With a swimming time of 8 hours and 30 minutes, Baraka secured a Guinness record for setting the “fastest time to swim the length of the Aqaba Gulf.”
Moroccan swimmer Hassan Baraka has set a Guinness World Record for being the first person in the world to swim across the Gulf of Aqaba, northeastern arm of the Red Sea between Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula.
source/content: moroccoworldnews.com
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MOROCCO
A tasty Guinness World Record was broken at Expo 2020 Dubai , four days after the initial attempt was postponed due to a tropical storm in the region.
A warm, sweet scent filled the air inside the Swedish Pavilion at the world’s fair, as an attempt to create the world’s “longest cinnamon bun train” got under way.
Fifteen hundred sticky and delicious buns, made from about 6kg of butter, 11kg of sugar and 36kg of flour, were placed in a spiral pattern on a large circular table.
All ingredients used to make and connect the buns – which were comically referred to as the “original gangsters of Swedish bakery” by the chefs – had to be edible, so no glue, tape or sticks were used.
“To bake our way into the record books is a testament to the hard work, agility and dedication that you see every day in our 22 cake shops,” said Tushar Fotedar, a director at Mister Baker.
The world record commemorates Fika, which is a Swedish social phenomenon that brings together colleagues, family members and friends over coffee and pastries.
source/content: thenationalnews.com
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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E) / SWEDISH PAVILION @ Expo2020Dubai
Dr. Sima Sami Bahous (aka) Sima Bahous. Diplomat. Leader.
Sima Bahous is one of the highest highest ranking officials from the Arab world in the UN system.
Secretary-General António Guterres described Sima Sami Bahous of Jordan, as “a champion for women and girls”, announcing on Monday her appointment to lead the UN’s gender equality and empowerment entity, UN Women.
Ms. Bahous brings to the job more than 35 years of leadership experience at the grassroots, national, regional and international level.
Most recently, Ms. Bahous served as Jordan’s UN ambassador in New York.
Prior to that, she was the Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) from 2012 to 2016 and Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Social Development Sector at the League of Arab States, from 2008 to 2012.
The new UN Women chief has also served in two ministerial posts in Jordan as President of the Higher Media Council from 2005 to 2008 and as Adviser to King Abdullah II from 2003 to 2005.
She has also worked for UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, and with a number of UN and civil society organizations, as well as teaching development and communication studies at different universities in her native Jordan.
She is fluent in Arabic and English, and proficient in French.
source/content : www.news.un.org
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JORDAN
Lina Ghotmeh. Humanist Architect . Founder of Lina Ghotmeh – Architecture, France
French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh recently received the “Tamayouz” prize, which rewards the excellence of women architects in the Middle East and North Africa.
An additional recognition for this architect, who has won several other international awards.
www.linaghotmeh.com
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FRENCH / LEBANESE
Rashed Al Qemzi
It was Al Qemzi’s fourth successive Grand Prix win in Portugal
Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Qemzi secured his third UIM F2 world championship title on Sunday with an emphatic victory in the Grand Prix of Portugal.
Starting from pole position, the brilliant Emirati driver completely dominated the final round of the series at Vila Velha de Ródão, winning by the commanding margin of 8.686 seconds against Duarte Benavente, the defending world champion.
It was Al Qemzi’s fourth successive Grand Prix win in Portugal and his second taste of world title glory this season following July’s endurance championship success in Polamd.
Italian powerboat racing legend Guido Cappellini has now landed 13 world titles since taking charge as Team Abu Dhabi manager in February 2015.
source/content: khaleejtimes.com
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ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E)
Dana Ballout, the Lebanese-American Emmy-nominated producer of “Trafficked with Mariana Zeller,” knows the exact moment she started paying attention to what was going on in the world. It was February 14, 2005.
Ballout was a senior in high school in Beirut, and as she sat in class that Valentine’s Day morning, a bomb went off just down the block, sending the building’s shatter-proof windows into convulsions. Lebanon’s recently-resigned prime minster, Rafic Hariri, had been assassinated.
She spent years covering the war in Syria as a reporter for outlets including The Wall Street Journal, but it was in podcasts and documentaries that she fully found her voice, allowing her to journey in depth into people’s lives in a way she never could before.
