From left: Biswa Kalyan Rath, Sunidhi Chauhan and Hariharan will all be performing at an Abu Dhabi event to celebrate Indian Independence Day. Courtesy Front Row Events
From left: Biswa Kalyan Rath, Sunidhi Chauhan and Hariharan will all be performing at an Abu Dhabi event to celebrate Indian Independence Day. Courtesy Front Row Events
From left: Biswa Kalyan Rath, Sunidhi Chauhan and Hariharan will all be performing at an Abu Dhabi event to celebrate Indian Independence Day. Courtesy Front Row Events
Abu Dhabi will be marking Indian Independence Day this month with three days of live events at Abu Dhabi's National Theatre. Hosted by the Department of Culture and Tourism, the Indian Ambassador, Navdeep Singh Suri, will be in attendance to inaugurate the opening ceremony.
The three-day Jai Ho programme kicks off on Thursday, August 22, and will offer comedy, Bollywood and musical performances.
Check out the full Jai Ho schedule here:
Thursday, August 22: Comedy
Two of India's most popular comedians, Amit Tandon and Biswa Kalyan Rath, will appear on stage together.
According to organisers, Tandon will charm with his "universal" humour, as he is "famous for his sharp observational comedy and hilarious, hugely relatable anecdotes". Tandon’s nickname in the stand-up comedy circuit is “the married guy”.
Get a taste of Tandon's stand-up here:
Former YouTuber Rath, who is also an ex-engineer and ex-coder, will bring "angry rants bordering on what's socially acceptable".
The event will be in a mix of Hindi and English, with a PG15 rating.
Doors open at 8pm, show from 9pm, Thursday, August 22, Abu Dhabi National Theatre, tickets start at Dh75. Find more information here
Friday, August 23: Bollywood
Day two will feature a performance by "the Queen of Bollywood music", Sunidhi Chauhan. Expect her to belt out favourite hits, including Sajna Ji Vaari Vaari (Honeymoon Travels), Desi Girl (Dostana), Halka Halka (Fanney Khan), Bidi (Omkara), Sheila Ki Jawani and more. In her long and distinguised career, Chauhan has lent her voice to songs in more than 500 movies.
Doors open at 8pm, show from 9pm, Friday, August 23, Abu Dhabi National Theatre, tickets start at Dh75. Find more information here
Sunidhi Chauhan performing at Emirates Palace. Courtesy Flash Entertainment
Saturday, August 24: Classical music
The final day of the Jai Ho series will feature versatile playback singer Hariharan. One of the pioneers of Indian fusion music, Hariharan has a song bank in various languages including Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. He is admired for his work in movies like Rangeela, Taal and Bombay.
Doors open at 8pm, show from 9pm, Saturday, August 24, Abu Dhabi National Theatre, tickets start at Dh75. Find more information here
The Bollywood singer Hariharan will perform in Dubai on August 24. Courtesy Southbank Centre
Gold
Faisal Al Ketbi (Open weight and 94kg)
Talib Al Kirbi (69kg)
Omar Al Fadhli (56kg)
Silver
Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)
Khalfan Belhol (85kg)
Zayed Al Mansoori (62kg)
Mouza Al Shamsi (49kg women)
Bronze
Yahia Mansour Al Hammadi (Open and 94kg)
Saood Al Hammadi (77kg)
Said Al Mazroui (62kg)
Obaid Al Nuaimi (56kg)
Bashayer Al Matrooshi (62kg women)
Reem Abdulkareem (45kg women)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
Priority access to new homes from participating developers
Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
Flexible payment plans from developers
Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Who is Mohammed Al Halbousi?
The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.
