Abu Dhabi: Emirates expressed its optimism for the next summer season in terms of the strong recovery with full occupancy rates on a large number of flights within its global network of destinations.
The Dubai-based international air carrier revealed that it is adding 5 new Airbus A380s to the summer flights schedule, to serve more routes amidst the continuing momentum in customer demand after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, affirmed that customer demand is still witnessing strong levels, and it is expected that 2023 will be a year of robust recovery, exceeding the levels recorded during 2022.
Kazim told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM 2023) in Dubai, that Emirates is deploying a fleet of 85 A380s which increases to 95 in the summer peak season by the end of the financial year in next March.
The large wide-body airliner is serving 43 destinations in the summer flights schedule, he added.
He said that the airline operates about 3080 departure flights per week, or more than 440 flights per day for passengers within its global network.
He revealed that the Emirates is currently considering adding more capacity to the North American market and other global markets such as China, in conjunction with the deployment of more aircraft into service and also the delivery of the first aircraft from its order for the Airbus A350.
Kazim said that Emirates is planning to debut flights to five new cities: London, Christchurch, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, in addition to San Francisco (15th July), Singapore (1st June) and Houston (15th June).
Emirates is part of the sustainability initiatives taking place in the UAE, as our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint are increasing in line with the growth in passenger numbers, he said, adding that Emirates has successfully completed a demonstration flight powered by 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), as part of the global aviation industry’s push to use more of the greener fuel to meet carbon emission targets. Emirates also recycled 500,000 kg of plastic and glass discarded on board flights.
At ATM, Emirates received 16,000 visitors, held 300 business meetings and signed eight agreements with travel and tourism agencies.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
SRINAGAR: In the Kashmir division of the UT, cases of cybercrime and online fraud have been surging with great intensity, causing distress to not only individuals but also organizations and sectors.
In a shocking incident, 11 tourists from Gujarat were apprehended in Gulmarg, the globally acclaimed ski resort located in North Kashmir, as they attempted to sneak through the cableway Gondola using counterfeit and altered tickets.
The authorities were previously stunned when they caught 28 tourists from Mumbai in April, who were found with bogus Gondola tickets in Gulmarg. It was later revealed that these tourists were provided with fake tickets by their tour operator in Mumbai.
In an official statement, a spokesperson of Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation (JKCCC) said that the ticket scanning team of Gulmarg Gondola Project caught a group of 28 passengers from Mumbai at the scanning point of Gulmarg Gondola station. “These passengers were carrying edited fake tickets through their tour Manager Makrand Anand Ghanekar S/o Anand Ghanekar of Mumbai,” reads the statement.
Miscreants sell fake Gondola tickets aiming to ruin the reputation of the tourist site, affecting citizens involved in Gulmarg tourism. Locals now want the ticketing system converted back to offline mode to limit illegal sales.
President Guide Association Gulmarg, Manzoor Lone, said that online tickets affected 80 percent of the livelihood of tourist guides in Gulmarg. Lone said that online ticketing has hampered their ability to support themselves. People working as tourist guides in Gulmarg and at ticket counters, who were accommodated by offline ticketing, are now facing the consequences.
“Earlier we used to have 30% of the quota, but when the system was switched to online mode, the quotas were removed, which resulted in many problems,” he claimed, “that when the system was converted to online one, we were not taken into account.”
Presently, there are 918 people who are all enrolled members of the Gulmarg Guide Association. “As of now, offline ticketing is also happening, although Gulmarg officials have been referring to it as VIP quota. There are 400 offline ticket reservations. Due to their inability to cope up with the situation and make a living out of it, some guides have been compelled to engage in black marketing of tickets, though we are against them and don’t support such acts,” stated Lone.
Manzoor claimed that though this issue has been discussed with the higher authorities of the J&K UT, no action was taken.
A tourist guide, on grounds of anonymity, said, “I and many other guides like me, we are facing the brunt of the online ticketing system, and we want the government to look into this matter as soon as possible.”
Despite multiple calls, Ghulam Jeelani Zargar, CEO of the Gulmarg Development Authority and Managing Director of the JK Cable Car Corporation, did not respond.
New Delhi: Each organisation in India faced an average of 2,108 weekly attacks in the first quarter of 2023, around 18 per cent higher than that in the year-ago period, a Check Point report said on Friday.
Cybercriminals are misusing legitimate tools like ChatGPT for code generation that can help less-skilled threat actors effortlessly launch cyberattacks, Trojanizing 3CXDesktop app for a supply chain attack etc for malicious gains, the report said.
