CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said that Aziz Al-Ahmadi’s imprisonment sentence is part of a broader campaign of intimidation against journalists in Yemen where “legal tools are being weaponized to silence critical reporting on local issues.” He also urged authorities to allow journalists to work freely without fear of retaliation CPJ indicated that it had contacted local authorities regarding Al-Ahmadi’s case but hadn’t yet received a response Bank of England granted political independence Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from US “Pakistan: 36 members of persecuted Ahmadi community arrested for animal sacrifice on Eid al-Adha,” by Aveek Banerjee, India TV, June 18, 2024: The Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan, which represents the minority community in the country, accused authorities of preventing Ahmadis from offering their religious rites within the confinement of their homes during Eid and detaining people with their sacrificial animals, citing grave violations of human rights. “At least 36 members of the minority Ahmadi community have been arrested for offering sacrificial animals for slaughter on Eid-ul Adha in the country mostly in Punjab province,” Amir Mahmood, an official of the organisation, told news agency PTI. “Preventing Ahmadis from offering their religious rites within the confinement of four walls is a grave violation of their human rights as well as a clear violation of the judgements by the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he added. Halliburton Company and the National Energy Services Reunited Corporation (NESR) to develop Al Ahmadi innovation valley a leading initiative in the field of digital transformation each of the five corporations will set up a world-class research center at Al Ahmadi innovation valley to offer solutions to KOC in the areas of exploration for "Al Ahmadi innovation valley is designed to be one of the national assets aiming to push the energy sector forward," remarked its CEO Ahmad Jaber Al Eidan after signing the deals with the global energy majors Baker Hughes was represented at the signing ceremony by its Executive Vice President of Oilfield Services and Equipment Amerino Gatti SLP Oilfield Services by Managing Director Kareem Al Sayed Halliburton Company by Board Chairman and CEO Jeff Miller Weatherford by Country Director Ashutosh Panchal and NESR by Chairman and CEO Sherif Foda Al Eidan said the two will work to optimize production through cutting edge artificial lift solve challenges on KOC’s technology roadmap develop Kuwait’s national research capabilities and enhance local expertise and Promote economic growth and employment in the country KOC is building an integrated system that could help achieve the company's targets for technological excellence and sustainable energy It will be a big stride towards strengthening Kuwait's status as a regional poser in the fields of energy and digital transformation Copyright 2024 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info) Get insights and exclusive content from the world of business and finance that you can trust Mamdouh Dakhel Al-Ahmadi has been named chief of cardiovascular surgery of DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan He joins the hospital from King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadhm where he served as deputy director of the heart center and head of the section of cardiac surgery “I am honored and humbled by this appointment,” says Al-Ahmadi “I appreciate the confidence placed in me to assist in leading this department at Children’s Hospital of Michigan which is so critical to children and families in the city of Detroit and southeast Michigan.” The Children’s Hospital of Michigan is dedicated to providing high quality care to children and adolescents in a caring It has more than 40 pediatric medical and surgical specialty services and draws patients from every Michigan county Al-Ahmadi has tremendous pediatric surgical experience and extensive training,” says Kathy Donovan “He will make a great addition to our cardiovascular surgical team as he demonstrates the attributes that are valued by all of the staff at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.” Al-Ahmadi obtained his general surgical training from George Washington University and then went on to complete his fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery from the University of Louisville and an additional fellowship in congenital cardiac surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Al-Ahmadi will help lead our nationally ranked pediatric heart program to new heights and enhance our standing as the leader in providing the most advanced medical and surgical critical care available to pediatric heart patients in metro Detroit,” says Donovan The appointment is part of the ongoing commitment in continuing to enhance and grow the DMC heart program where compassionate and high-quality care is delivered in a unique and collaborative environment The hospital has been serving the community for more than 130 years Kuwait National Petroleum Corp. (KNPC) has started production of ultralow-sulfur diesel (ULSD) at its 466,000-b/d Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, about 28 miles south of Kuwait City on the Persian Gulf, as part of Kuwait’s ongoing Clean Fuels Project (CFP) at KNPC refineries (OGJ Online, Apr. 17, 2014) the new clean-diesel production unit can produce 45,000 b/d of ULSD the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported KNPC said estimated diesel production from the new unit will have a sulfur content of about 10 ppm One of many new units planned for the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery as part of the CFP the ULSD unit forms part of KNPC’s strategy to meet growing demand on local and international markets for cleaner and more sustainable fuels according to the operator’s latest sustainability report to investors KNPC also recently commissioned the first diesel production unit at its 270,000-b/d Mina Abdullah refinery in southern Kuwait With start-up of the new 73,000-b/d U-216 unit now completed KNPC said it expects ULSD production at Mina Abdullah refinery to reach 146,000 b/d following completion of the new U-116 unit already under construction as part of the complex’s CFP expansion work Capacity of the new refinery at Al Zour in southern Kuwait which will mainly supply low-sulfur fuel to Kuwaiti power plants and yield products for export Previously scheduled for start-up by yearend 2019 the refinery recently received the final 8,600-tonne module shipment for the project from Fluor Corp joint venture COOEC-Fluor Heavy Industries Co COOEC-Fluor delivered 188 modules—a key component in KIPIC’s overall execution strategy for the refining complex—in 20 separate shipments with a combined weight of 65,000 tonnes manufactured more than 95,000 pipe spools of carbon and stainless-steel pipe which will be installed by the project team at the site A definitive timeframe for Al-Zour’s start-up As part of the CFP downstream initiative, KNPC also shuttered its aging 200,000-b/d Shuaiba refinery on Apr. 1, 2017, (OGJ Online, July 31, 2017) Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University Al Ahmadi will be responsible for the firm’s operations in Saudi Arabia and neighboring GCC countries and will report directly to Kelli Vukelic “Saudi Arabia is growing rapidly and we are acutely aware of the challenges facing clients in the region and leadership challenges are at the core of Saudi Arabia’s 2030 plan for the future We added Waleed Al Ahmadi and his team to support our clients Al Ahmadi’s expansive professional experience will allow N2Growth to support clients while addressing these challenges head-on.” Waleed was the Managing Director of Change Actions and Managing Partner for Signium His expertise lies in human resource transformations He is also a certified AIM instructor and has experience with different Change Management and HR methodologies Waleed is also a member of Al Jaber Holding NRC and Head of Al Jaber Financing NRC; he is responsible for recommending and selecting executive leadership roles based on SAMA’s specifications and the organizational strategy requirements “There is no doubt that this expansion would bring great outcomes I foresee the potential of enrichment in leadership acquisition and development through N2Growth I look forward to bringing a great impact in the GCC region with the spring up of this great scheme.” © Copyright 2012 - 2023 | citybiz | All Rights Reserved Amani al-Ahmadi was barely 10 when she was ushered into an auditorium at her all-girls school in Yanbu a Red Sea port city in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Madinah province she and her classmates were told that a group of women were coming to visit them from Dar Al Reaya a notorious system of detention facilities designed for women images of small prison-like cells holding two to four girls were projected on the wall The next set of slides contained graphic images of people with oral herpes and other sexually transmitted diseases Al-Ahmadi and her classmates were horrified they should obey their families and