This all began in April, when Ferguson, a McDonald’s all-American, played in the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Ore. After the game, he said, his mother, Rachelle Holdman, delivered some unexpected news: A representative from an Australian team wanted to meet with them over dinner. Continue reading the main story At the time, neither Ferguson nor his mother knew that Australia even had a professional league. But […]
For Tom Lemming, a recruiting expert who has published Prep Football Magazine for nearly four decades, the ideal community for high school football “has got to be a town that doesn’t have a professional team, one that has a tradition for high school football, builds the kids up with youth leagues and youth programs — which towns in the South do much more than in the North.” […]
DUBAI // Few sports can match the calorie-burning potential of squash, and coaches in Dubai are making it more accessible to children to help defeat the nation’s obesity problem. Coaches are being brought in by Dubai’s Elite Squash to lead lessons in schools and encourage more young people to take up the sport. As well as coaching clinics, Neil Young has started a squash programme with the […]
Rock On 2 Directed by: Sujaat Saudagar Starring: Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shraddha Kapoor, Purab Kohli Two and a half stars Farhan Akhtar and his crew of motley musicians are back for a sequel to the 2008 hit Rock On – and what an enormous let down it is. Akhtar reprises his role as Adi, the angst-ridden lead singer of (pseudo) rock band Magik (what five-year-old thought […]
Photo A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a United States-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, inside Syria. Credit Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump said Friday that he was likely to abandon the American effort to support “moderate” opposition groups in Syria who are battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, saying “we have no idea who these people are.” In an interview […]
DUBAI // About 2,300 children from 30 countries – including 900 youngsters from the emirates – took part in a mental arithmetic challenge on Friday at Hamdan Sports Complex in Dubai. The UCMAS International and 13th National Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Competition was the first time the competition was held in the Middle East, demanding all sorts of mental gymnastics from children as young as four. Universal […]
Opponents of a Donald Trump presidency are fuelling a surge in donations to non-profit organisations and charities over fears that a Republican-controlled government will roll back progressive initiatives concerning the environment, immigrants, women and gay marriage rights. The Sierra Club, a 125-year-old environmental group, and the American Civil Liberties Union have reported record donation rates, while dozens of other groups have also issued new marketing campaigns to […]
Just like the bulk of political pundits and mainstream media commentators, opportunistic internet entrepreneurs were caught off guard by the shock result of Tuesday’s United States presidential election. The day after Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States it was still possible to find “Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump” T-shirts and hoodies online. But the full story of the shock sustained by […]
LOS ANGELES // Leonard Cohen, the baritone-voiced Canadian singer-songwriter who seamlessly blended spirituality and human relationships in songs like Hallelujah, Suzanne and Bird on a Wire, has died at age 82, his son said Thursday. “My father passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles,” Adam Cohen said in a statement. “He was writing up until his last moments with his unique brand of humour.” Cohen, […]
ERBIL, Iraq — More than two years ago, a Christian farmer in his 70s named Mosa Zachariah fled his village near Mosul with, as he put it, only the pants he was wearing. He left behind his house, “tons of wheat” and a BMW. But now that his town, an early target of the Iraqi security forces as they advance on Mosul itself, has been cleared of […]
I took this video while on what often felt like a surreal bus ride through war-torn Syria. The video begins on the edge of the city of Aleppo, its western, government-held half. The area we drove through is all government held but has been intensely fought over, again and again, and has changed hands several times. The route we took connects the city to a key supply […]
ABU DHABI // The Duchess of Cornwall visited some feathered patients at the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, on the second day of her UAE tour with Prince Charles. Camilla watched as staff operated on a falcon and other birds being treated at the hospital’s veterinary centre, after hearing about falconry’s role in Arab culture during her visit on Monday. The duchess also met a group of children […]
