Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias (R) and his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio sign a maritime zone agreement at the Foreign Ministry in Athens AFP
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias (R) and his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio sign a maritime zone agreement at the Foreign Ministry in Athens AFP
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias (R) and his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio sign a maritime zone agreement at the Foreign Ministry in Athens AFP
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias (R) and his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio sign a maritime zone agreement at the Foreign Ministry in Athens AFP

Italy and Greece sign deal defining Mediterranean maritime zones


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Italy and Greece have signed a maritime border agreement defining their exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean amid escalating tensions in the region over rights to natural resources.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias signed the agreement at a meeting in Athens hailed by officials as “historic”.

The issue of Greece and Italy’s rights to resources in the Mediterranean was last agreed more than four decades ago.

“Today is a historic day. This is an important development, given that the previous agreement dates from 1977,” Mr Dendias said in a statement after the meeting.

“It remains our country’s firm pursuit to delimit the maritime zones with all of our neighbours, in the framework of international law,” he added.

The deal between the two countries comes on the heels of an agreement last November between the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya and Turkey, in which Ankara was granted access to maritime areas rich in natural resources in exchange for military assistance.

Supporters of Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Khalifa Haftar, celebrate on top of a Turkish military armored vehicle, which LNA said they confiscated during Tripoli clashes, in Benghazi. Reuters
Supporters of Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Khalifa Haftar, celebrate on top of a Turkish military armored vehicle, which LNA said they confiscated during Tripoli clashes, in Benghazi. Reuters

Greece, the UAE and regional powers have decried the 2019 deal as illegal.

Ankara’s intervention on the ground in Tripoli, supplying UAVs and thousands of fighters to GNA-aligned forces has tipped the balance of Libya’s internecine civil war in recent weeks.

Under attack for a year in Tripoli from forces loyal to the Libyan National Army (LNA) commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, since May the GNA has claimed a series of lightning victories in the west of the country.

The Greek foreign minister hit out at the Tripoli-Ankara deal in the eastern Mediterranean as “null and void” and condemned Turkish actions in Cyprus, Syria and Libya.

The civil war in Libya has increasingly intersected with the long-standing dispute between Turkey and Greece over the island of Cyprus and wider maritime borders. On Friday, Turkey announced its plans to begin drilling in the eastern Mediterranean before the end of the year.

Mr Dendias denounced the Turkish Petroleum Corporation’s applications as “illegal” once again.

Following the meeting between the Greek and Italian foreign ministers, the European Union renewed its calls on Tuesday for a ceasefire in Libya.

Egypt announced on Saturday a blueprint for a political settlement to the conflict in Libya and asked the UN to invite warring parties to Geneva to negotiate an agreement on implementing the plan. The GNA and Turkey have rejected the Cairo peace plan.

“In the aftermath of the constructive commitments to halt fighting, resume dialogue and reach a ceasefire within the framework of the 5+5 joint military committee, taken in Cairo on 6 June … [we] urge all Libyan and International parties to effectively and immediately stop all military operations," the statement from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Foreign Ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian of France, Heiko Maas of Germany and Mr Di Maio of Italy read.

At the start of this year, world powers met in Berlin at an international conference on Libya in a bid to extend a possible ceasefire. Fighting in the North African nation has intensified in the intervening months, however.

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Price, base / as tested Dh12 million

Engine 8.0-litre quad-turbo, W16

Gearbox seven-speed dual clutch auto

Power 1479 @ 6,700rpm

Torque 1600Nm @ 2,000rpm 0-100kph: 2.6 seconds 0-200kph: 6.1 seconds

Top speed 420 kph (governed)

Fuel economy, combined 35.2L / 100km (est)

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Publisher: Konami

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Rating: 4.5/5

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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo

Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm

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Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.5L/100km

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Director: M Night Shyamalan

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Three-day coronation

Royal purification

The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.

The crown

Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.

The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.

The audience

On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.

The procession

The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.

Meet the people

On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.

Profile of Udrive

Date started: March 2016

Founder: Hasib Khan

Based: Dubai

Employees: 40

Amount raised (to date): $3.25m – $750,000 seed funding in 2017 and a Seed round of $2.5m last year. Raised $1.3m from Eureeca investors in January 2021 as part of a Series A round with a $5m target.

Sarfira

Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal 

Rating: 2/5

The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo

Power: 258hp from 5,000-6,500rpm

Torque: 400Nm from 1,550-4,000rpm

Transmission: Eight-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 6.1L/100km

Price: from Dh362,500

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Company name: Nybl 

Date started: November 2018

Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence

Initial investment: $500,000

Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)

Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up 

UPI facts

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