“During the first quarter of 2023, India average weekly attacks rose by 18 per cent in comparison to the corresponding period in 2022, with each organization facing an average of 2,108 weekly attacks per organization,” the report said.
Global weekly attacks rose by 7 per cent during the reported quarter versus same quarter last year with each organization facing an average of 1,248 attacks per week.
Globally, the education and research sector faced the highest number of attacks, rising to an average of 2,507 attacks per organization per week, marking a 15 per cent increase compared to March 2022 quarter, the report said.
“APAC region experienced the highest YoY surge in weekly attacks, with an average of 1,835 attacks per organization, marking a 16 per cent increase 1 out of every 31 organizations worldwide experienced a ransomware attack every week,” the report said.
Hyderabad: The Telangana State Engineering, Agriculture, and Medical Common Entrance Test (TS EAMCET) 2023 registration has witnessed an unprecedented surge. As of now, 3,20,587 students have registered for the exam, which is a significant increase from the 2,66,714 students who registered for it last year.
Out of the total number of registrations, a record 2,05,295 students have applied for the engineering stream, which is 33,057 more than the previous year. For the Agriculture and Medical (AM) stream, 1,15,292 applications have been received, which is 20,816 more than the number of applications received in 2022.
Addressing a press conference, Telangana State Council of Higher Education Chairman (TSCHE), Prof. R Limbadri, said that the surge in registration can be attributed to the increase in the number of intermediate admissions during the last two academic years. He also cited the craze for engineering courses and BSc Nursing admissions through TS EAMCET 2023 as the reasons for the surge.
TS EAMCET 2023 hall ticket download
Recently, the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTUH) has released the hall tickets for TS EAMCET 2023 that can be downloaded by following the simple steps given below:
Visit the official website of TS EAMCET 2023 (Click here).
Click on the link ‘Download Hall Ticket (E & AM)’
Enter the required credentials and click on ‘Get Hallticket’.
The TS EAMCET 2023 hall ticket will appear on the screen. Download it and take a printout.
Exam schedule
TS EAMCET 2023 is scheduled to be held from May 10 to May 14. The AM stream test will be held on May 10 and 11, while the engineering stream exam will be conducted on May 12, 13, and 14. It is worth noting that a sitting squad will be deployed at all the examination centers this year to ensure smooth and fair conduct of the exam.
With the significant increase in registrations, the exam is all set to be a highly competitive and sought-after exam. Students who have registered for the exam are advised to download their hall tickets as soon as possible to avoid last minute rush.
New Delhi: The presence of Indian students in American universities has increased by 19 per cent compared to the last year, and nearly 21 per cent of over one million foreign students are Indian students, a US government report said.
In 2021-22, 1,99,182 students with India as their place of origin were pursuing higher education in the US, as against 1,67,582 in 2020-21, according to the Open Doors Report, an annual survey on international students released Monday. In 2012-13, there were 96,654 Indian students in higher education in the US.
The rise in Indian students moving to the US is likely to overtake China in 2022-23, with 82,000 visas issued between June and August – the highest number among all countries.
The year 2021-22 saw 62,000 student visas being issued, said Don Heflin, Minister Counsellor for Consular Affairs at the US embassy in New Delhi.
In contrast, China fell behind India as strict quarantine norms and travel restrictions due to Covid made it harder for Chinese students to acquire visas. Heflin said that around 110,000-120,000 visas are issued to Chinese students, which fell to around 50,000.
In 2021-22, China and India collectively accounted for 52 per cent of all international students in the US, the report, which is sponsored by the US Department of State and implemented by the non-profit Institute of International Education (IIE), said.
China showed a drop of nine per cent in the latest round, with the number of Chinese students pursuing higher education in the US going down from 3,17,299 in 2020-21 to 2,90,086 in 2021-22.
A decade ago, there were 2,35,597 Chinese higher education students in the US. The rise in Indian numbers came after the slump caused by the pandemic years.
Between 2018-19 and 2019-20, as well as 2019-20 and 2020-21, the number of Indian students enrolled in US universities had fallen by 4.4 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively.
The 19 per cent increase in Indian students studying in America was largely driven by graduate students, Heflin said. A majority of Indian students chose Math and Computer Science, Engineering and Business, and Management, according to a US embassy official.
Overall, the total number of international students pursuing higher education in the US went up from 9.14 lakh in 2020-21 to 9.48 lakh in 2021-22.
