An activist who founded an NGO to help Kurdish and Yazidi victims recover from the horrors of ISIS control died from Covid-19 in Stockholm.
Humanitarian Dr Nemam Ghafouri, 52, was described on Facebook her brother Karwan Ghafouri as “beautiful, brave, determined and joyful”.
“You came into this world amidst war, born in a cave, lived your life to the fullest like a hurricane of hope and you left this world with strength,” he wrote.
Lokman Atroshi, director general of the Swedish Specialist Hospital, also used social media to express his grief at the loss of his “dear friend”.
She “sacrificed her life, career and health for justice and to help vulnerable people of Kurdistan,” Dr Atroshi wrote on Facebook.
Sweden is in the midst of a third wave of Covid-19 infections, with cases rising sharply in recent weeks.
“The other day … I went to the cave I was born in, every time, it feels like [being] reborn again,” Dr Ghafouri wrote in one of her last posts on Facebook in March.
In a 2016 interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine the cardiothoracic surgeon spoke about being born in the cave her family was sheltering in to avoid Iraqi air forces.
Her Kurdish father, a peshmerga who was fighting Saddam Hussein’s army, eventually took the family to Iran and then to Sweden, where Dr Ghafouri studied, trained and practised medicine for decades.
After the emergence of ISIS in Iraq and the atrocities and humanitarian disasters that followed, the doctor left Sweden and travelled to the region to offer her medical expertise on the front line.
"I was born in the mountains during the war, so I know what it's like to be a refugee. That is why I know how to help refugees now," she told the Danish-Kurdish newspaper Jiyan in 2015.
In 2014, she set up the organisation Joint Help for Kurdistan (JHK) in response to the Sinjar massacre in the same year, which marked the beginning of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIS. During ISIS's reign of terror, thousands of women and children were enslaved and raped, and hundreds of thousands from the community became displaced.
In one of the last posts on her Facebook page, the doctor noted how little had changed in the place she was born. “The sounds of water, the smell of greens, playful kids ... all could suddenly mix with smell and sounds of napalm and the deadly silence afterwards.”
She ended her post with the ominous warning: “We have come long, yet not far enough from the same danger.”
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
Last-16 Europa League fixtures
Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)
FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm
Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm
Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm
Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm
Thursday
Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm
Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm
FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm
Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Remaining Fixtures
Wednesday: West Indies v Scotland
Thursday: UAE v Zimbabwe
Friday: Afghanistan v Ireland
Sunday: Final
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor