ALGIERS: More than 10 percent of a UNESCO-listed biosphere reserve has been destroyed by fires that tore through northeastern Algeria, killing at least 38 people, an expert told AFP on Saturday.
The figure cited by Rafik Baba Ahmed, former director of the El Kala Biosphere Reserve, means that the burned area of the park alone is almost double what the civil defense service said has been destroyed throughout Africa’s largest country since June.

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Algeria next week in a bid to improve strained ties between Paris and Algiers, the French presidency said in a statement Saturday.
“This trip will contribute to deepening the bilateral relationship looking to the future… to reinforce Franco-Algerian cooperation in the face of regional challenges and to continue the work of addressing the past,” the presidency said after a call between Macron and his opposite number Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

LONDON: Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, the Bahraini ambassador to the UK, visited his country’s pavilion at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, the Bahrain News Agency reported.

He also met the founder and director of the center, Farhan Ahmad Nizami, and reviewed its research into history, economics, arts and social science in the Islamic world. The envoy highlighted the role the center plays in bringing together elite scholars and researchers.

Nizami congratulated the ambassador on his recent appointment as the Dean of the Arab Diplomatic Corps.

DUBAI: Educators across the Middle East and North Africa region are benefiting from a newly launched tool that aims to help them after three years of school-fee freezes and stagnation of education spending owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

UK-based training provider Skills Network launched the Curriculum Led Financial Planning Tool to offer financial planning assistance to international schools throughout the region, which have been particularly hard hit by the fee freeze.

LONDON: Attacks on aid workers in Yemen have increased at an “alarming” rate, the country’s UN humanitarian coordinator said on Friday.

David Gressly marked World Humanitarian Day on Aug. 19 by highlighting the “extremely challenging” environment that aid workers face in war-torn Yemen, especially amid Houthi attempts to control food aid distribution.