avoid mixing with boys lest they also end up locked up and diseased now a women’s rights activist living in the United States has of the Saudi government’s role in coercing women to abide by the patriarchal guardianship system or in some cases a son – has full authority to make life-changing decisions for a woman al-Ahmadi still recalls the images and the fear they invoked This fear reverberates through every interview I conducted over the last two years with women who sought asylum abroad after leaving Saudi Arabia Dar Al Reaya – the institution whose name euphemistically translates as “Home of Care” – is what they’re running from According to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development Dar Al Reaya holds two types of women: those who need “social correction” and “strengthening the religious faith” for “deviat[ing] from the straight path” and those under the age of 30 awaiting an investigation or trial What little is known about Dar Al Reaya has come from brief and scattered mentions in news reports and from firsthand accounts of former inmates the system effectively functions as one and sometimes treats inmates worse than the prisons Years of cultivated fear have led women who have never set foot inside to imagine something far worse than a prison – and according to some accounts a rattled woman described how she was placed in solitary confinement and strip-searched on arrival She said she could hear women making cat-like sounds from their cells at night The woman – who repeatedly called on God to avenge her – said the purpose of her video was to let people know what women endure at the Home of Care Twitter accounts that claimed to reveal problems in Dar Al Reaya have been suspended Only stories reported in news articles or documented by Saudi women’s rights activists survive online Sometimes they find their way into Saudi media channels especially items about runaways who eventually found refuge outside Saudi Arabia but these are meant to act as cautionary tales about escaping the country for a more difficult life abroad Compounding this fear is the ease of being sent there; in some cases just a charge of disobedience by a guardian can mean a one-way trip to the Home of Care Some who have tried to escape abuse at home – either by reporting their abuse or being reported as trying to escape by their guardian – have found themselves at the Home of Care In a society that institutionalized the guardianship system the government created a problem that has spiraled out of control If a woman needs a guardian’s permission to move where do women who no longer have guardians end up a number of women activists sent a letter to then-King Abdullah asking for the guardianship system not to include laws punishing disobedience and absence from home and to release women from Dar Al Reaya without a male guardian These demands have been repeated years later scores of people demanded her release from the Home of Care “There’s very limited information and testimonies from those who have been to Dar Al Reaya,” Hala Al Dosari “Women can only tell their stories many years after their release What we know is there have been cases of suicide there.” hanged herself inside her cell after she was left in solitary confinement for 20 days apparently five days longer than the institutional rules allow This prompted the then-governor of Jeddah to ask for an investigation The manager of the facility blamed the Social Affairs Ministry for not installing the correct surveillance camera in the cell Because of the circumstances leading to a vast number of the women ending up in the Home of Care – being reported or disowned by family members – no one returns to look for them One of the rare accounts of a Dar Al Reaya inmate to have received public attention in the kingdom came from Loujain al-Hathloul Al-Hathloul was arrested and held for 73 days in 2014 after attempting to cross the border from the United Arab Emirates into Saudi Arabia to protest the kingdom’s ban on female drivers According to a source familiar with the circumstances of her detention al-Hathloul was taken to a facility in the Eastern Province strip-searched (all but one piece of cloth to cover her private areas) an officer made al-Hathloul pledge not to speak of her detention who previously tried to open a shelter for abused women and was sentenced by a terrorism court to almost six years in prison in a trial widely seen as a sham based on bogus charges While Dar Al Reaya pens girls and women under the age of 30 “the Home of Hospitality,” houses those who have finished their sentences and are waiting to go home Dar Al Theyafa transitions the women’s care from the center back to a guardian – often the same guardian who sent them to prison or whom they were trying to escape It is rare for a woman who has been shunned and disowned by her family to be taken back after incarceration the Home of Hospitality aims to transfer younger women to the custody of a guardian within two months If the guardian or family refuses to accept her “There are so many stories of women coerced into marriages,” Al Dosari said Some women who reported their guardian for domestic violence have said that their complaints were not taken seriously The police sometimes make a guardian sign a pledge that he will not abuse a woman and a guardian can easily violate it once he and his charge are behind closed doors again A guardian can also file a counterclaim alleging that his charge was simply disobedient and deserved corporal punishment A woman who’s been released from Dar Al Reaya can be reincarcerated simply on the basis of a guardian’s counterclaim The dilemma of either being in torturous state custody or trapped with a violent husband or father has left many women in Saudi Arabia with little choice but to take high risks Those who have escaped said it was their only alternative Rahaf Mohamed locked herself in a hotel room in Bangkok airport in January 2019 after making pleas for asylum and asking for help on Twitter Her story is one of the better-known cases of runaways from the kingdom and she was successfully granted asylum abroad Mohamed told me she ran away from an abusive guardian and a system that ignored her complaints against him She confirmed the dungeon-like conditions at Dar Al Reaya but refused to go into detail her guardianship shifted from her husband back to her father.) She had to leave her son behind ‘How could you leave your son in Saudi Arabia and leave?’ But I had to,” Maha said She said that had she stayed and filed a complaint with the police her father would merely have had to sign a document at the station to say he would not abuse her again He would then do so anyway or send her to Dar Al Reaya no clarity on what actions are deemed criminal,” Al Dosari told Newlines “Judges are using their own interpretations of religion That’s why there are inconsistencies in court One woman might get three months for being spotted with a man at a mall There isn’t even any sentencing document to explain the reasons for decisions The law in Saudi is vague – women do not know what is or isn’t acceptable.” Saudi women were led to believe their situation would improve Since Mohammed bin Salman became Crown Prince in June 2017 Saudi leadership undertook a number of steps the last place on earth with a ban on female drivers MBS was soon being touted in the West as the closest thing the Saudi government had to a feminist He famously told Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes that women and men were equal The program aired hours before the crown prince began a nearly three-week public relations tour of the United States in March 2018 and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and was praised by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times as a reformer All this was mere weeks before he had Saudi women activists in the kingdom jailed (including al-Hathloul) intelligence would determine that he had Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi brutally butchered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul As to reforms such as ease of travel and gender mixing they appear to be cosmetic changes designed to mask an ongoing system of women’s repression one in which the state and abusive men still control the fate of all female citizens “Society is under a monarchy,” al-Ahmadi said “Men don’t have any power when it comes to politics they still feel like they have some sort of power these tribal men would retaliate against the government This is why feminism is tied so closely to politics in Saudi Arabia.” It’s also why the year 2019 became known as the year of the runaways these women have been purposed into anti-feminist propaganda which insists that life in Saudi Arabia is far better than life outside In an interview on the Saudi Ya Hala television talk show a psychiatrist who was asked about the case of runaway girls concluded that there was a Western definition of abuse (ta’neef) that should not be the same as abuse in other societies – that there should be a different definition for Arabs Maha told Newlines that if the kingdom had allowed her to leave her father’s guardianship and move into a separate home with her