• Floodwaters overflow the banks of the Seine river near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Etienne Laurent / EPA
    Floodwaters overflow the banks of the Seine river near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Etienne Laurent / EPA
  • Workers pump water from the Javel railway station, flooded due to the high level of the Seine River in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP
    Workers pump water from the Javel railway station, flooded due to the high level of the Seine River in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP
  • Floodwaters overflow the banks of the Seine river near Notre Dame in Paris. Etienne Laurent / EPA
    Floodwaters overflow the banks of the Seine river near Notre Dame in Paris. Etienne Laurent / EPA
  • Men take pictures of a street lamp on the flooded banks of the River Seine in Paris, France, after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country. Christian Hartmann / Reuters
    Men take pictures of a street lamp on the flooded banks of the River Seine in Paris, France, after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country. Christian Hartmann / Reuters
  • The flooded Ile aux Cygnes and banks of the river Seine with a model of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Leaks were starting to appear on January 26 in the basements of Paris buildings as the Seine inched higher, with forecasters warning that the river could stay high throughout next wee. Ludovic Marin / AFP
    The flooded Ile aux Cygnes and banks of the river Seine with a model of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Leaks were starting to appear on January 26 in the basements of Paris buildings as the Seine inched higher, with forecasters warning that the river could stay high throughout next wee. Ludovic Marin / AFP
  • The flooded banks of the river Seine and the Beaugrenelle area and Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP
    The flooded banks of the river Seine and the Beaugrenelle area and Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP
  • A man looks at the flooded banks of the river Seine and the Beaugrenelle area and Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP
    A man looks at the flooded banks of the river Seine and the Beaugrenelle area and Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP
  • The flooded Ile aux Cygnes and banks of the river Seine with a model of the Statue of Liberty in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP
    The flooded Ile aux Cygnes and banks of the river Seine with a model of the Statue of Liberty in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP

Paris on high alert for floods as river Seine continues to swell


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Paris was on high alert for flooding on Saturday as the swollen Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters warning the river could stay high throughout next week.

Leaks started to appear in some basements on Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

The Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie museums were on high alert, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

A health centre in the northwestern Parisian suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, had to be evacuated on Friday.

Over 650 people were also evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying water levels would reach a maximum height of 5.8 to 6 metres between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, compared with the 6.2 metres it had previously predicted.

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But that would still bring the Seine four to five metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

It was enough to worry Joao de Macedo, the janitor of a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers had been lifted off the floor as water seeped through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France's meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream had been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

But forecasters said the rainfall in recent days had not been enough to push the Seine beyond their expectations.

"We've been reassured, it will keep the water level high but not increase it," said Francois Duquesne of the Vigicrues floods agency, though he warned of the risk for more rain next week.

"If it rains again from the middle of next week, something I'm not sure of at this point, we're not necessarily done with this yet," said Marc Mortureux, risk prevention director at the French environment ministry.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday of next week, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris, the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the outskirts of the capital were under water on Saturday, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens had been evacuated from their homes.

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Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Wicked: For Good

Director: Jon M Chu

Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater

Rating: 4/5

Disclaimer

Director: Alfonso Cuaron 

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville 

Rating: 4/5

PROFILE OF STARZPLAY

Date started: 2014

Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand

Number of employees: 125

Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners

Company%20profile
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Harry Kane, Tottenham, Premier League, 24 goals, 48 points
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Ciro Immobile, Lazio, Serie A, 23 goals, 46 points
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The biog

Name: Maitha Qambar

Age: 24

Emirate: Abu Dhabi

Education: Master’s Degree

Favourite hobby: Reading

She says: “Everyone has a purpose in life and everyone learns from their experiences”

How Beautiful this world is!
The specs
Engine: 2.5-litre, turbocharged 5-cylinder

Transmission: seven-speed auto

Power: 400hp

Torque: 500Nm

Price: Dh300,000 (estimate)

On sale: 2022 

Jewel of the Expo 2020

252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome

13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas

550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome

724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses

Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa

Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site

The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants

Al Wasl means connection in Arabic

World’s largest 360-degree projection surface

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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The Bio

Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity

The Bio

Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”

Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”

Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”

Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”

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THE SPECS

Engine: Four-cylinder 2.5-litre

Transmission: Seven-speed auto

Power: 165hp

Torque: 241Nm

Price: Dh99,900 to Dh134,000

On sale: now

The Penguin

Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz

Creator: Lauren LeFranc

Rating: 4/5

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RESULT

Arsenal 1 Chelsea 2
Arsenal:
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Chelsea: Jorginho (83'), Abraham (87') 

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana

Rating: 4.5/5

The%20specs
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