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The freighter MV Rubymar, which was targeted in an attack by Houthi rebels on February 18, has sunk in the Red Sea, Yemen's government said on Saturday.
Experts told The National last week that the failure to recover the ship could lead to an environmental disaster as its cargo of more than 20,000 tonnes of fertiliser could damage the region’s fragile ecology.
Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak said the ship's sinking was an “environmental catastrophe that Yemen and the region have never experienced before”.
“It is a new tragedy for our country and our people. Every day, we pay for the Houthi militia’s adventures, which were not stopped at plunging Yemen into the coup disaster and war,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Rubymar was heading for Bulgaria when it was struck by Yemen's Houthis, who have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea since November, in a campaign the group says is aimed at disrupting global trade to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
The ship had been taking on water since it was hit by two Houthi ballistic missiles, one of which pierced its side. Photos released showed the vessel's stern submerged to deck level. Fuel leaking from the ship had created a 30km-long slick.
The Rubymar is the first vessel to be sunk since Iran-aligned Houthi forces began drone and missile attacks in mid-November against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab Al Mandeb – a route that accounts for about 12 per cent of the world's shipping traffic.
The militia has vowed to continue their attacks as long as Israel continues to commit “crimes” against Palestinians.
The ship’s cargo of fertiliser could have disastrous ecological consequences in the Red Sea, according to Sammy Kayed, an environmental expert who has worked with the UN.
The area is home to a delicate aquatic ecosystem with coral reefs as far south as the Bab Al Mandeb.
“Essentially, a fertiliser spill would cause a rapid nutrient increase, which means it gives a lot of food or nutrition for algae to bloom rapidly and this will disrupt the balance of marine ecosystems,” Mr Kayed told The National.
“And then you'd have oxygen depletion, where the algae breaks down and consumes a lot of oxygen and leads to very low dissolved oxygen levels, which leads to dead zones where aquatic life can't survive,” he said.
“If the current takes the spill towards the coast where the corals are, the algae brooms would block and deprive coral reefs of sunlight and that would cause serious damage to coral reefs,” he said.
“If there is a lot of ammonium in the water it can also be toxic to marine organisms. It will damage gills, cause respiratory stress or failure, and neurological effects.
“All this puts stress on a very biodiverse part of the world. Southern Red Sea coral reefs are some of the most pristine and undisturbed in the world.”
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Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
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'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore'
Rating: 3/5
Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Mads Mikkelson, Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, Jude Law
The 15 players selected
Muzzamil Afridi, Rahman Gul, Rizwan Haider (Dezo Devils); Shahbaz Ahmed, Suneth Sampath (Glory Gladiators); Waqas Gohar, Jamshaid Butt, Shadab Ahamed (Ganga Fighters); Ali Abid, Ayaz Butt, Ghulam Farid, JD Mahesh Kumara (Hiranni Heros); Inam Faried, Mausif Khan, Ashok Kumar (Texas Titans
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Director: Jake Kasdan
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Nick Jonas
Two out of five stars
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Wenger's Arsenal reign in numbers
1,228 - games at the helm, ahead of Sunday's Premier League fixture against West Ham United.
704 - wins to date as Arsenal manager.
3 - Premier League title wins, the last during an unbeaten Invincibles campaign of 2003/04.
1,549 - goals scored in Premier League matches by Wenger's teams.
10 - major trophies won.
473 - Premier League victories.
7 - FA Cup triumphs, with three of those having come the last four seasons.
151 - Premier League losses.
21 - full seasons in charge.
49 - games unbeaten in the Premier League from May 2003 to October 2004.
Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta
Quercus
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
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1. Featherweight 66kg
Ben Lucas (AUS) v Ibrahim Kendil (EGY)
2. Lightweight 70kg
Mohammed Kareem Aljnan (SYR) v Alphonse Besala (CMR)
3. Welterweight 77kg
Marcos Costa (BRA) v Abdelhakim Wahid (MAR)
4. Lightweight 70kg
Omar Ramadan (EGY) v Abdimitalipov Atabek (KGZ)
5. Featherweight 66kg
Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Kagimu Kigga (UGA)
6. Catchweight 85kg
Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) v Iuri Fraga (BRA)
7. Featherweight 66kg
Yousef Al Husani (UAE) v Mohamed Allam (EGY)
8. Catchweight 73kg
Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Abdipatta Abdizhali (KGZ)
9. Featherweight 66kg
Jaures Dea (CMR) v Andre Pinheiro (BRA)
10. Catchweight 90kg
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Juscelino Ferreira (BRA)
The specs
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Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
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The specs
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Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj and Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper)
Last-16
France 4
Griezmann (13' pen), Pavard (57'), Mbappe (64', 68')
Argentina 3
Di Maria (41'), Mercado (48'), Aguero (90 3')