son Many of the women who ran away in recent years have avoided sharing their stories online fearing media vilification and backlash from their families at home Those who accumulated thousands of followers and support on Twitter is scared to reveal her name in the media or appear in TV interviews they wouldn’t be able to hide [the shame] anymore,” she told me “[MBS] told the world that women can drive and get a driving license without telling them that they cannot actually leave their house,” Fatima added she has been helping other women who fled Saudi Arabia find a new home “We still have a law called taghaiub [absence] If you leave home without permission from your guardian Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy Metrics details the use of biometrics in security systems and other applications has grown in popularity ECG signals in particular are attracting increased attention due to their characteristics which are required for a trustworthy identification system The majority of ECG-based person identification systems are evaluated without considering the health-state of the individuals Few person identification systems consider person-by-person health-state annotation This paper proposes a person identification system considering the health-state annotated ECG signals where each person’s beats overlap among variant arrhythmia classes This overlapping between the normal class and other arrhythmia classes grants the ability to isolate normal beats in the train set from the Arrhythmic beats in the test set this paper investigates the effect of arrhythmic heartbeats on biometric recognition An effective lightweight CNN based on depth-wise separable convolution (DWSC) is proposed to enhance the performance of person identification for several common arrhythmia types using the MITBIH dataset The proposed methodology has been tested on nine arrhythmia types and presents how different types of arrhythmia affect ECG-based biometric systems differently The experimental results show excellent recognition performance (99.28%) on normal heartbeats and (93.81%) on arrhythmic heartbeats outperforming other models in terms of mean accuracy All these make it a more acceptable and secured biometric modality The most recent advancement of ECG-biometric systems that have been proposed is based on deep-learning techniques; nevertheless there is no detailed investigation on whether a deep-learning-based model is more suitable for arrhythmic ECG signals no previous study has tested the arrhythmic versus normal heartbeats of the same patient separated into train and test sets to proposed a complete analysis of the impact of different types of arrhythmia on the ECG-biometric system our research suggests a thorough examination of how various types of arrhythmia affect an ECG-based biometric system beat-labeled ECG-based biometric system is also proposed in this study The research's contribution includes the following: A deep CNN model is designed based on the depth-wise separable convolution (DWSC) operation with a good trade-off between the low parameter complexity and the high representation capacity for achieving good person identification performance on ECG signals a robust ECG-based identification system is developed to reduce the adverse impacts of four different types of arrhythmia We isolate the arrhythmic heartbeat set and the normal heartbeat set of the same individuals in train and test sets in order to analyze the effects of arrhythmia on the person identification system no person identification system isolates the heartbeats of the same individual based on the heart-beat health-state annotation in the training and test sets We found a relationship between the heartbeat's health state and the performance of the ECG-based person identification system: if the person does not suffer from cardiac disease we show a negative impact of arrhythmia on the performance of the person identification system The severity of the adverse effects varies depending on the type of arrhythmia The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Next section presents the related work the results are highlighted and future research is underlined regular dataset and the Atrial Fibrillation dataset were both used for system evaluation The results of the suggested method are good It can be concluded in the results that in all the three different proposed methodologies Healthy subjects score better identification performance versus Arrhythmic subjects It also shows that PAT outperforms other two other methodologies Above review shows that Deep learning methods scores higher performance than hand engineering methods It is noted that the same system performs differently based on the data health state (normal/arrhythmic) Researches have examined biometric systems using both normal and arrhythmic datasets but none of them have provided a thorough examination of the various types of arrhythmic signal and how they impact system performance negatively no ECG-based Biometric system has tested Arrhythmic beats versus Normal beats for same person in Test/Training set Heartbeat morphology of ECG signal around R-peak for arrhythmic (up) vs normal (down) beats for subjects of MIT-BIH dataset: (a) Atrial premature beats (A-arrythmia) for subjects# 103; (b) Aberrated atrial premature beat (small a-arrythmia) for subjects# 203; (c) Paced beat (/—Arrhythmia)) for all common Subjects; (d) Nodal (junctional) premature (J- Arrhythmia) for all common subjects (a) and (b) subfigure shows the intra-individual similarities; inter-individual differences among the individuals can be observed from these two subfigures The statistical summary of the ECG beat samples is represented in Fig. 2 The distance between each box's top and bottom is called the interquartile range The center red line denotes the sample median for each box Box whiskers are lines that extend above and below the box The whisker length is measured from the end of the interquartile range to the furthest observation The outliers are those that fall outside of the whisker length An outlier is a value that is more than 1.5 times the interquartile range from either the top or bottom of the box An outlier is indicated by a red plus sign These calculations suggest that R-peak is not supposed to be in the center of the ECG segment The adopted approach is to place the R-peak before the center of the ECG segment This approach has increased the recognition performance for four types of arrhythmic heartbeats After beat segmentation, ECG signal is transformed via a time–frequency transformation technique into a two-dimensional image. Scalogram refers to this representation, which is made up of the absolute value of the signal's CWT coefficients. Figure 3 demonstrates the CWT transformation of ECG normal beats (right) and ECG specific-arrhythmia-type beats (left). Deep learning-based systems typically outperform traditional hand-engineered and machine-learning-based systems Deep learning-based system adaptation can be accomplished in two ways The first involves starting from scratch and training a new network which enables us to train an already-built and previously trained CNN before on our dataset High model efficiency necessitates a straightforward architecture with fewer parameters By using a sufficient number of training samples and suitable numbers of parameters over-fitting and under-fitting issues are easy to be avoided The following subsection present an explanation of the proposed CNN and its components The first step in the proposed model is applying a standard convolutional filter K to the input feature map F to produce the output feature map \({\text{\rm O}}\): depth-wise separable convolution is applied by: (1) applying a 3 × 3 depth-wise convolution \(\ddot{K}\) to Each input channel (2) Combining the depth-wise output by applying 1 × 1 pointwise convolution \(\ddot{K}\) where: m and n is number of the input and output feature maps respectively. Depth-wise Separable Convolution is presented in Fig. 5. The architecture of the proposed CNN model is shown in Table 2. Where \(\uplambda\) =1.0507 and \(\alpha\) =1.6733 it is applied in the first two blocks in the proposed model (2) Gaussian error linear units (GeLU) activation is applied in the next following blocks to introduce regularizers such as dropout with the activation function GeLU procedure is performed by the following formula This study focuses on this dataset because it is the only one that offers beat-labeling (A or N) for every subject Every other dataset with an arrhythmia offers a subject-labeling the MIT-BIH dataset is the only one of these datasets that is beat-annotated rather than person-annotated the MIT-BIH dataset is the main focus of this study which provided the best outcomes of the MITBIH dataset on regular beats The table also shows whether the network is a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) or a linear architecture network ROC Curves of the validation curve on person identification system evaluated on the MIT-dataset for: (a) Normal beats (training set) versus one arrhythmia type beats (test set); (b) one arrhythmia type (training set) versus normal beats (test set). Cumulative