“It is clear that Indian students and their parents recognize the value of US education, one that prepares them to leverage their newly gained know-how to tackle the world’s challenges and readies them for future opportunities, whether that’s in Artificial Intelligence, emerging technologies or entrepreneurship and innovation,” Gloria Berbena, minister counselor for Public Diplomacy, said.
There were times during the first half when it felt as if Manchester United were toying with the Tottenham, their 2-0 lead at half-time a poor reflection of a game that felt mainly about how the home team would react to what had happened at Newcastle on Sunday.
Spurs looked inhibited, the 6-1 hammering in their minds – along, perhaps, with all of the other craziness that had made them the crisis club of the moment. And yet as they stared into the abyss, they found strength. From somewhere.
It would be wrong to underplay the extent of United’s second-half collapse. Not for the first time under Erik ten Hag, they completely lost their way at the first sign of trouble. There were shades of the 2-2 Europa League quarter-final first-leg draw at home to Sevilla.
It looked as though fatigue was an issue here, along with a lack of quality off the bench. All of the players that Ten Hag introduced struggled, especially Anthony Martial.
But Spurs and their caretaker manager, Ryan Mason, deserved immense credit. They carried the fight to United from the restart, stepping high and playing the game on their terms, which has not been said for a while. They gave the home crowd, which continued to chant against the chairman, Daniel Levy, something to get behind.
Pedro Porro, a recent target for some of the frustration, made it 2-1 with a beautifully guided shot, United’s advantage courtesy of Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford suddenly not looking so secure.
Spurs would get an equaliser, an incredible tonic, and they deserved it. Harry Kane was always going to be a principal subplot given how heavily he has been linked with a move to United. “Harry Kane, we’ll see you in June,” the United fans sang during the first half.
Spurs saw him here when it mattered. It was his lovely cross from the right that picked out Son Heung-min and he was not going to miss this one, having blown a gilt-edged opportunity earlier in the half. Kane had sprung forward after Cristian Romero stepped up to win a header and one of Ten Hag’s changes, Tyrell Malacia, was caught out.
Jadon Sancho watches his effort beat Fraser Forster in the Spurs goal. Photograph: Mark Leech/Offside/Getty Images
The point was probably not the worst for United in terms of their top-four hopes and it is difficult to see Spurs making it into the Champions League places. But the night was about more than the result. Spurs needed a performance to restore a bit of pride and in the end they got one. At full time there were no boos from the home crowd. For Levy, the slightly muted response was golden.
The pre-match protest against Levy – not for the first time – had seen about 50 blokes gather on the High Road with a few banners, singing some songs. It was not exactly the anti-Glazer movement although, as their United counterparts can tell them, it is one thing to protest, quite another to shift unpopular owners.
It was flat inside the ground at the outset, the impression being that 60,000 or so were watching Spurs try to shake their heads clear and United sweeping into an early lead. Rashford rode a challenge from Oliver Skipp to work the ball left and Sancho’s finish was bent into the far corner after he stepped inside Porro and Romero. It was a lovely moment for Sancho, who was restored to the starting XI after his positive cameo in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final win over Brighton.
The locals were restless rather than seething with anger, the South Stand striking up a few anti-Levy choruses while the man himself sat impassively. There were boos at the half-time whistle but there usually are when Spurs are behind.
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United’s second came on 44 minutes and the only wonder was that they took so long. It was a wretched concession, Ivan Perisic having been through at the other end one-on-one with David de Gea up the inside left, only to be denied. United broke, Bruno Fernandes sending a raking diagonal upfield to Rashford, who had isolated himself against Eric Dier.
The alarm bells rang loudly for Spurs, Dier backing off Rashford, showing him up the outside. Rashford went there and blasted past Fraser Forster. It was so simple. When the ball hit the net, Perisic remained deep in United territory.
Richarlison, restored to the Spurs starting XI, brought a bit of snarl and a few dangerous runs, while Perisic worked De Gea with a header. But United created several clear chances after Sancho’s breakthrough. Sancho had a shot cleared off the line by Perisic while Forster made saves, the best to deny Rashford from a Fernandes cross.
A “Levy Out” banner appeared in the South Stand at the start of the second half and perhaps United thought that the job was done. Spurs had other ideas. Clément Lenglet hit the top of the crossbar with a header before Porro picked out the top corner with the outside of his boot after a Perisic cross sparked chaos in the area.
