Page 85 - Empty Quarter News Today

DUBAI: Despite its best efforts throughout 2020 to bring the scourge of desert locusts under control, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that swarms of the crop-eating insects now pose an even greater threat to agricultural and pastoral livelihoods and the food security of millions from the Horn of Africa to Yemen. Last month, FAO said favorable weather conditions and widespread seasonal rains had led to an explosion in locust breeding in eastern Ethiopia and Somalia — made ...

Saudi Tourism Authority launches new packages for winter RIYADH, January 27, 2021 In cooperation with the National Center for Wildlife, the Saudi Tourism Authority has launched new tourism packages as part of the Saudi Arabian Winter Season, offering tourists the opportunity to enjoy three nature reserves - Uruq Bani Ma’arid Reserve, Saja and Umm Al Ramth Reserve, and Farasan Islands Reserve, said a report.   Through this step, the Authority provides an opportunity to embark on an explora...

The capital of the United Arab Emirates has come a long way from its pearling town roots. With a magnificent outpost of the Louvre, head-turning Islamic architecture, and a new cultural park sited on Abu Dhabi’s original settlement, there is plenty here for visitors to admire — and that’s before they even venture into the fantastical desert on the city’s doorstep. The main swimming pool at Qasr al Sarab, Anantara’s desert resort on the edge of the Rub’ al Khali. It...

It appears not one but two big film units have landed in the UAE to shoot for their respective projects. While Gulf News reported a day earlier that Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khans film ‘Pathan’ was being shot in Downtown Dubai, it now appears Tom Cruise has arrived on these shores once again to bring yet another instalment of ‘Mission: Impossible’. Mission Impossible 7 Image Credit: IMDB While Cruise’s trip has been hush-hush, there have been sightings of the...

The UAE has seen a spate of Hollywood and Bollywood stars arrive in recent days 1 of 15 Hollywood star Tom Cruise, along with his film crew and director of ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ or ‘MI7’, have been spotted in Abu Dhabi this week. While Cruise’s trip has been hush-hush, there have been sightings of the actor in the UAE capital, with the director of the film, Christopher McQuarrie, also posting a series of images from what appears to be Abu Dhabi’s Rub Al Khali or ...

Travel photographers Emilie Ristevski and Jason Charles Hill are no strangers to the unexpected. Their professional and personal partnership has taken them from the icy glaciers of Greenland, to the rarity of a flooded Namibian valley and this year, to their home in Queensland where they find themselves eyeballing the sea turtles and reef sharks of the Great Barrier and Mackay reef one day, and standing at the foot of Lamington National Parks seven thousand year old Antarctic trees the next. Ev...

STA launches new packages to visit three nature reserves January 25, 2021 In cooperation with the National Center for Wildlife, the Saudi Tourism Authority announced the launch of new tourism packages as part of the Saudi Arabian Winter Season to offer tourists the opportunity to enjoy three nature reserves. In cooperation with the National Center for Wildlife, the Saudi Tourism Authority announced the launch of new tourism packages as part of the...

Hunting banned within natural reserves, development projects such as NEOM, Red Sea Hunting the Arabian oryx is prohibited in Saudi Arabia. Image Credit: Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia authoritieshave warned against violating hunting rules that prohibiting hunting, harming endangered wild creatures, or publishing video clips and pictures about these practices, local media reported. This came in a joint statement from Special Forces for Environmental Security and the Nat...

But, this time, UAE residents were not wrong. And thats thanks to a high-pressure system building over Siberia. The result: A "cold mass" coming from the northeast into the Arabian peninsula. Coldest January we have ever seen: -2°C It is, in fact, colder than usual. "While it is too early to conclude whether we are experiencing the coldest winter in the UAE, right now, it is certainly the coldest January we have ever seen," a National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) official told Gulf News. T...

Text Size: A+ Saudi Arabia’s decision last week to deliver a surprise cut of 1 million barrels a day in its crude production shocked the oil market. In abandoning a policy of collective responsibility and letting other members of the OPEC+ grouping increase output while reducing its own, the kingdom took the entire burden of balancing supply and demand on its shoulders. While choking off its own oil wells, Saudi Arabia is offering frenemies like Russia (and enemies like Iran) a chance to ...