France's David Casteu navigates hard terrain in the Empty Quarter yesterday.
France's David Casteu navigates hard terrain in the Empty Quarter yesterday.

Novitskiy in one-way traffic



Team X-Raid's Leonid Novitskiy has all but secured victory in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, just three days into the five-day race. Novitskiy leads Laurent Rosso by more than two-and-a-half hours in the cars section, meaning he does not need to take any unnecessary risks over the final stages today and tomorrow. "Abu Dhabi's Empty Quarter is not so easy to master, but my lead is allowing me to respect the terrain and navigate the sands very well," he said.

Rosso sits in second place, with Abdul Bari bin Sugat third. Mark Powell was forced to retire for the day because of a technical fault, but he vowed to return today to resurrect his challenge for a podium finish. The Briton David Mabbs was forced to miss all of yesterday's racing with a transmission problem. @Email:sport@thenational.ae

Day 1 results:

Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)

Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)

The Freedom Artist

By Ben Okri (Head of Zeus)

Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

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The specs

Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel

Power: 579hp

Torque: 859Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh825,900

On sale: Now