distribution plot (CDF) in Person identification on the MITBIH dataset for: (a) normal versus all arrhythmic beats; (b) normal vrsus normal; (c) all-arrhuthmic beats versus all-arrhythmic beats. Confusion charts of the proposed methodology results for the four considered arrhythmia The last two columns are the true positive and false negative rates respectively The last two rows are the false positive and true neagtive rates respectively which is based on DWSC on ImageNet and CIFAR100 datasets and show that the depth-wise approach scored the highest score requiring much lower parameters compared with the other state-of-the-art approaches The discriminative feature of the proposed model is the shape it takes then the number of channel increases while we go deeper The feature map spatial resolution starts from the input image’s size then it became smaller while we go deeper in the network for simpler computations and better features learning The smaller spatial resolution (down-sampling) is achieved through stride = 2 in some convolution operations but not everyone to avoid aggressive feature map spatial size reduction This model shape is inspired from the networks such as VGG16 its architecture is linear so that each layer in the proposed model has a single input and each output goes to a single layer the proposed model is free of Addition/Concatenation operation and residual connections Residual connections are not needed in the proposed model due to its simplicity and few number of layers The pointwise 1 × 1 convolution is simply a linear projection of exact same spatial size and the same number of channels; however it allows the model to include extra non-linearity through the activation function without affecting the receptive field Although it is possible to balance the error rates for an authentication system by fine tuning the network parameters which we like to leave as a future work we also aim to investigate challenges such as automatic scalability due to increase of users and effect of ECG signal variability on recognition performances due to different physical conditions such stress or exercise activities Photoplethysmogram based biometric identification incorporating different age and gender group Biometrics authentication techniques: A comparative study Human identification using compressed ECG signals Minaee, S., Abdolrashidi, A., Su, H., Bennamoun, M. & Zhang, D. Biometric recognition using deep learning: A survey. arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.00271 (2019) Biometric identification based on frequency analysis of cardiac sounds Heartprint: A dataset of multisession ECG signal with long interval captured from fingers for biometric recognition Deep contrastive learning-based model for ECG biometrics VisGIN: Visibility graph neural network on one-dimensional data for biometric authentication ECG biometric with abnormal cardiac conditions in remote monitoring system ECG analysis: A new approach in human identification Toward improving ECG biometric identification using cascaded convolutional neural networks Fast and accurate algorithm for ECG authentication using residual depthwise separable convolutional neural networks ECG authentication system design incorporating a convolutional neural network and generalized S-transformation Multi-scale deep cascade bi-forest for electrocardiogram biometric recognition In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE) 1–6 (2021) Lynn, H. 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The project will increase output in the plant’s 5 production lines from around 3.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) to 4 bcf/d within the next two years the Arabic language daily Al-Seyassah said The Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) which manages Kuwait’s downstream industry is also planning to expand production of condensates and LPG production during that period which started in late 2022 with the addition of a 5th production line that boosted output by nearly 30 percent,” the report added (Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com) Subscribe to our Projects' PULSE newsletter that brings you trustworthy news updates and insights on project activities and partnerships across sectors in the Middle East and Africa Get insights and exclusive content from the world of business and finance that you can trust, delivered to your inbox. 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All rights reserved and human rights defenders signed a petition addressed to the President of the United Arab Emirates and the country’s Federal Supreme Council calling for democratic reforms the UAE’s State Security Apparatus (SSA) initiated a campaign of arrests against the individuals who signed the document.  Mansour al-Ahmadi was among them.  Arrested individuals were later sentenced in the UAE’s largest mass trial the 94 defendants were charged with founding organising and administering an organisation aimed at overthrowing the government on the basis of article 180 of thePenal Code the Emirati authorities convicted 61 of the 94 defendants in addition to eight individuals in absentia Al-Ahmadi was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment In 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued Opinion 60/2013 in which it found that the detention of the 61 individuals convicted in the “UAE94” trial was arbitrary  Al-Ahmadi completed his sentence in October 2019, but under the pretext of “rehabilitation needs”, pursuant to the UAE’s Counter-Terrorism Law and the Munasaha Centre Law He was released almost two years after the completion of his sentence in April 2021 MENA Rights Group submitted an allegation letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the use of Munasaha centres in the UAE we explained how these centres are being used to detain critics or activists raising the case of al-Ahmadi as he is held in the Munasaha centre in al-Razeen prison On March 30, 2023, upon EDAC and MENA Rights Group’s request, the WGAD adopted an Opinion concerning 12 prisoners in the UAE94 case who are detained under the Munasaha regime It recognised that their detention is arbitrary since the 12 individuals were held “owing to their status as human rights defenders and on the basis of their political or other opinion in seeking to hold the authorities to account.”  al-Ahmadi received a call to go to the office of State Security (Federal Authority For Identity Customs & Port Security) in Abu Dhabi for his periodic investigation al-Ahmadi called his brother and asked him to pick up his car He told him he believed he might be held for a few days This was the final call he made to his family before entering the building of the State Security Since then al-Ahmadi’s fate and whereabouts remain unknown His family has not received any communication from him leading to believe he is held incommunicado Despite efforts made by his family to contact the State Security to obtain information about his situation the Emirates Detainee Advocacy Center (EDAC) and MENA Rights Group and requested the urgent intervention of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances calling on them to urge the Emirati authorities to take action to clarify al-Ahmadi’s fate and whereabouts al-Ahmadi was able to call his family from the inside of an unknown facility belonging to the State Security Apparatus (SSA) On December 7, 2023, a new mass trial began before the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal the charges against al-Ahmadi and his co-defendants were read out Al-Ahmadi and others are charged with new terrorism crimes for establishing another clandestine organisation for the purpose of committing acts of violence and terrorism on UAE soil The second hearing tool place on December 14 featuring three members of the SSA as witnesses for the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) MENA Rights Group and EDAC requested the urgent intervention of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism The third hearing took place on December 21 and the entire trial was conducted secretly with a notable absence of local media coverage the fourth hearing took place with no media coverage There have been reports of torture during this trial according to EDAC © 2024 Copyright menarights.org By Dalia BnjabiRIYADH — The Saudi Shoura Council has welcomed 19 new women among its members marking a significant leap towards enhancing women's participation in the Kingdom's legislative process.With women now constituting 20 percent of the council's 150 seats this development underscores Saudi Arabia's commitment to promoting gender diversity in leadership roles.A royal order issued by King Salman on Monday approved the reconstitution of the Shoura Council for a period of four Hijri years Abdullah Al-Sheikh as the speaker of the Shoura Council Al-Ahmadi is recognized as one of the most prominent female figures in the council.Among the 150 members with 19 of them serving their first term in the council This diverse group of newly appointed female members includes distinguished experts such as Dr Their inclusion reflects the growing recognition of women's expertise and leadership potential within