Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) provided urgent aid to Yemenis in the Al-Mahra Governorate who were affected by recent torrential rainfall and floods, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday. 

At least 50 tents and 50 shelter bags were distributed to 300 people as part of the center’s emergency relief project, Saudi state news agency SPA reported. 

Al-Mahra, as well as other southern and eastern governorates in Yemen, have witnessed heavy rain this month. 

KSrelief’s immediate response was a continuation of the Kingdom’s efforts to provide support to Yemenis across several regions in the country. 

The center has also launched dozens of projects to support Yemen’s health sector and provide medical aid and services to the public. (SPA)

The center has also launched dozens of projects to support Yemen’s health sector and provide medical aid and services to the public.  

In July 3,606 people received medical services provided by KSrelief in the Hiran District in the Hajjah Governorate, the report added.

NAJRAN: Authorities in Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday that border patrols foiled an attempt to smuggle 20.6kg of hashish into the country's Najran region.  The smugglers, who are Ethiopian nationals, were arrested in the mission, according to state news agency SPA. 

Reports also suggest that the recipients, who are Saudi nationals, were also apprehended.

RIYADH: A bus carrying 23 Saudi tourists has been involved in a traffic incident in Turkey, Al Ekhbariya TV reported early on Sunday.

The sketchy report said four of the bus passengers were children.

Four people were taken to hospital and treated for moderate and minor injuries, it said. 

The Saudi Embassy in Ankara is following up on the health status of Saudi tourists, Al-Ekhbariya added.

The report said that the bus accident occurred in the northeastern Turkish city of Rize, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

On Saturday, at least 34 people were reported killed and dozens injured in two separate road accidents in Turkey, both in the country's south

A first crash involving a bus and an ambulance killed 15 people and injured 31 more on a motorway in Gaziantep province, said local officials.

Governor Davut Gul said earlier the accident had involved “a bus, an emergency team and an ambulance” on the route between provincial capital Gaziantep and Nizip.

The DHA news agency said a passenger bus had crashed into an ambulance, a firefighting truck and a vehicle carrying journalists at the site of a previous crash.

Three paramedics, three firefighters and two journalists from Turkey’s Ilhas news agency were among those killed, local media reported.

In the second accident which happened at Derik in Mardin province, 250 kilometers away away from the first one, reports said the emergency services were also attending to an earlier incident at the site when a truck plowed into a crowd of onlookers.

Some 26 people were injured, six of them seriously, by the hurtling truck, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter.

The accident in Derik in Mardin province “occurred after the breaks gave out on a lorry, which hit a crowd,” Koca wrote. 

JEDDAH: The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has announced the birth of two female Arabian leopard cubs, one of the world’s most endangered animals.

The RCU tweeted a video of the newborn Arabian leopard cubs playing together at the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Center for Wildlife Research, where they were born.

The US embassy in Riyadh praised the efforts of the RCU in preserving one of the most endangered species via a message on Twitter: “We congratulate Saudi Arabia on the birth of “two female” Arabian leopard cubs. RCU is doing a great job when it comes to preserving one of the most endangered animals.”

Congratulations Saudi Arabia on your newest and most adorable residents! @RCU_SA is doing an impressive job working to save the critically endangered Arabian Leopard. @SciDiplomacyUSA pic.twitter.com/B4qjaThZka

The news received thousands of positive reactions from many animal lovers from countries around the globe including Japan, India, Canada, Ukraine, the US and France.

The RCU’s strategy to preserve the Arabian leopard includes initiatives such as the expansion of a breeding program through the opening of the Arabian Leopard Breeding Center in the Sharaan Nature Reserve, and the establishment of a $25 million Global Fund for the Arabian Leopard. 

The Arabian Leopard’s habitat has historically been ecologically diverse. The RCU tweeted: “In #AlUla, we work to safeguard the Arabian Leopard from extinction, restore ecosystems and meet our #SaudiGreenInitiative & #SaudiVision2030 objectives.”