Ballout is a storyteller, but the stories she chooses to tell are ones that few are brave enough to tell. Often they can be harrowing, including the latest documentary she co-produced, “Groomed,” which follows a woman returning to her hometown in search of answers about the man who abused her as a child.
In “Trafficked,” recently renewed for a third season at National Geographic, Ballout and company travel across the world to profile the global underworld, sitting down with the titans of illegal industries such as scamming, steroids, counterfeiting and poaching.
source/content : arabnews.com
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AMERICAN / LEBANESE
Rawdah Mohamed. Somali Origin – Norwegian. Social media influencer, model, blogger, activist, healthcare professional.
Mohamed landed the role as Vogue Scandinavia’s Norway fashion editor earlier this year.
The magazine launched last week with Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg on the front cover.
At the beginning of her modeling career, Mohamed juggled the job with working with autistic people and people with different mental disabilities.
She continues to volunteer in mental health care to this day and has been working with patients at overstretched hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
source/content: arabnews.com
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NORWAY / SOMALIA
On January 17, 2021, the Tunisian freediver Walid Boudhiaf acheived a new world record in the variable weight modality of the International Association for the Development of Apnea (AIDA), in the waters of Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.
Walid made a dive of -150 meters in variable weight Apnea, in which the freediver dives with the help of a sled and ascends with his own effort with the impulse of his arms or by flapping flapping, surpassing the previous mark of -146m that had the Greek Stavros Kastrinakis since November 2015.
The official information of the announcement of the world record is published in the official website of AIDA International WR Attempt Sharm FIM WR Attempt Sharm VWT.
source/content: carthagemagazine.com
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TUNISIA
His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb and His Holiness Pope Francis have received their respective Zayed Award for Human Fraternity trophies.
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity is an independent global award recognising individuals and entities who are making profound contributions to human progress and peaceful coexistence.
The award was established in February 2019 to mark the historic meeting between Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Professor Ahmed Al-Tayeb, in Abu Dhabi, where the two religious leaders signed the historic Document on Human Fraternity – under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan , Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and patron of human fraternity – and became the first honourary recipients of the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity.
The trophies were presented by Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso, meeting chairperson of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity (HCHF) and Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam, Secretary-General of HCHF.
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity is named in honour of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Founder of the United Arab Emirates. The values the award celebrates reflect Sheikh Zayed’s dedication to working closely with people from all backgrounds, his moral legacy, humanitarianism, and respect for others and helping them, regardless of their religion, gender, race, or nationality.
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity is decided every year by an independent judging committee, appointed by the HCHF. Earlier this week, members of the 2022 judging committee held meetings with Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, in Vatican City and Rome, respectively.
The independent Zayed Award for Human Fraternity 2022 judging committee includes Mahamadou Issoufou, former president of Niger and winner of the 2020 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership; José Ramos-Horta, the 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of East Timor; Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Deputy President of South Africa and former UN Under-Secretary-General; Cardinal Michael Czerny, Under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Holy See; Dr. Leah Pisar, president of the Aladdin Project; and Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam, Secretary General of the Higher Committee on Human Fraternity (HCHF).
www.zayedaward.org
source/content: wam.ae
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EGYPT
I Was a French Muslim: Memories of an Algerian Freedom Fighter.
pproachable writing and a refreshing perspective bring his story to life in “I Was a French Muslim,” released in September by Other Press.
Mokhtefi’s memoir was translated and prepared for publication posthumously by his widow, an American painter and author. After independence, the couple lived in Algeria, where they liaised with the Black Panthers and leading Algerian figures such as former presidents Houari Boumediene, and Ahmed Ben Bella.
His story begins with his formative years as a child in a small town in Algeria. He slowly moves toward becoming a revolutionary within the National Liberation Front (FLN), and he goes out of his way to note the French colonial figures who played a role in his formative years and in supporting his education. Some were French priests, members of the worker-priest movement who supported the Algerian cause.
Mokhtefi was a pious Muslim, but it is clear from his text that he was also enamored with French culture and ideals. Yet as a child growing up in French Algeria, it was painfully clear to him that French colonialists were hypocritical in their application of the ideals of their society. It is this duality that is expressed in the title.
Given recent events, this book offers both important context and a unique narrative on perhaps the most important event in the Francophone Arab world in the 20th century.
source/content: arabnews.com
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ALGERIA / USA