Fernandes ought to have restored United’s cushion only to hit the crossbar after tricking through the middle of the area, nutmegging Lenglet, but Spurs were bang in the game, sensing a reprieve.
Son’s miss from Kane’s pass was a bad one, bettered only when Dier nodded wide from point-blank range and in yards of space. But Son made no mistake at the second time of asking and Mason could celebrate when Casemiro headed off target at the very last.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Chennai: Authorities in Tamil Nadu’s Ranipet have made wearing of face masks mandatory in the district amid surge in Covid cases in the state.
District Collector S. Valarmathi has also directed people to maintain social distancing in crowded areas.
However the state Health Department has said that there was no need of panic as the state has not witnessed any large clusters and the cases are mostly isolated.
It has, however, asked elderly people and those with co-morbidities to wear masks and not to move around in crowded places.
In the last 24 hours, the state reported 502 new cases that include people coming from the UAE, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, and France.
Abu Dhabi: Ahead of Eid Al-Fitr holidays, the hotels in United Arab Emirates (UAE) are witnessing exceptionally high occupancy rates of nearly 90%, local media reported.
The Eid Al-Fitr holidays in UAE begin on the 29th of Ramzan and until the 3rd of Shawwal (April 20 – April 23).
As the festivities coincide with the peak of the usual travel season, hotels on Palm Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai, Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah and Yas Island in Abu Dhabi will be packed with holiday tourists.
Although April is the peak tourism season, most hotels expect the Eid holiday season demand to be driven by accommodation enthusiasts.
As per a report by Gulf News, with accommodation enthusiasts providing more than 50 per cent of the demand, hotel room rates in prime locations average from 2,000 Dirhams to 7,000 Dirhams for a two-night stay, depending on the property.
Average daily rates for hotels in Dubai have increased by at least 45-50 per cent this month.
According to astrologers, this year in the UAE, Ramzan will be 30 days long. This gives the most likely start of Eid Al-Fitr on Friday, April 21. However, the official decision will be announced on the 29th day of the holy month of Ramzan, that is on April 19.
The agency has an acting administrator, but his decisions don’t have the heft of someone with a Senate-granted mandate to lead — such as spearheading major changes that might be needed to avoid a catastrophe while also keeping up with new technologies such as drones and air taxis.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a helicopter pilot who leads the Senate subcommittee in charge of the FAA, said bluntly that she’s been frustrated with the delay and that a candidate needs to be put up “as soon as possible.”
The Republican crusade against Washington created partisan rifts that could leave the post vacant for months to come. Washington, a former municipal transit official and member of Biden’s transition team, didn’t have any aviation experience until he took the top job at Denver’s airport in 2021. Cruz and Wicker, both senior lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee, repeatedly hammered his nomination as a patronage hire.
But now, Cruz has embraced the person who’d likely be confirmed by the Senate the fastest — Billy Nolen, the acting administrator of the FAA and a former pilot and safety expert. That may tarnish Nolen’s chances with Democrats, who are still angry that Cruz torpedoed Washington’s nomination.
Shortly before Washington withdrew, Cruz publicly floated the idea that he would support Nolen for the job.
“A number of Democrats have expressed privately to me that they think it is a reasonable suggestion,” Cruz said in an interview last week. “To be clear, I don’t know Billy Nolen, it’s not like he’s a Republican or a friend of mine. He was Joe Biden’s choice to be acting administrator, he just happens to be qualified for the job.”
Nolen was a long-time pilot for American Airlines before taking on safety-related roles at American and Airlines for America, a trade association representing major U.S. airlines. He then held safety-related executive roles at Qantas and WestJet before joining the FAA as associate administrator for aviation safety in early 2022. Nolen held that role for less than four months before becoming acting administrator.
Whether or not the White House wants to elevate Nolen, he’s clearly acting the part, including television appearances and a high-profile decision to call a safety summit to try to get ahead of cracks in the system that may be behind the recent uptick in near misses.
“He’s [Nolen] clearly running for it. I’m not sure Cruz’s endorsement helps him though,” said one aviation industry lobbyist who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations about the White House’s stance. “What I’ve heard is the White House is going to nominate someone in the next couple weeks. I don’t think they are asking the Hill what they want.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment. But after Washington withdrew, the White House pledged to pick a new nominee quickly and blamed Washington’s exit on a Republican smear campaign.
