Friday's massacre at "Change Square" in Sana'a that left 300 casualties between dead and wounded, was the largest of its kind calling for the president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, wrote columnist Mazen Hammad in the Qatari daily Al Watan.
This in itself emphasises how urgent and inevitable it has become for the Yemeni president to respond to his people's demand and resign from office.
The message is crystal clear; the massive protests throughout the country have proved time and again that the people don't want Mr Saleh. And yet, despite all this, the man still hangs on to power, issues emergency laws and rebuffs the opposition's demands.
"In all honesty, the Yemeni people have been the most patient and astute among all rebelling peoples in the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa. They didn't resort to an armed confrontation with the security forces and the military, despite the fact that they are the most heavily armed civilians in the region and Yemen has often been referred to as a weapons forest."
The Yemenis aren't going to wait until Ali Saleh's end of term. Things have reached the point of no return. If the daily protests in Sanaa, Eden and other cities prove anything, it's that the people will not abandon their claims and will not stop at anything short of a resignation. Mr Saleh must leave power in peace.
When moderates clash sedition prevails
When two of the most prominent religious figures among Sunnis and Shiites diverge, this means that we have reached the most advanced stage of sectarian dissent in our region, observed the columnist Abdulrahman Al Rashed in the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat.
The Sunni imam Sheikh Yussef al Qardawi spent years building bridges with leading Shiite religious men, sharing their Islamic majlis and leading a campaign against Sunni radicals to end the sectarian dissent during periods of unrest in Iraq. As for the Shiite Sheikh Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, he has for a long time been a safety valve for security in Iraq and played an essential role in defending Iraqi Sunnis.
But recent statements from both men are most disconcerting. While Sheikh Qardawi interprets events in Bahrain as a Shiite sedition plan targeting the Sunnis and an expression of a sectarian Shiite hatred, Sheikh Sistani's office issued a statement condemning what he calls a massacre of Shiites in Bahrain.
"Does the Bahraini situation truly call for these battles between Iran, Iraq and Lebanon on one side and the Gulf states on the other?"
No one denies the problematic nature of Bahrain's reality and the fairness of a number of the opposition's demands, but unfortunately, they have all been reduced to a mere slogan in dirty sectarian war.
Israeli intervention is unacceptable
"The reports released this week in Israel revealed that the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was carrying out contacts with the US and EU to foil the Palestinian Authority's president Mahmoud Abbas's attempt to restore national unity," noted the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds in its editorial.
The Israeli efforts to thwart the Palestinian initiative are out of place and give rise to censure and condemnation. Israel or any other third party has no right to interfere in internal Palestinian affairs, especially when what's at stake is an attempt to establish a government of national unity and organise new general elections.
Surprisingly, the justification put forth by Israel to disrupt the peace process and evade the requirements necessary for solving the Palestinian issue was irrational. It argued that Palestinians are divided in terms of the very nature of reconciliation and the type of future government.
Mr Netanyahu went on to say that some of the potential figures of the future Palestinian government rejected the existence of Israel. By saying this, he just ignored the basic fact that the formation of any Palestinian government will depend above all on a clear commitment to the Oslo Accord and other relevant international treaties.
This new manoeuvre by Mr Netanyahu should prompt all Palestinian factions to join efforts and achieve their national project.
Muammar Qaddafi rules no one anymore
"Muammar Qaddafi's success in rallying an international coalition against him is unprecedented, declared the Emirati daily Akhbar Al Khaleej in its editorial. "He even surpassed Saddam Hussein who had the world divided about attacking him as France had refrained from joining forces with the US and Britain in a military operation in Iraq, whereas it now leads the coalition against Col Qaddafi."
Col Qaddafi could have stopped all military operations and retained a margin of political and diplomatic manoeuvring that would have allowed him to strike a deal that would guarantee him a decent exit from power. But he chose an irrational confrontation that puts Libya on the road to hardship and himself on the fast track to an international trial as a war criminal.
Col Qaddafi has no more room for manoeuvre now. He has no more time for deception. He lost all his friends and supporters in the world. He no longer leads anyone in Libya.
"We have no advice to offer Col Qaddafi at the moment but to apologise for his mistakes and step down immediately to save his country from an ominous fate."
* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk
translation@thenational.ae
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
- Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
- Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
- Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
- Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
- Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Coffee: black death or elixir of life?
It is among the greatest health debates of our time; splashed across newspapers with contradicting headlines - is coffee good for you or not?
Depending on what you read, it is either a cancer-causing, sleep-depriving, stomach ulcer-inducing black death or the secret to long life, cutting the chance of stroke, diabetes and cancer.
The latest research - a study of 8,412 people across the UK who each underwent an MRI heart scan - is intended to put to bed (caffeine allowing) conflicting reports of the pros and cons of consumption.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, contradicted previous findings that it stiffens arteries, putting pressure on the heart and increasing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, leading to warnings to cut down.
Numerous studies have recognised the benefits of coffee in cutting oral and esophageal cancer, the risk of a stroke and cirrhosis of the liver.
The benefits are often linked to biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols, which benefit the body. These and othetr coffee compounds regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, which is linked to type-2 diabetes.
But as doctors warn, too much of anything is inadvisable. The British Heart Foundation found the heaviest coffee drinkers in the study were most likely to be men who smoked and drank alcohol regularly.
Excessive amounts of coffee also unsettle the stomach causing or contributing to stomach ulcers. It also stains the teeth over time, hampers absorption of minerals and vitamins like zinc and iron.
It also raises blood pressure, which is largely problematic for people with existing conditions.
So the heaviest drinkers of the black stuff - some in the study had up to 25 cups per day - may want to rein it in.
Rory Reynolds
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
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ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
if you go
The flights
Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return.
The trek
Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required.
TWISTERS
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos
Rating: 2.5/5
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet
Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Long Shot
Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogan
Four stars
