Protecting Biodiversity an Important Environmental Challenge, Says Egypt's Environment Minister

A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
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Protecting Biodiversity an Important Environmental Challenge, Says Egypt's Environment Minister

A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)

Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad stressed that protecting migratory birds and biodiversity is one of the global and regional environmental challenges that Egypt is keen to address during the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27).

She made her remarks at the opening of the regional conference organized by Birdlife International, in cooperation with the Migratory Soaring Birds Project of the Ministry of Environment, under the title “Safe Flyways: Conference on Energy and Birds” from October 8 to 10, reported the United Arab Emirates' state news agency (WAM).

The conference aims to document relations and mutual understanding between the energy sector and nature conservation organizations along the African-Eurasian migration path in order to strengthen the relationship, understanding, and partnership between nature conservation, especially birds and energy infrastructure along the migration path.

Fouad invited attendees to the COP27, scheduled for Sharm El Sheikh in November, and called on them to create global momentum on the importance of protecting the environment and biological diversity from the effects of climate change during the Cop27 in Egypt and the Cop28 in the United Arab Emirates.



Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
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Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

More than 240 people, mostly combatants, were killed as intense fighting approached Syria's northern Aleppo city after the opposition launched a major offensive on government-held areas this week, a monitor said Friday.
On Wednesday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied Turkish-backed factions launched an attack on government-held areas in the northwest, triggering the fiercest fighting since 2020, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said fighting reached two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the main northern city of Aleppo, where the group’s artillery shelling on student housing killed four civilians, according to state media.
"The combatants' death toll in the ongoing... operation in the Idlib and Aleppo countrysides has risen to 218," since Wednesday, said the British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
In addition to the fighters, it said 24 civilians were killed.
Syrian ally Russia launched air strikes that killed 19 civilians on Thursday, while another civilian had been killed in Syrian army shelling a day earlier, said the Observatory which on Thursday had reported an overall toll of about 200 dead, including the civilians.