Only a handful of the magnificent animals are thought to survive in the whole Arabian Peninsula, holding out in the last refuge in Oman’s Dhofar mountains.

What makes Arabian leopards vulnerable is that they are solitary animals, they live alone and mate in the winter, their gestation period is 100 days, and the female Arabian leopard gives birth at an annual rate of one to two cubs only.

The Arabian leopard is classified on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List as “critically endangered.” It is all but extinct in the wild.

However, the commitment to preserving the Arabian leopard runs deep in Saudi Arabia, and in June 2016 Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s minister of culture and the RCU, signed an agreement with Panthera, committing the commission to invest $20 million over 10 years to aid global conservation of the leopard and to revitalize the Arabian leopard population.

This year, the Kingdom celebrated its first Arabian Leopard Day in February. The occasion will take place annually on February 10 to raise awareness about the endangered big cat.

JEDDAH: The two-day “Chromosome” entertainment and training program, hosting 30 children with intellectual disabilities to help them integrate into society, has concluded in Jeddah.

The event, for children aged between four and 18 years old, offered courses on pottery and canvas painting.

According to Kawakib Al-Najjar, the event coordinator, the activities, held at the Arty Café and organized by the “Volunteers for Them” team, were planned to empower the participants to become independent and help them in the future.

“The children’s interaction was wonderful, starting from touching the material to designing the pottery shapes that were chosen for them, knowing that it is a skill that strengthens the muscles of their fingers and hands,” Al-Najjar told Arab News.

She added that caring for people and children with intellectual disabilities can benefit them and wider society.

Discussions between the organizers and relatives of the children was also held as part of the program, to encourage the families to teach their children crafts that can enhance their abilities and integrate better into society.

Al-Najjar stressed the importance of training and educating people with intellectual disabilities.

“All available psychological, social and behavioral (methods) should be considered to help these people overcome their difficulties and challenges,” she said, confirming that such courses can contribute to reducing hyperactive behavior and improving some accompanying behaviors, such as distraction and impulsiveness.

“Previous experiences have revealed that teaching people with intellectual disabilities a certain craft can provide an external stimulus that compensates children for the weakness of their internal stimuli, and this in turn leads to raising the rates of their adaptation to society and improving their ability to communicate,” she explained.

She added that such techniques can increase these children’s chances of getting jobs and, as a result, securing them a better, more self-sufficient and satisfactory life.

Al-Najjar explained that the name of the event symbolizes the fact that genes can cause disability.

Sharing statistics about people with different disabilities in the Makkah region, the coordinator said that over 7,860 people of both genders are suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“Over 6,190 people in the region have Down’s syndrome, while more than 173,400 are visually impaired, and over 66,550 have hearing impairments. Some 218,097 people are suffering from motor disability, while 7,735 have been found to be autistic,” she said.

Ahmed Al-Bishri is the chief operations officer at the Saudi Esports Federation, which is the regulating body in charge of nurturing elite gaming athletes and developing the gaming community and industry in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Bishri has worked with the federation on a project basis since 2017 before taking over his current role in 2020.

He oversees the federation’s governance and tournament operations, seeking to drive the institution to greater heights. It is his goal to make SEF the global center of Esports.

After graduating in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Applied Science University, he began working at FNSS Defense Systems as a quality engineer. He also served as deputy managing editor at Elaph Newspaper at the same time.

In 2009, Al-Bishri joined the MBC group as an operations manager. He directed a core team developing new TV show concepts, overseeing script writing, character design and rights management while ensuring financial success.

From 2013 to 2015, he founded two companies and became CEO of a third. He founded Kenda Media, a television production and distribution company, in 2013. It produces and sells TV shows and digital apps.

Al-Bishri was appointed CEO of PHI in 2014, a marketing and communications agency based in Riyadh while working at Kenda Media. He focused on developing employee engagement and a high-performing management team during his stint.

In 2015, he became Union Entertainment Co.’s CEO, advising the board about the market and developing the company’s future road map.