Police cars park outside the Marseille railway station on October 1, 2017 after a knifeman stabbed two people. Claude Paris / The Associated Press
Police cars park outside the Marseille railway station on October 1, 2017 after a knifeman stabbed two people. Claude Paris / The Associated Press
Police cars park outside the Marseille railway station on October 1, 2017 after a knifeman stabbed two people. Claude Paris / The Associated Press
Police cars park outside the Marseille railway station on October 1, 2017 after a knifeman stabbed two people. Claude Paris / The Associated Press

Two women dead in Marseille train station knife attack


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Two women were killed by a man armed with a knife at the main train station in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille on Sunday before being shot by soldiers patrolling there.

One of the victims had her throat slit by the assailant, a man with a criminal record believed to be in his 30s who witnesses said shouted "Allahu akbar" before attacking the women.

French interior minister Gerard Collomb said about a dozen witnesses were being questioned.

"This act could be terrorist in nature but at this time we cannot confirm that," he added.

Soldiers serving in a special 7,000-strong force known as Sentinelle set up to guard vulnerable areas of the country responded to the stabbings and shot dead the attacker, whose identity remains unknown.

"I was on the esplanade just in front of the station," said Melanie Petit, an 18-year-old student. "I heard someone shout 'Allahu akbar' and I saw a man who seemed to be dressed all in black."

Heavily armed police sealed off and evacuated the ornate rail terminus in the bustling heart of France's second-biggest city, stopping all train traffic on some of the country's busiest lines.

The latest deaths come with France still on high alert and under a state of emergency following a string of attacks in recent years by extremists linked to ISIL or Al Qaeda.

Since 2015, a total of 239 people have been killed in France by extremists, according to an AFP count before Sunday's incident.

After the attack, anti-terror prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into "killings linked to a terrorist organisation" and the "attempted killing of a public official".

Travellers around the station described "controlled panic" as security forces evacuated passengers and looked for possible accomplices, while another witness said white sheets were placed over the bodies of the victims.

"There were police everywhere," said Francois Jacquel, a retired traveller who was in a waiting room.

The incident came only days after ISIL released a recording of what it said was its leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, urging his followers to strike their enemies in the West.

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Bitcoin is the most popular virtual currency in the world. It was created in 2009 as a new way of paying for things that would not be subject to central banks that are capable of devaluing currency. A Bitcoin itself is essentially a line of computer code. It's signed digitally when it goes from one owner to another. There are sustainability concerns around the cryptocurrency, which stem from the process of "mining" that is central to its existence.

The "miners" use computers to make complex calculations that verify transactions in Bitcoin. This uses a tremendous amount of energy via computers and server farms all over the world, which has given rise to concerns about the amount of fossil fuel-dependent electricity used to power the computers. 

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While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.

The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.

Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”

One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.

Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms. 

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Company profile

Name: Thndr

Started: October 2020

Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr

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Sector: FinTech

Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000

Funding stage: series A; $20 million

Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC,  Rabacap and MSA Capital

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A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.

New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.

Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.

Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.  

Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

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