Former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei, also known as Abu Al Alaa, died on Wednesday. He was 85.
Sources close to Mr Qurei's family said he recently suffered from infections that required hospital treatment. He received intravenous antibiotics, but his condition deteriorated overnight.
“With great sadness, we mourn the death of the national leader, Ahmed Qurei, ‘Abu Al Alaa’, who passed away. We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return. May his soul RIP,” Palestinian Authority official Hussein Al Sheikh said on Twitter.
Mr Qurei held positions in the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Fatah movement, serving on the PLO Executive Committee, and led the Palestinian Authority team that negotiated with Israel.
As a member of the Fatah Central Committee, Mr Qurei played an important role in the negotiations leading to the 1993 Oslo Accords.
From 1994 to 1996, he served as Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry in the first Palestinian government.
In 2000, he took part in negotiations at Camp David in the US with Ehud Barak, Israeli prime minister at the time.
Mr Qurei served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority for two terms between 2003 and 2006.
In 2010, Israel revoked his diplomatic privileges after he suggested the PA would have to use violence if the peace talks failed.
Israeli police arrested him in 2013 at the entrance to the Maaleh Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described Mr Qurei as a "great patriotic fighter" before a ceremony to honour him at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.
"Abu Al Alaa spent his life as a solid fighter defending Palestine, its cause, its people and its independent national decision," Mr Abbas said.
Mr Qurei's body will be taken from Ramallah to his home village of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, where he will be laid to rest after the asr prayer.
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Company%20profile
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
