rest of the weekend," said Roys. "Though this is not expected to be heavy enough to bring a repeat of what was just seen."

This event followed a similar event early in the past week when motorists became stranded on Interstate 95 in Virginia.

 

WAGE THEFT
Iran judicial workers hold rare protests after promised wage hike refused

File photo of a protests in Tehran, Iran.

AFP, Tehran
Published: 09 January ,2022: 

Civil servants in one of Iran’s most powerful sectors, the judiciary, held rare demonstrations on Sunday against the government’s refusal to increase their pay.

Ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who assumed his post in August, had proposed a salary hike in the last weeks of his previous job as judicial chief.

But the new government which he leads changed its mind.

Hit by severe economic sanctions imposed since 2018 by the United States, Iran has seen its inflation rate surge to close to 60 percent.

Shargh, a newspaper representing the reformist viewpoint, on Sunday published video of a protest by hundreds of men and women in front of parliament in Tehran.

“If our problem is not resolved, we will shut down the justice system!” they chanted.

Another reformist paper, Arman Melli, reported: “Some judicial personnel organized rallies yesterday (Saturday) in most of the country’s cities to protest the rejection of the plan for parliament to increase their salaries.”

The demonstrators held up signs with slogans declaring that “justice workers are unable to support themselves” and decrying the “hypocrisy of the government and parliament.”

Meysam Latifi, head of the Administrative and Recruitment Affairs Organisation, angered judiciary employees with his remarks in parliament on Wednesday, when the increase was rejected.

“We are concerned about the demand to raise judicial salaries because that would lead to the same thing at other agencies,” he said.

Read more: Princeton scholar under fire for boasting about Iran threat against US over Soleimani

Dissident Iranian writer Baktash Abtin dies in detention after contracting Covid-19

Dissident Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin, who was serving a jail sentence in Tehran on security charges, has died after falling ill with Covid-19, rights groups said Saturday.

© Reporters Without Borders/Twitter

"Baktash Abtin has died," the Iranian Writers Association said in a statement on its Telegram channel after the author was put into an induced coma earlier in the week.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders confirmed the 48-year-old writer's death in a statement on Twitter, saying it blamed Iranian authorities for failing to save his life.

A respected poet and author of several books, Abtin was sentenced to five years in prison on May 15, 2019 on charges of “illegal assembly and collusion against national security” and one year for “spreading propaganda against the state”, in relation to his joint authorship of a book on the history of the Iranian Writers' Association, which has been critical of successive Iranian governments, according to the Dublin-based NGO, Front Line Defenders.

Unsafe prisons, writers muzzled

Along with fellow writers, Keyvan Bajan and Reza Khandan Mahabadi, Abtin had in September 2021 been given the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write award by writers' rights group PEN America.

On Friday, PEN America published an open letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei to demand "the best possible medical care" for Abatin as he battled for his life. "In addition, we urge that: he and all those unjustly detained for their writing or expression be immediately and unconditionally released; that authorities refrain from summoning political prisoners to serve their sentences while the conditions inside Evin and other Iranian prisons remain unsafe," said the letter.

There has been growing concern in recent months among activists over deaths of prisoners in detention in Iran, especially in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic which campaigners fear is raging in Iranian prisons.

Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), called for accountability over Abtin's death. "Baktash Abtin is dead because Iran's government wanted to muzzle him in jail," he said."This is a preventable tragedy. Iran's judiciary chief (Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie) must be held accountable," he added.

Amnesty International in September published a study accusing Iran of failing to provide accountability for at least 72 deaths in custody since January 2010, "despite credible reports that they resulted from torture or other ill-treatment".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Iran says only 12 Asiatic cheetahs left in the country

Issued on: 09/01/2022 


In this file photo taken on October 10, 2017, an Asiatic cheetah walks in an enclosure at the Pardisan Park in Tehran 

ATTA KENARE AFP/File

Tehran (AFP) – Iran is now home to only a dozen Asiatic cheetahs, the deputy environment minister said Sunday, describing the situation for the endangered species as "extremely critical".

"The measures we have taken to increase protection, reproduction, and the installation of road signs have not been enough to save this species," Hassan Akbari told Tasnim the news agency.

"There are currently only nine males and three females against 100 in 2010 and their situation is extremely critical," he added.

He said the animals had been victims of drought, hunters and car accidents, especially in the country's central desert where the last of them live.

The world's fastest land animal, capable of reaching speeds of 120 kilometres (74 miles) per hour, cheetahs once stalked habitats from the eastern reaches of India to the Atlantic coast of Senegal and beyond.

They are still found in parts of southern Africa, but have practically disappeared from North Africa and Asia.

The subspecies "Acinonyx jubatus venaticus", commonly known as the Asiatic cheetah, is critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Iran, one of the last countries in the world where the animals live in the wild, began a United Nations-supported protection program in 2001.

In 2014, the national football team emblazoned an image of the cheetah on its jerseys for the World Cup tournament.

© 2022 AFP

ATP Cup 2022: Canada stun defending champions Russia to make final

Russia face Spain on Sunday with a big task ahead against the unflappable Roberto Bautista Agut and his teammate Pablo Carreno Busta.

Agence France-PresseJanuary 08, 2022 

Felix Auger-Aliassime (R) and Denis Shapovalov (L) clinched the 

deciding doubles to beat Russia  in the ATP Cup semi-finals. AP

Sydney: Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov stunned defending champions Russia Saturday in a decisive doubles rubber to send Canada storming into an ATP Cup final against Spain.

Their Sydney showdown went to the wire after Shapovalov neutralised Roman Safiullin 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the opening singles match.