the council.The new appointees also feature notable figures like Dr highlighting the diversity of professional backgrounds represented among the council's female members who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience from various fields.The list of female members also includes those serving their second and third terms in the council These seasoned members are poised to contribute significantly to the council's deliberations and decision-making processes.This move follows the historic precedent set in 2013 when 30 women were first appointed to the Shoura Council allocating 20 percent of the council's seats to women for the first time The inclusion of women was seen as a progressive step toward achieving greater gender balance in the Kingdom's decision-making processes.The new appointments not only reinforce the council’s commitment to embracing women's contributions but also reflect Saudi Arabia's broader reforms aimed at enhancing the role of women in public life they are expected to bring fresh perspectives and insights that will shape the future of the Kingdom’s legislative landscape and consultative spectrum The requested content cannot be loaded.Please try again later Saudi Gazette reportRIYADH — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has issued on Monday two royal orders reconstituting Shoura Council and the Council of Senior Scholars.Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh has been reappointed chairman of the Council of Senior Scholars while Sheikh Abdullah Al-Sheikh was reinstated as speaker of the Shoura Council the Saudi Press Agency reported.Mishaal Al-Salami was re-named deputy speaker of Shoura Council while Dr Hanan Al-Ahmadi was re-appointed assistant speaker The 150-member Shoura Council has been reconstituted for a period of four years effective from Friday 2024.There are 20 members in addition to the chairman in the 21-member Council of Senior Scholars Members of the Council include Shoura Council Speaker Sheikh Abdulllah Al-Sheikh Muslim World League Secretary General Sheikh Muhammad Al-Issa former Shoura Council Speaker and Grand Mosque Imam Sheikh Saleh bin Abdullah bin Humaid former Secretary General of MWL Sheikh Abdullah Al-Turki and Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud Al-Muajab.The Council is also comprising the following eminent scholars: Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan and Sheikh Abdulilah Al-Mulla.The reconstitution of the Council of Senior Scholars will come into force from Wednesday Oil & Gas Middle East Home » News » Kuwait announces major refinery expansion plans by 2025 Wadha Al-Khatib, acting CEO of both the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) and Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) has announced plans to boost the refining capacity of Kuwait’s local refineries — Al-Zour and Mina Abdullah — from 1.4 million barrels per day to approximately 1.5 million barrels per day by 2025 The expansion is aimed at meeting the growing global demand for clean refined products such as clean fuel oil, low-sulfur diesel, naphtha, and jet fuel that adhere to international environmental standards. According to reports Al-Khatib emphasised the critical role of digital twinning across both companies to implement comprehensive digital transformation mechanisms in all facilities and departments This initiative will enhance local refinery production capacities and improve operational efficiency as part of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is actively advancing towards digital transformation and leveraging artificial intelligence technologies In addition to increasing production efficiency digital transformation in the oil sector is crucial for cost reduction and facility maintenance while also enhancing overall security and safety protocols by detecting potential malfunctions early KNPC and KIPIC’s progression is in lie with initiatives aligned with KPC’s vision to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 These efforts emphasise Kuwait’s commitment to integrating digital technological advancements across all projects within the country’s oil sector The Al-Zour refinery ranks among the world’s top ten largest refineries boasting a daily refining capacity of 615 thousand barrels It incorporates cutting-edge global technologies and an advanced environmental system that ensures rigorous environmental monitoring and operates with minimal smoke and noise emissions Digital twinning is a key strategy for implementing digital transformation across KNPC and KIPIC enhancing operational efficiency and potentially increasing production capacity This initiative aligns with KPC’s vision for carbon neutrality by 2050 leveraging digital technologies and AI to improve safety showcases Kuwait’s commitment to advanced technologies and environmental sustainability with its innovative design and environmental control systems Oil & Gas Middle East covers the latest news and in-depth analysis across the region’s upstream sector leveraging its print and digital products to act as the meeting point of the oil and gas industry It is the premier source of information for industry leaders and professionals 2024: World Nineball Tour No.1 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz has heralded a grand new era for the sport as he looks forward to defending his world title at this year’s World Pool Championship – which marks the beginning of a major 10-year partnership for the premier tournament in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between 3-8 June in partnership with the Saudi Arabian Billiard & Snooker Federation (SABSF) and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Sport 128 of the world’s elite cueists will battle it out in a double-elimination format for the record-breaking prize fund of $1,000,000 and a top prize of $250,000 – both the highest ever on the World Nineball Tour Along with reigning and defending world champion Francisco Sanchez Ruiz five-time US Open champion and 2022 world champion Shane Van Boening and 2018 world champion Joshua Filler will be among the high-profile names competing for the game’s greatest individual prize this summer Sanchez Ruiz said: “This is an incredibly exciting time for the World Nineball Tour and a sign of the future direction of our sport The World Championship in Saudi Arabia marks a historic moment for pool and I am really looking forward to defending my title amongst the world’s best in Jeddah.” The field will feature the top 100 from the World Nineball Tour Rankings with the remaining 28 players made up of wildcard entries 10 of whom will be given to the host nation the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – these include Saad Aldress Nawaf Shamardal and Othman Alzahrani.The cutoff for the top 100 WNT players will be determined at the conclusion of the UK Open 7-12 May the move will help establish the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a new home of the World Pool Championship for the next decade with the country becoming one of the fastest growing countries in world sport Since 2015 and the introduction of Vision 2030 Saudi Arabia has hosted over 100 international sports events and welcomed more than 2.6 million sports fans as it looks to inspire its people to live happier and healthier lifestyles through sports participation It is an approach that has been working especially within its young population of which there is over 20 million people under the age of 30 years old Saudi Arabia has tripled the number of official sports federations from 32 to 97 federations participation rates in sports have also tripled with more boys and girls men and women playing more sports than ever before including an 150% increase in female sport will feature 223 matches over six days of competition with 50 televised hours of pool and 100 streaming hours broadcast to every territory around the globe Defending world champion Francisco Sanchez Ruiz will head to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeking to retain the crown that he won last February in Kielce The decade-long deal will deliver a sharp focus and commitment to growing the game in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which includes encouraging grassroots awareness and playing pathways for local talent over the next 10 years Saudi Arabia Billiard & Snooker Federation President Nasser Saab Al-Shammari added: “In June this year new sporting history will be written in Saudi Arabia We’ve literally never had the opportunity to welcome world class talents like Francisco Sanchez Ruiz Shane Van Boening and Joshua Filler to play live for fans here But to go beyond hosting the top stars by also having the best ten local Saudi players take part will open-up an entire new world and will give our players the experience of a lifetime “Saudi’s sporting future and ambitions will see us becoming far more than just welcoming hosts share and compete at the highest possible level in the years ahead Emily Frazer said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Ministry of Sport for Saudi Arabia for this unique opportunity We believe this landmark 10-year deal will provide the catalyst to