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Milan to Host International Festival of Arabic Language and Culture

People pass by the Duomo Cathedral, in Milan, Italy, April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo/File Photo
People pass by the Duomo Cathedral, in Milan, Italy, April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo/File Photo
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Milan to Host International Festival of Arabic Language and Culture

People pass by the Duomo Cathedral, in Milan, Italy, April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo/File Photo
People pass by the Duomo Cathedral, in Milan, Italy, April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo/File Photo

The 5th edition of the International Festival of Arabic Language and Culture is set to kick off on March 17, in Milan. The festival is organized by the Catholic University of Milan’s Arabic Language Research Institute (CARA) and the Language Service Center (SeLdA), as well as the Sharjah Book Authority.

The three-day festival features several lectures discussing the ‘Historic Dictionary of the Arabic Language’.

Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah, who is set to address the festival’s opening lecture, announced the completion of the first volumes of this historic dictionary during the Sharjah Book Fair two years ago. It is the first-of-its-kind reference that dates Arabic terms and their different uses over the past 17 centuries.

Attempts to form this dictionary started in 1932 under the rule of King Farouk of Egypt, who issued a decree to establish the Complex of Arabic Language in Cairo. However, the project was halted because of the grandness of the Arabic heritage, the high cost, and the size of the project (it covers the pre-Islamic era, heritage and poetry from the age of ignorance, and the successive Islamic periods including the modern Islamic era), in addition to other contemporary obstacles including the war of 1948, scarcity of resources, and the lack of will to proceed such a huge project.

The opening day will include keynotes by Head of the Catholic University of Milan Franco Anelli, Dean of the faculty of linguistic sciences and foreign literatures Giovanni Gobber, and Chairman of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri.

The second day of the festival includes three lectures: ‘The Historic Dictionary: Intersection of Languages and Cultures,’ will be moderated by Dr. Isabella Camera d'Afflitto from La Sapienza University in Rome.
Participants are Dr. Giovanni Gobber from The Catholic University of Milan, Head of Cairo’s Arab Language Complex Salah Fadl, Bernard Cerquiglini from the Francophone University Agency (AUF), and Dr. Mohamed Safi Al Mosteghanemi, secretary-general of Arabic Language Academy (ALA) in Sharjah.

The second lecture ‘The Historic Dictionary: Samples and Curricula,” will be moderated by Dr. Maria Cristina Gatti, head of CARA at the Catholic University of Milan. Participants are Dr. Elton Prifti from the University of Munich and Accademia della Crusca, Head of Al Khartoum International Institute of Arabic Language Bakri Mohammed al-Haj, Maamoun al-Wajih from Fayoum University and scientific director of the Historic Dictionary of Arabic Language, and Martino Diaz from the department of literature and foreign languages at the Catholic University of Milan.

The third lecture ‘The Origins of Words and Terminology Studies” will be moderated by Dr. Maria Teresa Zanola, head of the European Language Council (CEL/ELC) and professor at the department of literature and foreign languages at the Catholic University of Milan. Participants are Manuel Célio Conceição (University of the Algarve), Abdul Fatah al-Hamjari from the Hassan II University of Casablanca, and Head of Mauritania’s Arabic Tongue Council Dr. Khalil Al-Nahawi.

The third day features a fourth lecture entitled ‘Literature and History of Language’ that will be moderated by Dr. Wael Farouq from the department of literature and foreign languages at the Catholic University. Participants are Sobhi Hadidi, literary critic and translator (Syria/France); historian, writer, and journalist Dr. Fawwaz Traboulsi from the American University of Beirut (AUB); Dr. Saad al-Bazei, professor of comparative literature at King Saud University; and Dr. Paolo D'Achille from Roma Tre University and Accademia della Crusca.

A fifth lecture dubbed ‘Dictionary of Existence between Language and Poetry’ will be moderated by Dr. Francesca Corao from the LUISS Guido Carli University Rome. Participants are Abdullah Thabet, Saudi writer and poet; Ahmed Abdul Hussein, Iraqi poet and journalist; Rami Younes, Syrian poet and translator; and Kased Mohammed, Iraqi poet and translator.

The festival will also host an Arabic Book Fair in collaboration with Dar Al Mutawassit – Milan, an exhibition of Arabic calligraphy, and a screening of the movie Hepta by director Hadi al-Bagouri with Italian subtitles.

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Varieties

What Is ALS, the Disease That Killed Actor Eric Dane?

US actor Eric Dane speaks about his ALS diagnosis during a news conference to discuss health insurance at the Department of Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2025. (AFP)
US actor Eric Dane speaks about his ALS diagnosis during a news conference to discuss health insurance at the Department of Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2025. (AFP)
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What Is ALS, the Disease That Killed Actor Eric Dane?

US actor Eric Dane speaks about his ALS diagnosis during a news conference to discuss health insurance at the Department of Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2025. (AFP)
US actor Eric Dane speaks about his ALS diagnosis during a news conference to discuss health insurance at the Department of Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2025. (AFP)

Eric Dane, known for his roles on "Grey’s Anatomy" and "Euphoria," died this week from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 53.

The fatal nervous system disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, killed Dane less than a year after he announced his diagnosis.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ALS is rare. In 2022, there were nearly 33,000 estimated cases, say researchers, who project that cases will rise to more than 36,000 by 2030.

The disease is slightly more common in men than in women and tends to strike in midlife, between the ages of 40 and 60.

Here’s what to know.

What is ALS? It affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control and getting worse over time.

ALS causes nerve cells in the upper and lower parts of the body to stop working and die. Nerves no longer trigger specific muscles, eventually leading to paralysis. People with ALS may develop problems with mobility, speaking, swallowing and breathing.

The exact cause of the disease is unknown, and Mayo Clinic experts said a small number of cases are inherited.

It’s called Lou Gehrig’s disease after the Hall of Fame New York Yankees player. Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS in 1939 on his 36th birthday, died in 1941 and was the face of ALS for decades.

What are some signs of ALS? Experts say the first symptoms are often subtle. The disease may begin with muscle twitching and weakness in an arm or leg.

Over time, muscles stop acting and reacting correctly, said experts at University of California San Francisco Health. People may lose strength and coordination in their arms and legs; feet and ankles may become weak; and muscles in the arms, shoulders and tongue may cramp or twitch. Swallowing and speaking may become difficult and fatigue may set in.

The ability to think, see, hear, smell, taste and touch are usually not affected, UCSF experts said.

Eventually, muscles used for breathing may become paralyzed. Patients may be unable to swallow and inhale food or saliva. Most people with ALS die of respiratory failure.

How is ALS diagnosed and treated? The disease is difficult to diagnose because there’s no test or procedure to confirm it. Generally, doctors will perform a physical exam, lab tests and imaging of the brain and spinal cord.

A doctor may interpret certain things as signs of ALS, including an unusual flexing of the toes, diminished fine motor coordination, painful muscle cramps, twitching and spasticity, a type of stiffness causing jerky movements.

There’s no known cure for ALS, but the drug riluzole has been approved for treatment. According to the Mayo Clinic, it may extend survival in the early stages of the disease or extend the time until a breathing tube is needed.

Another much-debated drug, Relyvrio, was pulled from the US market by Amylyx Pharmaceuticals in 2024. Its development had been financed, in part, by the ALS Association, the major beneficiary of the 2014 " ice bucket challenge " viral phenomenon.

Other medications are sometimes prescribed to help control symptoms.

Choking is common as ALS progresses, so patients may need feeding tubes. People may also use braces, wheelchairs, speech synthesizers or computer-based communication systems.

After the onset of the disease, experts say patients may survive from two years to a decade. Most people live from two to five years after symptoms develop, and about a fifth live more than five years after they are diagnosed.

