Dubai’s Global Village to Celebrate 2023 7 Times on New Year

 New Year's Eve fireworks at the Global Village in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)
New Year's Eve fireworks at the Global Village in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Dubai’s Global Village to Celebrate 2023 7 Times on New Year

 New Year's Eve fireworks at the Global Village in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)
New Year's Eve fireworks at the Global Village in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Global Village is organizing a counting down event to midnight from seven different time zones from around the world.

A special countdown will precede the start of the year in each of these countries, after which fireworks will light up the skies.

Pavilions celebrating the cultures of each of the seven countries have also been set up. These pavilions also offer entertainment, food, and drink tied to the national culture of each country, as well as other activities.

The celebrations are scheduled to begin at 8 pm local time (5 pm GMT) when the new year starts in the Philippines. Next comes Thailand (9 pm), which is followed by Bangladesh (10 pm), and then India (10:30 pm).

Pakistan’s New Year’s Eve (11 pm) will be the last to be celebrated by midnight local time.

The largest celebrations will start at midnight, and they will be followed by a final celebration to coincide with Turkey’s New Year’s Eve (1 am).

Visitors will also have the chance to explore the Global Village’s 27 pavilions, which represent over 90 cultures from across the globe. They can choose from over 3,500 shopping outlets and more than 250 diverse dining options, as well as carnival activities.



Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
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Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)

Police thought a shoe thief was on the loose at a kindergarten in southwestern Japan, until a security camera caught the furry culprit in action.

A weasel with a tiny shoe in its mouth was spotted on the video footage after police installed three cameras in the school in the prefecture of Fukuoka.

“It’s great it turned out not to be a human being,” Deputy Police Chief Hiroaki Inada told The Associated Press Sunday. Teachers and parents had feared it could be a disturbed person with a shoe fetish.

Japanese customarily take their shoes off before entering homes. The vanished shoes were all slip-ons the children wore indoors, stored in cubbyholes near the door.

Weasels are known to stash items and people who keep weasels as pets give them toys so they can hide them.

The weasel scattered shoes around and took 15 of them before police were called. Six more were taken the following day. The weasel returned Nov. 11 to steal one more shoe. The camera footage of that theft was seen the next day.

The shoe-loving weasel only took the white indoor shoes made of canvas, likely because they’re light to carry.

“We were so relieved,” Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito told Japanese broadcaster RKB Mainichi Broadcasting.

The children got a good laugh when they saw the weasel in the video.

Although the stolen shoes were never found, the remaining shoes are now safe at the kindergarten with nets installed over the cubbyholes.

The weasel, which is believed to be wild, is still on the loose.