developing the stars for tomorrow from this region supported in conjunction with a leading junior event alongside the World Pool Championship as well as training top-level officials who will further enhance the sport here in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia It underlines the great strides that are being taken by the World Nineball Tour as we continue to provide unrivalled life-changing opportunities and competition for our professional players.” and other liquids including biofuels and natural gas liquids and projections integrated across all energy sources Financial market analysis and financial data for major energy companies and resources related to energy disruptions and infrastructure Regional energy information including dashboards Come test out some of the products still in development and let us know what you think Forms EIA uses to collect energy data including descriptions Sign up for email subscriptions to receive messages about specific EIA products Subscribe to feeds for updates on EIA products including Today in Energy and What's New Reports requested by congress or otherwise deemed important Retail prices for regular grade gasoline in California are consistently higher than in any other state in the continental United States often exceeding the national average by more than a dollar per gallon Several factors contribute to this high price crude oil prices generally decreased while U.S refinery margins initially increased before decreasing in the final month of the quarter we review petroleum markets price developments in 1Q25 and structurally lower debt needs have contributed to lower interest expenses for some publicly traded U.S despite the level of interest rates across the economy being relatively high imports of petroleum products decreased by 210,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2024 to average 1.8 million b/d exports of total petroleum products increased to a record 6.6 million barrels per day (b/d) annual average petroleum product exports increased by 495,000 b/d as U.S while exports of total motor gasoline decreased decreased by 210,000 b/d in 2024 compared with 2023 The TIE was reposted to correct a data point In 2024, pipeline companies completed five pipeline projects to transport petroleum liquids in the United States, according to our recently updated Liquids Pipeline Projects Database The five projects consisted of three hydrocarbon gas liquid (HGL) pipelines and two petroleum product pipelines U.S. marketed natural gas production remained relatively flat in 2024, growing by less than 0.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) compared with 2023 to average 113 Bcf/d, according to our latest Natural Gas Monthly Production growth in the Permian was offset by declining production in the Haynesville and relatively flat production in Appalachia U.S. crude oil production grew by 270,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2024 to average 13.2 million b/d, according to our Petroleum Supply Monthly Almost all the production growth came from the Permian region U.S. energy consumption decreases in the next several years before increasing again in the early 2040s through 2050, according to our recently published Annual Energy Outlook 2025 (AEO2025) energy consumption in 2050 is lower than in 2024 in most of the scenarios we explore in AEO2025 but the range of outcomes varies significantly based on the underlying assumptions has hovered around 1.1 million barrels per day (b/d) since 2020 and we forecast it will remain about the same through 2026 crude oil exports in 2024 surpassed the previous record set in 2023 exceeding an annual average of 4.1 million barrels per day (b/d) crude oil export year-over-year growth slowed to 1% in 2024 Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information Fire fighters try to extinguish the fire at the Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery in Kuwait on Jan Source: Kuwait National Petroleum Company/AP Photo 2022 at 3:37 AM ESTBookmarkSaveLock This article is for subscribers only.Dubai United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The death toll from a fire at a major oil refinery in Kuwait has been raised to four after two critically injured workers died of their wounds the Kuwait National Petroleum Company said in a statement Wednesday 14 during maintenance work at the Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery and had left five others in critical condition Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) subsidiary Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) has started a more than month-long turnaround at its 466,000-b/d Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery about 28 miles south of Kuwait City on the Persian Gulf The $16.9-million major maintenance event began on Jan The maintenance comes as part of KNPC’s standing policy to check installations and equipment once every 4 years deputy chief executive officer at the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery During the planned turnaround—which will not impact overall refining operations—the company will conduct routine maintenance and unit upgrade projects to boost production of higher-quality cleaner fuel derivatives and products by 2020 Upgrades at Mina Al-Ahmadi follow KNPC’s broader works at part of its Clean Fuels Project (CFP), which aims to modernize and expand its 270,000-b/d Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries (OGJ Online, Apr. 1, 2013) KPC’s newly formed subsidiary Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. recently said it remains on schedule to complete its grassroots 615,000-b/d Al-Zour integrated refining complex—the cornerstone of Kuwait’s CPF—by yearend 2019 (OGJ Online, Jan. 22, 2018) KNPC also shuttered its aging 200,000-b/d Shuaiba refinery on Apr. 1, 2017, as part of the CFP downstream initiative (OGJ Online, July 31, 2017) Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected] Assistant President of the Saudi Arabian Shura Council made history on Wednesday by becoming the first woman to chair a session of the body The Shura Council is the formal advisory body of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Dr Al Ahmadi presided over its sixth session in the absence of council president Sheikh Abdullah Al Sheikh and Vice President Dr Mishaal Al Sulami in accordance with Article 6 of the Shura Council bylaw King Salman issued a royal order appointing Dr Al Ahmadi an academic who specialises in economics and health management as as Assistant President of the Shura Council Dr Al Ahmadi is the first Saudi woman to hold a top leadership position in the council and became one of the first women appointed to it seven years ago said that Dr Al Ahmadi chairing the session was a historic event He added that the appointment was part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 and realisation of one of its most important goals which includes empowering women and investing in their capabilities When our King appointed Dr Hanan in a top position never held by a woman before it felt empowering and has many young girls dreaming.. Now that we know we can achieve milestones we want to pursue them and work harder to make our families and country proud." Dr Al Ahmadi is a member of the board of trustees of the Riyadh Economic Forum the editorial board of the Journal of Public Administration and the Scientific Council of IPA and a board member of the Saudi Management Association there are many false allegations which the Muslim scholars spread about Islam Ahmadiyyat they continue to misquote our literature and attempt to misguide the general public Some go to the extent of saying that we do not believe in the five pillars of Islam I will let one of their most famous Sunni muhadith Shaikh Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani was a famous Albanian Islamic scholar and a watchmaker by profession He is a famous Salafi hadith scholar who worked on grading ahadith throughout his life He is recognised as the most accredited non-Ahmadi scholar for ahadith in our era and is the main scholar used for grading the ahadith by the Salafi Muslims Even those who are not from the Salafi sect use his works when it comes to grading the ahadith and would often have discussions with them Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaa mentioned an incident of the respected late Nadir al-Husni Sahib from Syria Speaking about the late Nadir al-Husni Sahib Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa – quoting Nasir al-Husni Sahib’s nephew – said: “He had a very close bond with Chaudhry Zafrulla Khan Sahibra The deceased translated a book of Chaudhry Zafrulla Khan Sahibra into Arabic He had a strong connection with the Jamaat He would not tolerate any inappropriate comments towards the Promised Messiahas or the Khulafa.  