But world number two Daniil Medvedev then thrashed 11th-ranked Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-0 to level it up with a flawless performance in an ominous warning ahead of the Australian Open later this month.

It forced the match into a doubles shootout which looked to be going Russia's way only for Canada to find an extra gear and grind out a 4-6, 7-5, 10-7 win to make their first final in the team event.

They face Spain on Sunday with a big task ahead against the unflappable Roberto Bautista Agut and his teammate Pablo Carreno Busta.

They are both in hot form, each winning all four of their singles encounters so far.

Mother Teresa Charity In India Gets Back Access To Foreign Funds

By AFP News
01/08/22 

The Indian government renewed permission for late Catholic nun Mother Teresa's charity to receive foreign funds, weeks after rejecting it, the organisation said Saturday.

On Christmas Day the Narendra Modi government moved to cut off foreign funding to the Missionaries of Charity and refused to renew its licence under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Charities and non-profit firms need to register under FCRA to receive money from abroad.

"The FCRA application has now been renewed," Sunita Kumar, a close aide to Mother Teresa, told AFP.

The Missionaries of Charity, which runs shelter homes across India, was founded in 1950 by the late Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who devoted most of her life to helping the poor in the eastern city of Kolkata.

Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize and was later declared a saint 

Photo: AFP / Dibyangshu SARKAR

She won the Nobel Peace Prize and was later declared a saint.

India's home ministry issued a statement in December saying it was rejecting the renewal application because the charity did not meet "eligibility conditions" and that "adverse inputs were noticed".

Last week, Oxfam India said the Indian government had blocked its access to international funds, a move which it said would have severe consequences for its humanitarian work.

The Modi government has been accused of cutting off access to funding of charities and rights groups in the country.

Amnesty International announced in 2020 that it was halting operations in India after the government froze its bank accounts.

DR Congo park fetes birth of endangered gorilla species

AFP - 

© DOUGLAS MAGNO


A lowland gorilla, a critically endangered species, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo's famed Virunga National Park, authorities said.

Conservationists have long sought to protect the world heritage site's gorilla population even as violence and instability has plagued the DRC's eastern provinces over 25 years.

"We're excited to announce the first lowland gorilla birth of the year! Rangers discovered the newborn during a patrol in the Tshiaberimu area yesterday," park authorities tweeted late Friday.

"Rangers are working hard to safeguard this vulnerable population which now stands at seven individuals," it added.

The global population of lowland gorillas has plunged from around 17,000 to fewer than 6,000 today and they continue to experience a rate of decline of 5 percent per year, according to the park.

They are often illegally hunted for bushmeat.

Seventeen mountain gorillas -- a close cousin of the lowland gorilla -- were born in the park last year.

Situated on Democratic Republic of Congo's borders with Rwanda and Uganda, Virunga covers around 7,800 square kilometres (3,000 square miles) of the North Kivu province, of which Goma is the capital.

Inaugurated in 1925, it is the oldest nature reserve in Africa and a sanctuary for the rare mountain gorillas, which are also present in neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda.

Virunga has also become a hideout for local and foreign armed groups that have operated in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for around 25 years.

gm-at/ach/ah

Jailed Palestinian activist lands in France after Egypt release

Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath arrived in France Saturday after almost two-and-a-half years in detention in Egypt, after his family said he had to renounce his Egyptian nationality.

The 48-year-old was a figure of the 2011 uprising in Egypt and the coordinator of the Egyptian chapter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

An AFP correspondent saw the activist walk out of Charles De Gaulle Airport outside Paris with his French wife, Celine Lebrun.

Shaath said finally being free was "a bit overwhelming".

"I spent the last two-and-a-half years in between a few prisons, a few forced disappearance spots, some of them underground, some of them solely, some of them with huge numbers of people in a very inhumane way of treatment," he said.


© JULIEN DE ROS

AShaath's wife, French national Lebrun, was deported from Egypt shortly after her husband's arrest in July 2019 on charges of aiding a terrorist organisation

His family said earlier that the son of veteran Palestinian politician Nabil Shaath was on his way to Paris, adding that they were "relieved and overjoyed" at his release after 900 days of "arbitrary detention" by the Egyptians.

But "we regret that they forced Ramy to renounce his Egyptian citizenship as a precondition for his release that should have been unconditional after two and a half years of unjust detention under inhumane conditions," the family said in a statement.

"No one should have to choose between their freedom and their citizenship," they said.

Shaath was released on Thursday evening.

The Egyptian authorities later handed him over to a representative of the Palestinian Authority at Cairo airport, where he took a flight to Amman, the Jordanian capital, before heading onward to Paris, his family said.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter saluted the Egyptian decision to free Shaath.

"I share the relief of his wife," he wrote.

"Thank you to everyone who has played a positive role in this happy outcome."

Shaath's wife was deported from Egypt shortly after her husband's arrest in July 2019 on charges of aiding a "terrorist organisation".

In April 2020, Egypt placed him on a terror list alongside 12 other people.

"They charged me with many things," said the freed activist.

"They told me one day, 'You are accused of being part of a terrorist organisation.' And I asked the guy: 'What was the terrorist organization?' He said: 'Well, we are not going to tell you.'"

In December, five human rights groups had called on Macron to pressure Egypt to release Shaath.

Macron had previously addressed his detention in a news conference in Paris with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in December 2020.

Egypt's space for dissent has been severely restricted since Sisi took office in 2014.

Rights groups say Egypt is holding some 60,000 political prisoners, many facing brutal conditions and overcrowded cells.

Egypt ranks in the lowest group on the Global Public Policy Institute's Academic Freedom Index.

jf/ah/

AFP