Senators on the Commerce Committee last week confirmed that the White House hadn’t reached out to them about a potential nominee, though Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), a major supporter of Washington’s, said he would prefer someone who isn’t already working at the FAA. So far, Nolen has yet to pick up any public support from Senate Democrats.
In supporting Washington, some Democrats — including Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who chairs the Commerce Committee vetting the nomination, have said they prefer someone not part of the revolving door of the aerospace industry.
In the Senate, Democratic ire is also focused on holdouts within their own party that helped tank Washington’s nomination — chiefly Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who were noncommittal ahead of a committee vote on Washington’s nomination. That vote ultimately was postponed at the last minute. Washington withdrew shortly after.
Duckworth has blamed “one person” for the postponed vote but declined to say who.
And Senate Democratic aides also seem frustrated with the White House, with one suggesting it failed to understand the dynamics of the committee, on which Sinema sits and where Democrats have a one-vote majority.
“You can’t ignore Sinema,” said a Democratic aide who requested anonymity to recount private conversations. “The White House didn’t understand it, and his confirmation hearing showed that she wasn’t on board.”
They also groused that the White House didn’t account for Washington’s relative lack of aviation experience or the perception among Republicans that his nomination was a patronage pick.
A second aviation industry representative, granted anonymity to describe private conversations, said the White House is considering potential nominees beyond Nolen and agreed that it is wary of handing Cruz another victory.
“My understanding is the only person who really wants Billy is Ted Cruz,” the aviation source said. “The administration really seems interested in picking someone else.”
Cruz said his initial endorsement of Nolen was on a whim, after turning around to speak with his staff during a Commerce Committee hearing.
“I turned back to my staff and said, ‘What do you think about Nolen? Would it be crazy for me to suggest right now that they should withdraw Washington and nominate Nolen?’” Cruz said on his weekly podcast. “And my guys were like ‘No, that’s fine.’”
Duckworth said that elevating Nolen to the top FAA job would be “relatively smooth” because he’s already in a senior position, though she was not explicitly backing Nolen for the job.
“He’s already inside the agency. It would be relatively smooth in terms of him stepping up in that way, but I have not talked to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle,” Duckworth said. “He’s one of the names that gets floated on a regular basis.”
But Duckworth was referring to the potential confirmation process should Nolen garner Democratic support, which he doesn’t yet have. In the runup to the vote on Washington that the Commerce Committee abruptly abandoned, most Democrats who took a public position, including Cantwell, said they supported Washington because he doesn’t have any ties to the aerospace industry. Nolen, meanwhile, has more than 30 years of experience working at airlines.
Lobbyists and representatives from the aviation industry who spoke with POLITICO, many of whom work for companies or associations that did not weigh in on Washington’s nomination, said their main priority is getting someone confirmed.
Another aviation industry lobbyist agreed that won’t happen any time soon, however.
“It’ll be months — you have the individual work that Senate Commerce will do,” the lobbyist said, adding that getting someone confirmed by this summer will be nearly impossible. “We realize the timeline is not great.”
Valery Miftakhov, CEO of ZeroAvia, which is developing hydrogen-powered aircraft, said not having a Senate-confirmed leader means “we cannot expect to see the FAA take anything but small steps and it will be difficult to set the strategic direction.”
For instance, Miftakhov said his company’s attempt to create zero emission aircraft amid growing climate concerns “could end up sitting on a shelf in the FAA waiting for a willing advocate.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Riyadh: The authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have opened more entry and exit points at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, to reduce crowding and deal with the increase in the number of worshippers during Ramzan, local media reported.
The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques provided five other entrances to the chapel on the ground floor at the site, an entrance to the Ajyad Bridge, three other entrances to the stairs, and another entrance to the places of prayer on the first floor and the surface.
“The entrances and exits have been opened to prevent over-crowding inside the prayer areas,” head of the Worshipper Crowd Department Khalaf Al Otaibi was quoted as saying by Arabic daily Okaz.
He added that when the prayer places inside the mosque reach their full capacity, the worshipers are directed to the chapel of the third expansion of the mosque as well as its outer courtyards.
Due to an increase in the number of worshipers at the mosque, home to the Kaaba, the Saudi General Directorate of Public Security on Friday advised worshipers to perform their weekly noon prayers at other mosques near their homes to help ease crowding at the holy site.
The month of Ramzan usually marks the peak of the Umrah season at the Grand Mosque.
In recent months, Saudi Arabia has revealed a large number of facilities for Muslims wishing to come to the country to perform Umrah.
