DUBAI, UAE: The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday named women to the newly created posts of state ministers for happiness and tolerance, and a 22-year-old female for youth affairs.
Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum named eight women as he revealed his latest cabinet line-up of 29 ministers in a series of tweets.
Ohoud Al-Roumi, who had served as director of the council of ministers’ office, was appointed “minister of state for happiness.”
“Happiness is not just a wish in our country. There will be plans, projects, programs and indices. It will be part of the job of all ministries,” tweeted Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the ruler of Dubai.
Shamma Al-Mazroui, 22, was appoined state minister for youth, while Lubna Al-Qassimi, a veteran minister of international cooperation and development, was handed the new post of state minister for tolerance.
The cabinet has eight new ministers, including five new women, with an average age of 38, WAM state news agency said.
An oil-rich federation of seven Gulf sheikhdoms, the United Arab Emirates is considered a safe haven spared in the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that hit the region.
Last year its rulers sought to widen the country’s nascent democratic credentials with about a quarter of its one million citizens given the right to vote.
Eighty-seven of the 330 candidates were women, who play a larger role in public life in the UAE.
But the authorities have been deeply cautious and in 2014 introduced sweeping new counterterrorism legislation that rights groups have criticized as paving the way for a crackdown on dissent of all sorts.
Citizens make up a small minority of the UAE’s population of nine million which is overwhelmingly made up of foreign workers.
UAE names women ministers for happiness, tolerance
UAE names women ministers for happiness, tolerance
Britain says it and France bombed suspected Daesh arms dump in Syria
- Western aircraft have been conducting patrols to stop a resurgence of the Daesh militant group that ruled parts of Syria until 2019
LONDON: Britain’s and France’s air forces conducted a joint operation on Saturday evening to bomb a suspected underground arms cache previously used by the Daesh group in Syria, Britain’s defense ministry said.
Western aircraft have been conducting patrols to stop a resurgence of the Daesh militant group that ruled parts of Syria until 2019. Intelligence analysis identified an underground facility believed to be used to store weapons and explosives in mountains north of Palmyra, Britain said.
“Our aircraft used Paveway IV guided bombs to target a number of access tunnels down to the facility; whilst detailed assessment is now underway, initial indications are that the target was engaged successfully,” Britain’s defense ministry said in a statement.
Britain said the area was “devoid of any civilian habitation” before the attack and that all its aircraft had returned safely.
“This action shows our UK leadership, and determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, to stamp out any resurgence of Daesh and their dangerous and violent ideologies in the Middle East,” British Defense Secretary John Healey said, referring to Daesh by an alternative name.
Britain said it used Typhoon FGR4 combat jets to bomb the target, supported by a Voyager refueling tanker.
