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The projected zero-carbon city of Neom being built in Saudi Arabia will have vertical layers of buildings for work, living and leisure stretching for 170 kilometres over a futuristic landscape, the Kingdom’s Crown Prince has declared. Unveiling The Line, a primary feature of the $500bn project, Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that the flagship development will be partly financed through a public listing in the country’s stock exchange in two years’ time, and would be subject to its own autonomous legal system. The flotation, he continued, “will add a trillion riyals ($266bn) to the Saudi stock market value. At least 1.2 trillion at the beginning and overall will increase after project completion to exceed 5 trillion”. The ultimate aim was to make the Saudi stock market, currently ranked seventh internationally, “one of the largest stock markets on the planet.” Prince Mohammed stated that in the future all ventures in which the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund is an investor will be...

Nearly 1,200 undocumented migrants have arrived in Italy over the past 24 hours, authorities say. The migrants, who hail from several African and Middle Eastern nations, landed at several ports in Sicily. Officials say 674 people were rescued and five dead bodies recovered from an overcrowded fishing boat off the coast of Calabria. Another 522 people rescued from some 15 boats were brought to Lampedusa on Saturday. The boats had departed from Libya and Tunisia. Lampedusa is one of the main arrival ports for people wanting to reach Europe. Those rescued included migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. According to Italian media, the island's immigration centre has been overwhelmed by a huge increase in landings in recent weeks. The Ansa news agency reports that the centre is well over its 350 person capacity, with some 1,184 people currently being held at the site. The Coast Guard and non-governmental organisations rescue hundreds more in distress from the ...

Myanmar's military junta on Saturday expressed disappointment with the decision of the United Nations' highest court to greenlight a landmark case concerning accusations of genocide against minority Rohingya Muslims. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Friday threw out all of Myanmar's objections to a case filed by the west African nation of The Gambia in 2019. The decision paves the way for full hearings at the court on allegations over a bloody 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya by majority-Buddhist Myanmar.  "Myanmar is disappointed that its preliminary objections were rejected," said a statement on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Facebook page. The junta argued its objections were legally strong, the statement said, noting one judge had a dissenting opinion in one area. Myanmar had argued on several grounds that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter, and should dismiss the case while it is still in its early stages. Hundreds of thousands...

Farewell to Cairo houseboats The Egyptian government has announced that it will remove all the houseboats floating in Cairo, on the banks of the Nile. Memories and pictures It's the end of a Cairo cultural and architectural legacy. The only things that will remain are memories and, of course, the pictures. Awamat These houseboats are known in Egypt as 'awamat', which the BBC explains is Arabic for 'floating'. They had their golden age at the beginning of the 19th century. Gentrifying the Nile The Egyptian government wants to change the Nile's appearance and doesn't believe these beautiful structures have any touristic or commercial value. Evicted without compensation France24 wrote on June 30 that residents of the last 30 or so houseboats that remain moored in the Nile have been offered no alternative or compensation, unlike those who previously left. Modernization and monetization Houseboat residents claim that the government is only sparing a few bars and ...

Poland will sign a deal with South Korea to purchase tanks, planes and howitzers as the country boosts its defense capabilities amid a possible Russian threat. Poland is gearing up to purchase tanks, howitzers and fighter planes from South Korea as it looks to bolster its armed forces. "We're signing contracts next week," Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said in a tweet on Friday. The agreement includes 48 FA-50 light combat fighter jets, 180 K2 "Black Panther" tanks and an unspecified number of K9 howitzers, wPolityce website reported, quoting Blaszczak. "With this contract, we will significantly increase Poland's security and the strength of the Polish Army. Fast delivery and industry development are key! We reconciled the often divergent interests of soldiers and the arms industry," Blaszczak said in his tweet. Poland shoring up its defense capabilities The first howitzers and tanks are scheduled to arrive at the end of 2022 while the p...

The international target to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population against Covid by mid-2022 was missed because poorer countries were at the “back of the queue” when vaccines were rolled out, say campaigners.