Varieties

Snowstorm Paralyzes Vienna Airport

People wait at a tram stop after heavy snowfalls in Vienna, Austria, February 20, 2026. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl
People wait at a tram stop after heavy snowfalls in Vienna, Austria, February 20, 2026. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl
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Snowstorm Paralyzes Vienna Airport

People wait at a tram stop after heavy snowfalls in Vienna, Austria, February 20, 2026. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl
People wait at a tram stop after heavy snowfalls in Vienna, Austria, February 20, 2026. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl

Massive snowstorms caused power outages and transport chaos in Austria on Friday, forcing the Vienna airport to temporarily halt all flights.

Flights departing from the capital, a major European hub, were cancelled or delayed, and more than 230 arrivals were similarly disrupted or rerouted.

"Passengers whose flights have been delayed are asked not to come to the airport," the facility said in a statement.

The area received 20 centimeters (nearly eight inches) of snow, national news agency APA reported.

The main highway south of Vienna was closed for several hours, and other sections of highway were temporarily inaccessible because of snowdrift, stranded lorries or poor visibility, said the national automobile association, OAMTC.

According to AFP, electric companies reported power outages in several regions in the south and east, including Styria, where 30,000 homes lost electricity.

The weather was forecast to improve from around midday, but the risk of avalanches remained high.

Varieties

NASA Delivers Harsh Assessment of Botched Boeing Starliner Test Flight

NASA duo Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stuck on the ISS for nine months. Handout / NASA TV/AFP/File
NASA duo Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stuck on the ISS for nine months. Handout / NASA TV/AFP/File
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NASA Delivers Harsh Assessment of Botched Boeing Starliner Test Flight

NASA duo Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stuck on the ISS for nine months. Handout / NASA TV/AFP/File
NASA duo Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stuck on the ISS for nine months. Handout / NASA TV/AFP/File

NASA on Thursday blamed what it called engineering vulnerabilities in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft along with internal agency mistakes in a sharply critical report assessing a botched mission that left two astronauts stranded in space.

The US space agency labeled the 2024 test flight of the Starliner capsule a "Type A" mishap -- the same classification as the deadly Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters -- a category that reflects the "potential for a significant mishap," it said.

The failures left a pair of NASA astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station for nine months in a mission that captured global attention and became a political flashpoint.

"Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware. It's decision-making and leadership," said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman in a briefing.

"If left unchecked," he said, this mismanagement "could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight."

The top space official said the investigation found that a concern for the reputation of Boeing's Starliner clouded an earlier internal probe into the incident.

"Programmatic advocacy exceeded reasonable bounds and place the mission, the crew and America's space program at risk in ways that were not fully understood at the time," Isaacman said.

He said Starliner currently "is less reliable for crew survival than other crewed vehicles" and that "NASA will not fly another crew on Starliner until technical causes are understood and corrected" and a problematic propulsion system is fixed.

But the administrator insisted that "NASA will continue to work with Boeing, as we do all of our partners that are undertaking test flights."

In a statement, Boeing said it has "made substantial progress on corrective actions for technical challenges we encountered and driven significant cultural changes across the team that directly align with the findings in the report."

- 'We failed them' -

Isaacman also had harsh words for internal conduct at NASA.

"We managed the contract. We accepted the vehicle, we launched the crew to space. We made decisions from docking through post-mission actions," he told journalists.

"A considerable portion of the responsibility and accountability rests here."

In June 2024 Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams embarked on what was meant to be an eight-to-14-day mission. But this turned into nine months after propulsion problems emerged in orbit and the Starliner spacecraft was deemed unfit to fly them back.

The ex-Navy pilots were reassigned to the NASA-SpaceX Crew-9 mission. A Dragon spacecraft flew to the ISS that September with a team of two, rather than the usual four, to make room for the stranded pair.

The duo, both now retired, were finally able to arrive home safely in March 2025.

"They have so much grace, and they're so competent, the two of them, and we failed them," NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya told Thursday's briefing.

"The agency failed them."

Kshatriya said the details of the report were "hard to hear" but that "transparency" was the only path forward.

"This is not about pointing fingers," he said. "It's about making sure that we are holding each other accountable."

Both Boeing and SpaceX were commissioned to handle missions to the ISS more than a decade ago.