Day: April 26, 2024

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday launched a regional office in Riyadh, becoming the Fund’s first office in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The office was launched during the Joint Regional Conference on Industrial Policy for Diversification, jointly organized by the IMF and the Ministry of Finance.

The new office aims to strengthen capacity building, regional surveillance, and outreach to foster stability, growth, and regional integration, thereby promoting partnerships in the Middle East and beyond.

Additionally, the office will facilitate closer collaboration between the IMF and regional institutions, governments, and other stakeholders.

The IMF expressed its appreciation to Saudi Arabia for its financial contribution aimed at enhancing capacity development in IMF member countries, including fragile states.

Abdoul Aziz Wane, a seasoned IMF director with an extensive understanding of the institution and a broad network of policymakers and academics worldwide, will serve as th
e first director of the Riyadh office.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Doha: HH the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Thani sent a cable of congratulations to HE President of the United Republic of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan on the anniversary of her country’s Union Day.

Source: Qatar News Agency

Doha: HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani sent a cable of congratulations to HE President of the United Republic of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan on the anniversary of her country’s Union Day.

Source: Qatar News Agency

China adheres to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, and commits to promoting the stable, healthy, and sustainable development of China-US relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi affirmed during his talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who is currently Beijing.

China’s request has always been consistent. China proposes to respect each other’s core interests, and urges the US side not to interfere in China’s internal affairs, suppress China’s development, or cross China’s red lines when it comes to China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests, Wang said, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Blinken had expressed his hope for progress regarding the US concerns about China’s “unfair trade practices.” Blinken’s three-day visit to China comes five months after a summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The summit resulted in a decrease in tensions, the re-establishment of contacts between the two countries’ milita
ries, and bilateral cooperation in the field of combating drugs.

Source: Qatar News Agency

The US Department of State announced today the appointment of Lise Grande as the new Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues.

Grande, who replaces David Satterfield, is currently head of the independent US Institute of Peace. She previously worked for the United Nations for more than 25 years, a career that included running aid operations in Yemen, Iraq and South Sudan.

Source: Qatar News Agency

North Korea has tested 240mm multiple-launch rocket systems, manufactured at its new defense enterprise, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The tests aimed at evaluating the equipments key parameters, and were attended by the countrys leader Kim Jong Un.

He said the systems feature advanced technologies and “will contribute to strategic changes in the process of strengthening the artillery forces.” He underscored the need for the state-owned enterprise to “surely carry out the munitions production plan for this year in a qualitative way” and affirmed the rocket launcher system would help bolster the country’s artillery force, according to the KCNA.

The national defense industrial enterprise was established under the wing of the Second Economy Commission, an organization in charge of North Korea’s munitions industry. The KCNA did not disclose other details, but it is rare for the North to publicly reveal a munitions factory under such a name.

In February, the North said it had newly developed
“controllable” 240 mm rocket launcher shells, a move that could boost its weapons capabilities with improvements in range and precision. The 240 mm multiple rocket launchers are believed to target South Korea’s broader capital area.

Source: Qatar News Agency

US troops have begun construction of a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory, the Pentagon said.

“As an update for our humanitarian assistance support operations to establish the maritime corridor off the coast of Gaza, I can confirm that US military vessels to include the USS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Pentagon spokesman Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a press briefing.

He added, “We’ll provide much more information in the very near future as we work alongside the international community to rush aid to the people of Gaza.” Ryder said the pier would likely be up and running by early May, and last month said it would take up to 1,000 servicemembers to complete it.

The modular causeway system would consist of an offshore platform where ships could deposit aid that would be taken by the Army to a motorized string of steel causeway sections that have been pushed to the
shore.

“Simply put, they’ll establish a temporary offshore maritime pier that allows for shipping vessels to transfer cargo to smaller vessels to transport and offload cargo to a temporary causeway for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Ryder said in March, while adding, “The concept that is being planned involves the presence of US military personnel on military vessels offshore, but does not require US military personnel to go ashore.” The US government announced at the beginning of March that it intended to help set up a temporary harbor to bring food, water and medicine to the war zone in view of the humanitarian emergency in the Palestinian territory.

Source: Qatar News Agency

Doha: Weather inshore until 6:00 pm on Friday will be misty to fogy at places at first, becomes relatively hot during daytime, the Department of Meteorology said in its daily weather report, warning of expected poor horizontal visibility at places at first.

Offshore, the weather will be misty at places at first, becomes hazy later, the report added.

Wind inshore will be variable at a speed less than 5 knot at first, becomes mainly northeasterly- southeasterly at a speed of 3 to 13 knot.

Offshore, it will be variable at first, becomes northwesterly – northeasterly at a speed of 5 to 15 knot.

Visibility inshore will be 4 to 8 km/2 km or less at places at first. Offshore, it will be 4 to 9 km/3 km or less at places at first.

Sea state inshore will be 1 to 2 feet, while offshore, it will be 2 to 4 feet.

Area High Tide Low Tide Max Messaid 05:49 – 20:15 02:08 – 12:43 32 Wakrah 05:16 – 19:35 01:42 – 12:12 31 Doha 04:38 – 18:42 01:04 – 12:28 33 Al Khor 04:53 – 18:41 00:44 – 12:39 32 Ruwais 06:24 – 18:31 00:43
– 12:27 28 Dukhan 12:03 – 05:56 – 17:57 30 Abu Samra 11:14 – 23:25 05:19 – 17:32 33 Sunrise: 05:00 LT Sunset: 18:02 LT

Source: Qatar News Agency

Threads platform announced that it intends to launch a new feature that lets users filter out words and phrases from their feeds and mentions.

The “Hidden Words” feature automatically mutes common words, phrases, and emojis that might be offensive to users. In addition to these preset filters, users can add their own custom words and phrases in the settings. Users can turn these settings off at any point in time, according to the platform.

Threads said that the feature will filter out content from both the “Following” and “For You” feeds, search results, profiles, and replies to posts.

The platform is also testing two additional features: muting and quote controls. The first would allow you to mute notifications specifically for any interactions with your posts. This way, you could still get alerts about new followers or tags without seeing every response.

Quote controls would let you choose who can quote your post and even let you unquote yourself. Meta has yet to announce when these two features might
be available to all Threads users.

Source: Qatar News Agency

Chinese Oppo has launched its latest budget offering, the Oppo A60. The new A-series lineup phone was previously spotted across various certification and benchmark listings, indicating its imminent arrival.

The Oppo A60 comes with a 6.67-inch IPS LCD screen featuring an HD+ resolution of 1604 x 720 pixels, a refresh rate of 90 Hz, and a peak brightness of 950 nits. The device incorporates a side-facing fingerprint scanner for security, according to the company.

The A60t features a 6nm-built Snapdragon 680 4G chipset and 8 GB of LPDDR4x RAM. Storage options include 128 GB and 25 6GB variants, with expandable storage of up to 1TB via the microSD card slot. The device packs a 5,000mAh battery with support for 45W SuperVOOC fast charging.

On the imaging front, the Oppo A60 sports a dual-camera setup with a 50-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel secondary lens. The device features an 8-megapixel front camera for selfies.

The Oppo A60 features an all-plastic build in blue and purple color options, measu
ring 7.68mm thick and weighing 186 grams. The device offers an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance. Additionally, it offers stereo audio via a dual speaker setup and includes a 3.5mm audio jack for wired earphones. It comes preloaded with ColorOS 14, based on Android 14.

Source: Qatar News Agency