Category: General

BRUSSELS: In 2022, Road traffic accidents claimed the lives of 20 653 people in the EU in 2022, marking a 4% increase compared with 2021 (19 917 fatalities), according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The number of fatalities has been increasing for 2 consecutive years after the unprecedented drop in 2020 (18 833), which was attributed to COVID-19 restrictions affecting passenger transport.

In 2022, there were on average 46 road traffic fatalities per million inhabitants in the EU. Taking into consideration the population of each EU country, the lowest rates of road fatalities in 2022 were registered in Sweden (22 road fatalities per million inhabitants), Denmark (26) and Ireland (31).

Source: Emirates News Agency

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri wrote today on his ‘X’ platform account: ‘April 13…a permanent juncture to remember to reject fighting and hatred among the Lebanese…May God protect our country from strife!’

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

Ramallah: Six Palestinians were injured, one critically, Saturday afternoon in an attack by Jewish settlers on a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

It said in a statement that a man was shot in the head and was in a critical condition, and five others were shot in the lower limbs during the attack in the village of Al-Mughayer, east of Ramallah in the Central West Bank.

Jewish settlers backed by Israeli troops also launched another attack on the village of Doma, southeast of Nablus in the northern West Bank, setting dozens of homes of on fire.

The raid touched off clashes with local youth in which a number of people were injured by live Israeli army fire, said Suleiman Dawabsheh, head of the Doma Local Council.

Since this morning, the hardline settlers, protected by the Israeli army, have closed entrances to the towns of Silwad, Turmusaya, Sinjil and Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, and attacked passing vehicles, according to Palestinian sources.

Source: Jo
rdan News Agency

NEW YORK: Humankind must get away from the Cold War concept of a ‘space race’, even as commercial competition hots up to exploit the potential of the cosmos, the head of the UN agency for outer space affairs (UNOOSA) has told UN News

Marking Friday’s International Day of Human Space Flight, when the former Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin reached orbit back in 1961, UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini said that everybody has a role to play in the peaceful exploration of space – ‘it’s not just for the geeks and the nerds who like engineering.

‘Now, we’re really looking at space science and space exploration and looking for the most innovative and pragmatic approaches to that, and that is why we are seeing more commercial companies getting involved.’

She said the private sector allows national space agencies like NASA in the United States, to spread their risk, keep costs down, be bolder in their ambition and increase the chances of success.

The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is the birthplace of
all space regulation and treaties, ‘which underpin everything that we see happening in the space economy today’, she said, urging a continuation of a ‘global convening dialogue’ in both the public and private sectors.

She said as space debris increases in the Earth’s orbit and beyond, the UN will bring stakeholders together to discuss potential new guidelines for international oversight.

Source: Emirates News Agency

National News Agency correspondent reported that enemy warplanes carried out two raids around six o’clock this evening on Tayr Harfa and on the area between the southern towns of al-Dhahira and Alma al-Shaab.

NNA correspondent also reported that the enemy warplanes raided the town of Yarin, leading to road blockage in the town’s center.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon