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  • UNWTO: International tourism – strongest half-year results since 2010

    AFGHANISTAN, 2017/09/09 Destinations worldwide welcomed 598 million international tourists in the initial six months of 2017, some 36 million additional than in the same period of 2016. At 6%, increase was well above the trend of recent years, making the current January-June period the strongest half-year since 2010. Visitor numbers reported by destinations around the world reflect strong request for international travel in the initial half of 2017, according to the new UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. Worldwide, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) increased by 6% compared to the same six-month period last year, well above the sustained and consistent trend of 4% or higher increase since 2010. This represents the strongest half-year in seven years.
  • Ramadan TV dramas get inspiration from Syria war

    SYRIA, 2017/09/03 The sound of the blast in Syria's capital Damascus brought worried residents running, but rather than carnage they found a crew filming one of the country's famed television drama series. Moments before, director Rasha Sharbatgi had been wielding her loudhailer, calling for silence before counting down to the controlled explosion. Onlookers arriving at the set near Arnus Square in central Damascus found a burning car and people lying on the ground.
  • Illicit antiquities trade threatening cultural heritage

    IRAQ, 2017/09/03 Besides the illicit trade of weapons and drugs, smugglers in the Mid­dle East and North Africa have found a lucrative business in trafficking antiquities.Lost treasures. A fragment of an Assyrian-era relief is seen at the ancient site of Nimrud that was destroyed by the Islamic National fighters near Mosul. The smuggling of ancient arte­facts to wealthy clients around the world has spiked in the last decade, with experts warning that the re­gion’s archaeological heritage is in peril.
  • ‘I was sold seven times': the Yazidi women welcomed back into the faith

    IRAQ, 2017/07/02 No one wears shoes in Lalish. The village is so sacred that all visitors must walk its paths barefoot. Perched at the top of a narrow valley, in the parched, scrubby hills of northern Iraq, close to the Kurdish border, its cluster of shrines are a revered site for followers of the Yazidi faith. At the heart of Lalish is a pool of water sheltered by a small cave, its entrance shaded by mulberry trees and watched by a guardian in a red turban. This is the “holy white spring”, where newborns must be brought for baptism, the waters mixed with the Lalish soil for the rites of marriage, birth and death. For generations, the rituals carried out at the spring had been unchanged. But two years ago, groups of women, usually silent, often with young children, began joining the families filtering in and out of the cave.
  • Policy Differences Emerge Among Gulf States Days After Wooing President Trump

    BAHRAIN, 2017/05/29 Cracks have appeared in a Saudi-led, US-backed anti-terrorist political and military alliance days next US President Donald J. Trump ended a historic visit to Saudi Arabia. The cracks stem from Qatar’s long-standing fundamental policy differences with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about Iran and the role of political Islam. The cracks emerged as the result of an anti-Qatar media and cyber campaign involving a spate of anti-Qatar articles in US and Gulf media; the blocking of Qatar-backed media websites and broadcasts in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt; statements by prominent former US government officials; and a recent seminar by the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies that has long asserted that Qatar supports militant groups.
  • Syria to Ration Imports to Rein in Soaring Foreign Exchange Rates

    SYRIA, 2017/05/28 Next three years of intervention by the central bank to sell foreign currency on the domestic market, the Syrian government has decided to back up its intervention with economic measures, rationing non-urgent imports to rein in the increasing drop in the exchange rate of the Syrian pound. Damascus — Barely hours next the Syrian government declared that it would be implementing new measures to control the exchange rate of the Syrian pound, the exchange rate of the US dollar soared on the black market, nearly hitting 254 Syrian pounds. This was seen as a preemptive move by speculators, intending, according to observers, to chief off any positive results from the new measures and to impose a new level for the exchange rate on the central bank, as has happened before.
  • Higher earning Why a university degree is worth more in some countries than others

    AFGHANISTAN, 2016/12/11 A university education may expand your mind. It will as well fatten your wallet. Data from the OECD, a club of rich nations, show that graduates can expect far better lifetime earnings than those without a degree. The size of this premium varies. It is greatest in Ireland, which has a high GDP per chief and rising inequality. Since 2000 the unemployment rate for under-35s has swelled to 8% for those with degrees – but to additional than 20% for those without, and nearly 40% for secondary school drop-outs. The country’s wealth presently goes disproportionately to workers with letters next their names.
  • Europe's deal with Turkey fails to deter migrant attempts for now

    EUROPEAN UNION, 2016/03/10
  • Turkey: Syrian Journalist Who Exposed Islamic State Atrocities Assassinated

    SYRIA, 2016/01/03 A prominent Syrian journalist and filmmaker, who produced anti-Islamic National documentaries was gunned down by unknown assailants in broad daylight in Gaziantep, Turkey. This is the third assassination of a journalist in the country over the last three months. Naji Jerf, editor-in-chief of the Hentah monthly, known for his documentaries describing violence and abuses on Islamic National-controlled territories (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) was shot and killed near a building housing Syrian independent media outlets in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. His death was originally reported by a group of citizen journalists he was working with.
  • Education is central to the planting of this next, Syria

    SYRIA, 2015/11/30 Annette was a young girl of 10 at the same time as I met her in a refugee camp in southwest Uganda. She had recently fled war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Surrounded by ongoing fighting in the camp, with not enough to eat, her family torn apart, she retained a bright smile. I any minute at this time understood why. “Education will lead me to my dreams for the next,” she told me. Each day, she put on her bright pink uniform and went to school. Like most refugees, Annette hoped, and truly believed, that she would any minute at this time return to her home country. That was until the day her father planted bananas around their compound. Bananas are a long-to-mature crop—you only plant them at the same time as you know you will be remaining somewhere for a long time. For most Syrians in exile, the time has come, metaphorically, to plant bananas.