Every day, Indian octogenarian Kaleem Ullah Khan wakes at dawn, prays, then ambles about a mile to his 120-year-old mango tree, which he has coaxed into producing more than 300 varieties of the beloved fruit over the years.   His footsteps quicken as he draws nearer and his eyes light up as he peers closely at the branches through his spectacles, caressing the leaves and sniffing the fruits to see if they are ripe. "This is my prize of toiling hard in the scorching sun for decades," the 82-year-old said in his orchard in the small town of Malihabad. "For the naked eye, it's just a tree. But if you see through your mind, it's a tree, an orchard, and the biggest mango college in the world." The school dropout was just a teenager when he conducted his first experiment in grafting, or joining plant parts to create new mango varieties. He nurtured a tree to produce seven new kinds of fruit, but it blew down in a storm.  But since 1987, his pride and joy has been ...

Human rights groups have vowed to continue their campaign to deliver medicine and information to North Korea amid a COVID outbreak. Activists fear an aggressive retaliation from the Kim Jong Un regime. North Korean defectors in the South have dismissed accusations from Pyongyang that balloons floated over the border and carrying medicines, cash and propaganda messages are the cause of the coronavirus pandemic in the North. Speaking to DW, the founder of Fighters for a Free North Korea said Pyongyang's claims are "nonsense," and merely an effort to deflect blame away from the regime's incompetence in dealing with the pandemic and a critical shortage of medicines for civilians. 'Malignant fever' North Korean health authorities admitted their first case of coronavirus on May 12, more than two years after the regime sealed the nation's borders in what it said was an effort to stop the virus from gaining a foothold in the country. Since then, almost 25 million ...

A sea of tractors were driven through the main streets of Ballarat's CBD on Friday as hundreds of farmers protested the proposed Western Renewables Link. The controversial project would see 500-kilovolt high-voltage transmission lines that could be as high as 85 metres if they were to be installed above the ground. The lines would transport renewable energy from Bulgana, north of Ararat, to Melbourne. Ballarat Potato Growers Association chairman Chris Stephens said if people in cities wanted cheap renewable power, it should be in their backyard. "If people in the city want this power, why does it have to be us who pay the price?" he said. 'Bring it on' Hundreds of people attended Friday's rally, with more than 70 tractors blockading Lydiard Street. Close to 200 vehicles joined a parade that began at Ballarat airport, passed the McCain Foods manufacturing plant, and was then escorted by police through town and down the main street. Protest organiser and Stop Au...

Russia is gearing up for another offensive in Ukraine after winning key victories and seizing major cities in the eastern region of the country, according to officials. Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military, told Reuters that Russian forces have increased the aerial deployments of attack helicopters and tactical aviation units, which suggested preparations were “underway for the next stage of the offensive.” Ukrainian troops are fighting back against Russia’s deadly offensive in the eastern Donbas, the industrial heartland of the country. Russia has already seized several major cities, including Lyschansk, which gave the army control over the Luhansk region. In addition to the ground offensives, Russian forces continue to shell cities around the country, including the capitol of Kyiv. Russia’s next offensive is likely in the city of Sloviansk. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is ordering troops to intensify attacks in that region, according to the Associate...

The UK is set to become home to the world's largest automated drone superhighway within the next two years. The drones will be used on the 164-mile Skyway project connecting towns and cities, including Cambridge and Rugby. It is part of a £273m funding package for the aerospace sector which will be revealed by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Monday. Other projects include drones delivering mail to the Isles of Scilly and medication across Scotland. Mr Kwarteng is to announce the news at the Farnborough International Airshow - the first to be held since 2019. He will say the funding will "help the sector seize on the enormous opportunities for growth that exist as the world transitions to cleaner forms of flight". BT is one of the partners involved in the collaboration. "This drone capability has existed for quite some time, but is in its infancy in terms of being actually part of our society and being a usable application," he said. "So for us, this is...