The seventh-century Arabic poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah is said to have been deeply in love with a woman named Layla. He wrote to her and about her constantly, so much so that after his death, he was referred to as Majnun Layla, which translates to “the one mad about Layla”.
The 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi immortalised their tale with his poem titled Majnun Layla. Despite their deep affection, societal pressures and family opposition keep them apart. Layla is married off to another man, while Majnun retreats to the wilderness, composing verses in her memory. Their love, pure, yet tragic, symbolises the agony of longing and the spiritual depth of true devotion. It's often called the "Romeo and Juliet" of the East.
Majnoon (or majnun) comes from the word junoon, which is the Arabic word of the week. Junoon means madness and obsession, it can also convey anger and irrationality. Much like al-Mulawwah, a madman is a majnun and the plural is majaneen.
Junoon is also used in the context of losing focus and concentration. If a person does something illogical and out of character, an immediate response might be “inta janait?” which means "have you gone mad"?
One idiom that uses the word is “al junoon funoon”, which translates to “the art of madness”. It’s used when seemingly random things coalesce to create something that is beautiful together. Junoon is also the Arabic word used for the faint buzzing sound a fly makes.
The word is also found in other languages – it has the same meaning in Hindi and Urdu. It is also the title of the 2015 collaboration album Junun by English composer Jonny Greenwood, Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and the Indian ensemble, the Rajasthan Express.
Junoon can also be used to express delusions of grandeur disorder, junoon al athama. Delusions of grandeur are false beliefs in one’s extraordinary importance, talent or identity.
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Drivers’ championship standings after Singapore:
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - 263
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - 235
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - 212
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - 162
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari - 138
6. Sergio Perez, Force India - 68
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Company profile
Name: Tratok Portal
Founded: 2017
Based: UAE
Sector: Travel & tourism
Size: 36 employees
Funding: Privately funded
OTHER IPL BOWLING RECORDS
Best bowling figures: 6-14 – Sohail Tanvir (for Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings in 2008)
Best average: 16.36 – Andrew Tye
Best economy rate: 6.53 – Sunil Narine
Best strike-rate: 12.83 – Andrew Tye
Best strike-rate in an innings: 1.50 – Suresh Raina (for Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals in 2011)
Most runs conceded in an innings: 70 – Basil Thampi (for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2018)
Most hat-tricks: 3 – Amit Mishra
Most dot-balls: 1,128 – Harbhajan Singh
Most maiden overs bowled: 14 – Praveen Kumar
Most four-wicket hauls: 6 – Sunil Narine
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US' most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was first created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out projectiles, namely ballistic missiles, as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles both inside and outside of the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 93 miles above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then deployed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
