Indian Government has put in emergency measures to check the increased air pollution level in National Capital as air quality slipped from ‘very poor’ to ‘hazardous’ on Friday. The state’s Pollution Control Body has been directed to initiate criminal prosecution against violators while the Delhi government said, “It is fully prepared to implement odd-even scheme when needed.”

 

A nine-year-old Moroccan girl on Tuesday won $136,000 (120,000 euros) in an Arabic-language reading competition organized by the Dubai government.

 

Maryam Amjoun beat 16 other finalists all aged under 18 from across the Arab world to land the top prize in the third annual Arab Reading Challenge.

 

Organizers said that this years literacy initiative -- in which competitors have to read at least 50 books to qualify -- saw “10.5 million students from the Arab region and worldwide” take part.

The Ministry of Haj and Umrah has said 835,910 visas were issued for Umrah pilgrims (mutamirs) until Wednesday, Oct. 31. It said 547,392 pilgrims already arrived in the Kingdom since the beginning of the current Umrah season and 271,020 of them have left Saudi Arabia after completing the ritual.

 

The number of pilgrims still in the Kingdom is 276,372 pilgrims, with 185,484 pilgrims in Makkah and 90,888 in Madinah, according to the ministry’s weekly data.

 

Four movies from Iranian directors are among the 100 greatest foreign-language films, a BBC poll showed.

 

Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning drama “A Separation” (2011) is the 21st in the ranking based on the poll published on Tuesday.

 

Abbas Kiarostami’s “Close-Up” (1990), “Where Is the Friend’s Home?” (1987) and “Taste of Cherry” (1997) took the 39th, 94th, and 97th places respectively. 

 

Germany may be Europe’s biggest and strongest economy and is enjoying record employment, but one fifth of its citizens are struggling to make ends meet, a new study reveals.

Some 15.5 million people or 19 percent of the population in Germany were “at risk of poverty” or “social exclusion” in 2017, the Federal Statistics Office said.

 

 

A study of attitudes towards Israel in the UK has found that 49 percent of Britons have an unfavourable view of Israel.

 

The annual poll of UK attitudes about Israel was conducted by the Populus polling company and was commissioned by an Israel lobby group, the British Israel Communications and Research Center (BICOM).

 

More than 87,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their country since July, Lebanese authorities said Friday.

 

In a statement, Lebanon’s General Security Directorate said approximately 80,000 refugees had voluntarily returned to Syria -- with the Security Directorate’s help -- within the last three months alone.

 

Another 7,670 Syrians, the statement added, were repatriated over the same period in coordination with the Damascus regime.

 

The number of abortions has decreased by almost 30 percent in Russia over the past five years, but is still high, Russian Deputy Health Minister Oleg Salagay said on Friday.

 

More than 4,000 visitors, mostly buyers and sellers of halal products and services, from 40 countries, as well as over 75 companies from 15 countries, attended the 10th Halal Expo Dubai, which opened yesterday (October 29) in Dubai, UAE.

 

The two-day expo kicked off just two months after Duai Islamic Economy Development Centre recognised the show as part of the Islamic Economy Week.

 

Muslim travel industry could generate USD 36 billion and have a positive impact in the Middle East’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) until 2020. If confirmed, the forecast would represent a surge of 21% over the USD 29.7 billion registered in 2017, according to a study by Salam Standard, the online halal hospitality rating system, that is, Muslim-friendly. The Islamic tourism industry should create 1.2 million jobs in the region until 2020, more than twice of the current 528,000 jobs. The information was published by the website of Dubai-based magazine Arabian Business.