he went with his two brothers to offer condolences for a non-Ahmadi Shaikh al-Albani was also present there accompanied by many of his students who were aware that Nadir al-Husni Sahib and his brothers were Ahmadi They began to discuss the points of contention between Ahmadis and other clerics When one of them began to use profane language about the Promised Messiahas became enraged; he stood up and said: ‘If any one of you has the courage even though there was only three of them [Ahmadis] whereas Shaikh al-Albani Sahib was accompanied by more than 15 people No one from among them had the courage to enter into a debate with him they began to quarrel and tried to attack the three of them other people who had come to offer their condolences intervened and stopped them.” (Friday Sermon we will see the false allegations of the anti-Ahmadi scholars answered The audios of all of these answers are also available This is not to say that al-Albani has always spoken the truth about the Jamaat he has corrected many misconceptions the Muslim scholars spread about us Some of the non-Ahmadi Muslims raise the allegation that the name “Ghulam Ahmad” [the slave of Ahmad because we can only call ourselves the slaves of Allah لا  فـغلام أحمد … أسلوب باللغة الهندية تفسيره خادم أحمد، فهو ليس أحمد، وإنما هو خادم أحمد؛ والمقصود بأحمد هو نبينا عليه الصلاة والسلام؛ والأعاجم لهم مثل هذه النسبات افتخارا بانتسابهم للرسول عليه السلام ‘Ghulam Ahmad’ […] is a way of naming in the Hindi language and the meaning is the servant of Ahmad And the purpose of Ahmad here is our Prophetsa; and the non-Arabs have such genealogies showing that they are proud of their affiliation with the Messengersa.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur One allegation raised by the opponents of Islam Ahmadiyyat is that our book is other than the Quran The Salafi scholars often say that we have a book called “Kitab-ul-Mubeen” something we Ahmadi Muslims have never heard of هل (الأحمدية) ينكرون القرآن وينكرون السورة؟ لا “Do the Ahmadiyya reject the Quran or any of the surahs One allegation presented by non-Ahmadi Muslims is that Ahmadi Muslims reject the articles of faith and the pillars of Islam هل تظنون أن الطائفة القاديانية هم لا يقولون لا إله إلا الله محمدا رسول الله لا يصلون لا يصومون لا يحجون؟ لا “Do you think that the group al-Qadiyaniyya do not say ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah’; they don’t pray; they don’t fast and don’t perform the pilgrimage They are with us on all of this.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur طائفة القاديانية يؤمنون بما نؤمن نحن به من الأركان الإسلامية الخمسة، أولها شهادة أن لا إله إلا اللّٰه وأن محمدا رسول اللّٰه “The group al-Qadiyaniyya believe in what we believe from the five pillars of Islam and the first of them is to bear witness that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur Some ignorant Muslims of today raise the allegation that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas was not knowledgeable Responding to why Muslims accepted Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas and rejected false claimants of the Imam Mahdi تعرف المهدي اللذي اسمه ميرزا أحمد القادياني تبع الهند هذا رجل عارف … بالعلم تماما، لكن هؤلاء (أدعياء المهدوية) مساكين جهال ما بعرفوا شيء من الشريعة ولا بعرفوا قراءة قرآن ما بعرفوا لغة ولا بعرفوا شيء “You know the Mahdi whose name was Mirza Ahmad al-Qadiani That man was knowledgeable […] With complete knowledge the other claimants were poor and ignorant and they did not know anything of the Shariah or the qira‘ah of the Quran nor did they know anything else.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur Another allegation against Ahmadi Muslims is that they reject the finality of prophethood Shaikh al-Albani explains that Ahmadi Muslims believe in Prophet Muhammadsa as the Seal of Prophets “They [Ahmadi Muslims] do not reject that he [Prophet Muhammadsa] was the Seal of Prophets.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur هل أنكروا قوله تعالى ولكن رسول اللّٰه وخاتم النبيين؟ لا لأنه أي مسلم إذا أنكر آية من القرآن كفر باللّٰه ورسوله he is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of all Prophets’ Because any Muslim who rejects a verse of the Quran rejects Allah and His messenger.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur (الأحمدية) ما أنكروا الآية، آمنوا معنا بالآية ولكن تأولوها They believe in the verses like us but they interpret them.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur لم يكفر هؤلاء القاديانيون بقوله تعالى:وَلَكِنْ رَسُولَ اللّٰهِ وَخَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّينَ ۔ الأحزاب: 04۔  بل آمنوا بالآية كما نؤمن، كذلك لم ينكروا قول النبي ﷺ ما جاء في الصحيحين عن النبي ﷺ “The al-Qadiyaniyyah do not reject the statement of the Allah ‘Rather he is the Messenger of Allah and the seal of all Prophets’ (Surah al-Ahzab they do not deny the statement of the Holy Prophetsa which comes in the authentic narrations.” (Mu‘assisah al-Albani fi al-Aqidah A widespread allegation against the Jamaat is that we perform Hajj in Qadian …‭ ‬القاديانية‭ ‬…‭ ‬هؤلاء‭ ‬مسلمون‭ ‬يصلون‭ ‬الصلوات‭ ‬الخمسة‭ ‬ويحجّون‭ ‬إلى‭ ‬بيت‭ ‬الله‭ ‬الحرام they pray the five daily prayers and perform Hajj in Baitullah al-Haram.” (Ashriatatun Mutafariqa lil-Shaikh هؤلاء القاديانيون لا تظنوا أنهم ينكرون شيئا من أركان الإيمان أو شيئا من أركان الإسلام، لا، هم يؤمنون معنا في كل هذه الأركان، فهم يصلّون ويصومون ويحجّون وأسماؤهم أسماء إسلامية تماما Do not think that they reject anything from the pillars of faith or anything from the pillars of Islam They believe in everything from these pillars like we believe they perform Hajj and they name themselves with Islamic names.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur Some raise the allegation that Ahmadi Muslims are not among the 73 sects of Islam بل هؤلاء (القاديانية) هم من الفرق التي جاء الإشارة إليها في قوله عليه الصلاة والسلام (وستفترق أمتي على ثلاث وسبعين فرقة كلها في النار إلا واحدة) they (al-Qadiyaniyyah) are from the sects which are pointed to in the statement of the Holy Prophetsa that ‘my ummah will split into 73 sects and all of them will be in the fire except one.’” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur Some anti-Ahmadis claim that Ahmadi Muslims reject some verses of the Quran and only believe in some of the Quran Shaikh al-Albani raised the allegation that we believe in the words of the Quran but not the actual meaning an allegation every sect raises against the other he was forced to accept that we believe in all of the Quran “The Qadianis […] they believe in the entire book [the Holy Quran] […]” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur “Do they [Ahmadiyya] reject the Quran and reject the Surahs Do the Ahmadiyya reject the Quran or any of the Surahs Shaikh al-Albani has many different answers regarding Ahmadis On one occasion he accepted that we are Muslims and also said that Muslims cannot do takfir of Ahmadis because one should judge by the apparent and that Ahmadi Muslims recite the Kalima هؤلاء مسلمون يصلون الصلوات الخمس ويحجّون إلى بيت الله الحرام they pray the five daily prayers and perform Hajj to Baitullah al-Haram” ” (Ashriatatun Mutafariqa lil-Shaikh لا ، نحن لنا ظاهرهم، يشهدون بلا إله إلا اللّٰه، محمداً رسول اللّٰه؛ أما حسابهم عند اللّٰه It is upon us to judge by their appearance and they testify that there is no worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah that is with Allah.” (Silsilatul Huda wal-Nur Ustadh Faris Ali Abd al-Wahid compiled many of these references in the Arabic language I have personally heard all of these audios myself as well and they are available online.  and website in this browser for the next time I comment Al Hakam is a weekly English newspaper for members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat around the world Its aim is to provide Ahmadis with content regarding the beliefs of the true Islam reintroduced to the world by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian Contact us: info@alhakam.org Some people like them baked, others prefer them dried. Locusts are surprisingly nutritious and considered a delicacy by many in Kuwait but not everyone is enamoured by the crunchy culinary offering. “I love their flavour, it’s one of my memories of childhood and reminds me of my grandparents and my father,” enthused Moudi al-Miftah, a 64-year-old journalist who writes a weekly newspaper column. Miftah awaits winter every year to stock up on locusts, which she cooks herself, with a preference for crispiness. In her kitchen, she tipped a bag of the insects into boiling stock where they quickly turned red, filling her kitchen with an aroma similar to stewing mutton. After simmering for half an hour, the locusts are ready to eat but they can be baked for added crunch, or dried so they can be enjoyed year-round. But most of Miftah’s loved ones stopped eating the bugs long ago. Locust consumption is dwindling across Kuwaiti society, particularly among the younger generation, many of whom are disgusted by the prospect. Ali Saad, a man in his twenties who was shopping for groceries, was visibly repulsed by the idea of snacking on insects. “I’ve never thought of eating locusts,” he said. “Why would I eat an insect when we have all kinds of red and white meats?” Locusts are consumed in many parts of the world and are a staple of some cuisines. Experts say they are an excellent, energy-efficient source of protein. In Kuwait, they retain a sturdy fan base among older citizens. The first shipments, imported from Saudi Arabia, arrive in markets in January, transported in distinctive