JERUSALEM — The two teenage cousins met after school, discussed the tensions surrounding the Aqsa Mosque and other issues angering the Palestinians. They decided to avenge their grievances with knives. The younger one, Ahmad Manasra, 13, took a decorative six-inch blade from a cupboard in his parents’ bedroom, according to newly released legal documents. Hassan Manasra, 15, armed himself with a large kitchen knife. The pair then […]
By ISABEL KERSHNER November 7, 2016 JERUSALEM — The two teenage cousins met after school, discussed the tensions surrounding the Aqsa Mosque and other issues angering the Palestinians. They decided to avenge their grievances with knives. The younger one, Ahmad Manasra, 13, took a decorative six-inch blade from a cupboard in his parents’ bedroom, according to newly released legal documents. Hassan Manasra, 15, armed himself with a large kitchen […]
Carnegie Mellon University plans to announce on Wednesday that it will create a research center that focuses on the ethics of artificial intelligence. The ethics center, called the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies, is being established at a time of growing international concern about the impact of A.I. technologies. That has already led to an array of academic, governmental and private efforts to explore […]
DUBAI // A group of students passionate about making a positive change have organised an official TEDx talk to inspire others to play active and positive roles in the community. The Year 11 pupils from Cambridge International School in Dubai have been working for more than a year to obtain permission for a TEDx event – an offshoot of the global conferences that bring together people to […]
FUJAIRAH // Their schoolmates can only dream of driving a fast vehicle at their age, but seven lucky youngsters are learning how to handle motorised boats in a course designed for children under the age of 15. They are the first chosen to take part in month-long courses devised by the new Fujairah Marine Youth Training Centre, which aims to keep the seafaring traditions of the UAE […]
Young people in the UAE and wider GCC desire early independence and the opportunity to turn their passion into a sustainable career, according to a new study. They also want this career to be mutually beneficial for them and for their wider communities, said the study released by Expo Dubai 2020. Expo 2020 Dubai has worked with market research firm YouGov to gather the opinions of youth […]
The Interpreter By AMANDA TAUB It is a truth universally acknowledged by every war correspondent, humanitarian aid worker and Western diplomat: Some wars, like Syria’s, receive tremendous public attention, which can translate into pressure for resolution. But many others, like Yemen’s still raging but much ignored conflict, do not. Some of the reasons are obvious; the scale of Syria’s war is catastrophic and much worse than Yemen’s. […]
DUBAI // City authorities plan to make Dubai fully accessible to the disabled. Surveys in hospitals, hotels, mosques, malls, schools and transport hubs will determine what needs to be done. Finding a way for disabled people to get from their homes to any destination by public transport is a challenge, but it is not impossible, planners say. Senior officials from transport authorities, the municipality and disability support […]
By HWAIDA SAAD and NICK CUMMING-BRUCE September 30, 2016 BEIRUT, Lebanon — An array of groups allied with the Syrian government pressed an assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Friday, as the World Health Organization said heavy bombardment of the area by Russia and Syria had killed 338 people in the last week, including more than 100 children. With more of the city’s already limited hospitals destroyed in the latest offensive, […]
The UAE was ranked first regionally and 16th globally in the latest Global Competitiveness Report issued by the World Economic Forum (Davos) in Switzerland. The report is one of the most important global competitiveness reports, which monitors annual performance and competitiveness of the economies of countries in terms of strength, weakness, impact on quality of life, prosperity and well-being of people. Switzerland, Singapore and the United States […]
Two years ago, Meitha Al Mazrooei and Rand Abdul Jabbar, two young architects, decided to form a partnership. The decision was born of frustration. Both had spent years studying their profession, Al Mazrooei at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) and Abdul Jabbar at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and Columbia University in New York, but given their views on the way that architecture is understood and […]
ABU DHABI // A school bus carrying children to class veered off the road and crashed into a palm tree lining a major road in the capital. The vehicle left the road and crashed into the tree on Khaleej Al Arabi Street just after 8.35am. Photographs seen by The National show significant damage to the front of one bus. Unofficial reports suggest two buses were involved – […]
