News

ABU DHABI / WAM The Zakat Fund has offered aid valued at AED86.3 million to 5,109 eligible families since the start of 2020. The number of new cases reached 2,764 families affected by the coronavirus crisis, with 93.3 percent being eligible for Zakat. Abdullah bin Aqeedah Al Muhairi, Secretary-General of the Zakat Fund, said that the fund receives Zakat requests ...

SHARJAH / WAM Under the patronage of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, Engineer Salah Bin Butti Al Muhairi, Adviser to the Sharjah Department of Town Planning and Survey, inaugurated the Khorfakkan Monument, designed to be a traditional Arabian Incense Burner Statue, to be a symbol of “Mabkhara” and built ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi has shared detailed guidelines with the emirate’s hotels in preparation for granting approvals to reopen the establishments’ restaurants, lounges, beaches, pools and gyms. Having closed due to health and safety precautionary measures imposed to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, hotels will now be able to ...

ABU DHABI / WAM In collaboration with the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), UAE’s largest healthcare network, has announced receiving more than 60,000 calls via the Estijaba hotline in March and April with enquiries, comments and appointment or screening requests related to Covid-19 since the outbreak of virus in the UAE. During this ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE on Monday sent an aid plane carrying five metric tons of medical supplies to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The aid will assist approximately 5,000 medical professionals as they work to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Commenting on the aid delivery, Hazza Mohammed Al Qahtani, UAE Ambassador to Rwanda, remarked, “The provision of aid today ...

NEW YORK / WAM UAE emphasised the importance of implementing confidence-building measures and for Member States that have experience in implementing existing cyber norms to share their lessons learned best practices in a UN Security Council meeting on cyber stability, capacity building and conflict prevention. “Although the digital environment is increasingly being used for malicious activity, we should not lose ...

Bloomberg European Union (EU) governments are trying to forge a consensus over how to provide aid to the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With France and, crucially, Germany proposing a jointly-financed recovery fund to help the region cushion the blow from the steepest recession in living memory, the outcome of the talks could determine the bloc’s future direction ...

Bloomberg Former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble backed the European Union’s (EU) proposed 500 billion-euro ($545 billion) economic-recovery plan, adding a key voice to a standoff with EU countries focusing on fiscal austerity. The comments by Schaeuble, who remains influential within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, suggest he’s gearing up to play a role when the package ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s unemployment rate rose more than expected in April as the effects of the Covid-19 crisis continued to wreak havoc across the Nordic region’s biggest economy. The seasonally-adjusted jobless measure increased to 7.9% from 6.7% a month earlier, Statistics Sweden reported. Economists were expecting a rate of 7.8%, according to the median of seven estimates from a Bloomberg survey. ...

Bloomberg Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the car-rental company which filed for bankruptcy, said the collapse in air travel amid the coronavirus hit its biggest source of rental revenue. “The overall impact of the Covid-19 crisis devastated our revenue,” according to a court filing signed by Jamere Jackson, an executive vice president and chief financial officer of Hertz. The company, whose ...