red bags weighing 250 grams. They are stocked alongside white desert truffles, another delicacy sought by Kuwaitis in winter at the Al-Rai market nestled in an industrial area in the northwest of Kuwait City. Abou Mohammed, 63, is originally from Ahvaz in Iran and normally sells fish at the market. But when the season arrives, he becomes a locust and truffle salesman. “The locusts are caught during the winter nights (when they are not flying) and we import them from Saudi Arabia,” he said. He described the bugs as “like a shrimp” and enthused that “the flesh is very tasty — especially the females which are full of eggs”. The larger females are known as “el-Mekn” in Kuwaiti dialect, while the smaller males are called “Asfour.” Abou Mohammed says he sells almost a dozen bags a day at between three and five Kuwaiti dinars (US$8 and US$16) each. “I sell some 500 bags over the season, which is from January to April,” he said. Mohammed al-Awadi, a 70-year-old Kuwaiti, has delivered locusts to retailers for many years and keeps a handy supply of the dried insects in his pocket for snacking. Dubbed “the king of the market,” the salesman demonstrated how to eat the bug — snacking on a first locust, then another and another. “It’s the best of dishes. I’m full, so I don’t need to eat lunch today,” he said. “The drier they are the better. My father always had a supply in his pocket.” Authorities have sought in vain to ban the consumption of locusts over fears they could be contaminated. Locusts can rapidly multiply and form swarms that damage crops, forcing some countries to tackle them with pesticides. Adel Tariji put his stock of two black sacks beside his vehicle and prospective clients pulled up alongside to examine his produce and haggle over prices. Tariji, who has sold locusts since he was 18, said that despite reticence from some, he had seen glimmers of interest from health-conscious younger buyers. They are more willing to pay higher prices because they are convinced of the benefits of eating “all natural” products, he said. “Some people are even stockpiling for next year out of fear that there will be no locusts next season.” the leading asset management and investment banking platform in the region announces the appointment of Ahmed Alahmadi to its Board of Directors Ahmed will also join the Board’s Investment Committee and work with the management team to deliver on SHUAA’s strategic objectives Ahmed’s professional career has spanned time at Mubadala and most recently in the CEO Office of ADQ where he supported government initiatives and maintained strategic partnerships He currently serves as an independent member of the Audit and Risk Committee for ADX-listed Presight AI Holdings "We are pleased to welcome back Ahmed Alahmadi to the Board of SHUAA Capital combined with his prior strategic engagements with our organization further solidifies and enriches the depth and breadth of our Board's capabilities," stated Fawad Tariq Khan Group Chief Executive Officer of SHUAA Capital Ahmed is a CFA charter holder and possesses a First-Class Honours degree in Chemical Engineering from University College London and a Master's degree in Risk Management and Financial Engineering from Imperial College London SHUAA Capital psc Hani El Abid Head of Marketing and Communications Email: helabid@shuaa.com www.shuaa.com                      ASDA’A BCW Omar Nasro Associate Director Email: omar.nasro@bcw-global.com www.asdaa-bcw.com SHUAA Capital psc (DFM: SHUAA) is a leading asset management and investment banking platform SHUAA Capital psc is recognized for its strong track record and pioneering approach to investing through a differentiated and global product offering focused on public and private markets investment portfolios and funds in the regional equities and credit markets; it also provides investment solutions to clients with a focus on alternative investment strategies The investment banking segment offers corporate finance advisory public offerings of equity and debt securities while also creating market liquidity on OTC fixed-income products The firm is regulated as a financial investment company by the Securities and Commodities Authority Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information: This document contains forward-looking statements Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance they are based only on our current beliefs expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business Examples of forward-looking statements include Because forward-looking statements relate to the future they are subject to inherent uncertainties risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include the following: Our ability to maintain adequate revenue levels and cost control; economic and financial conditions in the global markets and regional markets in which we operate commodity and equity prices and the value of assets; the implementation of our strategic initiatives including our ability to effectively manage the redeployment of our balance sheet and the expansion of our strategic businesses; the reliability of our risk management policies procedures and methods; continued volatility in the capital or credit markets; geopolitical events; developments and changes in laws and regulations including increased regulation of the financial services industry through legislative action and revised rules and standards applied by our regulators Any forward-looking statement made by us in this document and presentation is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made completeness or fairness of the information and opinions contained in this document We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information Please remember that past performance may not be indicative of future results The press release is provided for informational purposes only legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the suitability value or profitability of any particular security Neither this website nor our affiliates shall be liable for any errors or inaccuracies in the content or for any actions taken by you in reliance thereon You expressly agree that your use of the information within this article is at your sole risk To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law its affiliates and the respective shareholders content providers and licensors will not be liable (jointly or severally) to you for any direct even if the parties have been advised of the possibility or could have foreseen any such damages Create an account for a 7-day trial to access this article and all of AL-Monitor For subscription inquiries, please contact subscription.support@al-monitor.com For all other inquiries, please use contactus@al-monitor.com Kuwait's Clean Fuels Project (CFP) will reconfigure the country's three refineries and in conjunction with grassroots construction planned at Al Zour nearly double total refining capacity to 1.4 million b/d will integrate and upgrade the 270,000-b/d Mina Abdullah and 466,000-b/d Mina Al Ahmadi refineries and close the 200,000-b/d refinery at Shuaiba The newly integrated refineries will operate as a merchant complex with total capacity of about 800,000 b/d Capacity of the new refinery at Al Zour in southern Kuwait which will mainly supply low-sulfur fuel to Kuwaiti power plants and yield products for export The CFP includes the installation of 39 units Construction is to begin in December and be complete in December 2017 KNPC will close the Shuaiba refinery after start-up of the Al Zour facility planning for which was suspended between 2009 and 2011 because of political opposition a study of the Shuaiba refinery determined that a revamp would be uneconomic Shuaiba's storage and marine export facilities will be incorporated into the CFP Reuse of some of the refinery's units and equipment is under study the reconfigured Mina Abdulla and Mina Al Ahmadi complex will produce gasoline with no more than 10 ppm sulfur Benzene and aromatics concentrations also will decline The CFP will lower gas oil sulfur content to as low as 10 ppm The facilities now produce gas oil with 500-5,000 ppm sulfur Bunker fuel oil sulfur content will drop to 1 ppm from 4.5 ppm now Maximum sulfur content of full-range naphtha will drop to 500 ppm from 700 ppm The existing refineries occupy adjacent sites on the Kuwaiti coast heralded as the world's first all-hydrogen refinery (OGJ 46,000 b/d of isocracking (first-stage hydrocracking) 36,000 b/d isomax (second-stage hydrocracking) The refinery has three steam-methane reforming units each able to produce 74 MMscfd of 95% pure hydrogen Kuwait's oldest refinery is Mina Al-Ahmadi Its main processing units are for naphtha reforming two with capacities of 35,000 b/d each; hydrocracking An LPG plant at Mina Al Ahmadi has three trains able to process 560 MMscfd each of natural gas and condensate produced in Kuwait oil fields and refinery gases has two crude units and a delayed coker with two identical trains and total capacity of 76,000 b/d Coke from Mina Abdullah is exported from the port at Shuaiba All three of Kuwait's refineries sustained heavy damage at the end of the Iraqi occupation of 1990-91 and required extensive reconstruction (OGJ