Saudi Arabia imposes travel ban to Ebola-affected countries

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Tuesday 28 Apr 2015 - 11:27 Makkah mean time-9-7-1436 Ebola virus (Image from Internet) Riyadh (IINA) – The Saudi Ministry of Interior has announced a travel ban on citizens to Ebola-affected countries, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Director General of Public Relations and Media at the Ministry of Interior Maj Gen Dr. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Marul said that a directive was issued, banning Saudi citizens from traveling to Ebola-stricken countries, namely Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. In absolute necessary cases, being considered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in coordination with the Ministry of Health, the citizen may be allowed to travel provided that he/she subjects to preventive measures upon his arrival from these countries, Al-Marul said. AB/IINA

Human contribution to extreme weather rising: Study

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Tuesday 28 Apr 2015 - 11:13 Makkah mean time-9-7-1436 Extreme weather (Google image) London (IINA) – The rarest and most extreme weather events are likely to be more heavily influenced by global warming, which previous study shows is mainly caused by human activity, according to a research paper published Monday by the journal Nature Climate Change, Xinhua reported. The study was carried out by researchers at the ETH Zurich. They use two metrics to determine what proportion of global high temperature and heavy precipitation events can be attributed to human influence. The metrics are applied to daily outputs from 25 climate models considering 1901-2005 historical simulations and 2006-2100 projections with a high-emission scenario. The results show that present day global warming, most likely caused by human activity, is responsible for about 18 percent of heavy precipitation and 75 percent of hot temperature extremes worldwide. This proportion is shown to increase with further warming. For example, modeling indicates that if temperatures increase to two degrees centigrade higher than pre-industrial levels, about 40 percent of precipitation extremes will be a result of human influence, according to the paper. Peter Stott, a British climate expert, said that the study could provide maps of how probabilities of extreme temperatures and precipitation have changed across the globe, but the framework they use means that such probabilities cannot be applied to specific individual extreme weather events. AB/IINA

Houthis disrupted Yemen peace process, U.S. says

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Tuesday 28 Apr 2015 - 11:00 Makkah mean time-9-7-1436 Jeff Rathke (Image from Internet) Washington (IINA) – The United States has said that the Houthi rebels are the ones who disrupted the peace process in Yemen, not the Saudi-led military campaign, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Acting Deputy State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said during the daily press briefing that the aggressive actions by the Houthis and their supporters are the reason for the disruption in the political transition process. The Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthis in Yemen was launched in response to these aggressive actions by the Houthi militias, he said. “We continue to work closely with the United Nations and with our international partners; and the final goal in Yemen is a political dialogue for peaceful transition," Rathke said, adding: "We see very clearly that the Houthi aggression led to the military operation in Yemen". Asked about the reason for the collapse of the political agreement, Jeff Rathke said, 'Houthis did not abide by this agreement. He pointed out that there were efforts made by the United Nations that were supported by the international community, but “the Houthis’ refusal to engage in the dialogue process and their resort to violence which has brought us to the situation that we find ourselves in now”. AB/IINA