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Fahad Cultural Center to House Saudi National Theater, Orchestra

Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan (Arabic website)
Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan (Arabic website)
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Fahad Cultural Center to House Saudi National Theater, Orchestra

Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan (Arabic website)
Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan (Arabic website)

Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan announced on Thursday that the King Fahad Cultural Center has been elected as headquarters for the national theater and orchestra which were announced earlier in the Cultural Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Prince Badr attributed the center’s selection to the Culture Ministry’s “keenness towards harnessing all capacities facilitating the establishment of the two groups (the national theater team and orchestra), in such a way that meets the standards of the audience and pioneers of Saudi theater and music fans.”

Cultural Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia encompasses the following central objectives, as cited by the ministry’s official website: promoting culture as a way of life, enabling culture to contribute to economic growth and creating opportunities for international cultural exchange.

These objectives are closely aligned with the three strategic pillars of the Kingdom’s national transformation Vision 2030, which are to create a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation.

The Ministry will seek to realize the cultural sector’s potential, bringing all aspects of the Kingdom’s rich cultural heritage into the daily life of Saudis – it will enrich the lives of the people of Saudi Arabia.

Culture is a broad term, and the Ministry has identified 16 priority sub-sectors where it will focus its work. The intention of this is to create a Ministry which can effectively champion causes across the sector. The Ministry will also create 11 new bodies, reporting to the Ministry which will focus on these sectors.

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Man Nearly Sucked Out of 'Detached' Window on Ryanair Flight

FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane on the tarmac of Makedonia airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane on the tarmac of Makedonia airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo
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Man Nearly Sucked Out of 'Detached' Window on Ryanair Flight

FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane on the tarmac of Makedonia airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane on the tarmac of Makedonia airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo

A man was nearly sucked out the window of a Ryanair flight when it "detached" mid-air en route to Germany, with other passengers pulling him back inside, witnesses and officials said Friday.

The passenger, described as a tourist from Serbia on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany, has been hospitalized with friction burns but was otherwise in good condition, authorities said.

"Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. There was a noise, like a tire bursting," a fellow passenger told Radio Thessaloniki, according to AFP.

"We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams ... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," the woman said.

"The masks dropped and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn't taken off his seat belt."

Other passengers near the man helped to pull him in, she said.

Greek media reported the incident had occurred over North Macedonia, and said the window had been broken by a piece of debris that detached from one of the plane's engines.

Ryanair in a statement said the flight "returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window detached during the flight. The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal."

A replacement aircraft was made available to transport the remaining passengers to Memmingen, the Irish carrier said.

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H5 Bird Flu Detected in Australian Seabird for 1st Time

FILE PHOTO: An ibis bird perches next to the Reserve Bank of Australia headquarters in central Sydney, Australia February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An ibis bird perches next to the Reserve Bank of Australia headquarters in central Sydney, Australia February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo
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H5 Bird Flu Detected in Australian Seabird for 1st Time

FILE PHOTO: An ibis bird perches next to the Reserve Bank of Australia headquarters in central Sydney, Australia February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An ibis bird perches next to the Reserve Bank of Australia headquarters in central Sydney, Australia February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo

Scientists have detected the highly contagious H5 bird flu in an Australian seabird for the first time, the government said Friday.

Australia was for years the only continental landmass to be free of the H5 strain, which has caused severe disease and high death rates in poultry and wild birds worldwide.

A total of 12 cases of H5 bird flu have been confirmed in Australia since June but all of them were in migratory sea birds, not local wildlife.

Laboratory testing confirmed the disease had infected a greater crested tern in the town of Robe, South Australia.

"While this, of course, is a concerning development it is not unexpected," AFP quoted Agriculture Minister Julie Collins as saying.

"I do want to reiterate, though that at this time there is still no evidence of any mass mortality due to the H5 bird flu," she told a news conference in Hobart, capital of the island state of Tasmania.

There was no sign the virus had spread to other animal populations, poultry or agriculture systems, "and there remains a low risk to human health", the minister said.

Scientists were seeking to establish the potential pathways for the virus's spread to the Australian bird, Collins added.

"What we do know is that this is a coastal seabird that has an overlapping coastal range with migratory sea birds that have previously tested positive for H5."

The South Australian state government had implemented "enhanced surveillance" in the area where the bird was found, she said.

There has been concern that the deadly disease could add to the extinction risks faced by Australian fauna, many of which are unique to the vast continent.

Almost half of Australia's wild bird species, and 83 percent of its mammals, are found nowhere else.

The wild birds most affected by the H5 strain include waterfowl, shorebirds, seabirds and birds of prey.

Marine mammals have also been affected, with some detections in other animals such as cats, goats, alpacas and pigs.

Officials have previously said they are investigating if the disease arrived in Australia via birds migrating from the sub-Antarctic.

Scientists said in June the H5 bird flu strain had killed more than 13,000 elephant seal pups after infecting a breeding colony on the remote Heard and McDonald Islands, one of Australia's external territories in the sub-Antarctic.

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UN: Intense Sand and Dust Storms Struck China, US in 2025

US military officials are enveloped in a dust cloud created by the rotor wash of a landing MV-22 Osprey aircraft during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows (MCTAB) in Waimanalo, Hawaii, US, July 9, 2026. REUTERS/Marco Garcia
US military officials are enveloped in a dust cloud created by the rotor wash of a landing MV-22 Osprey aircraft during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows (MCTAB) in Waimanalo, Hawaii, US, July 9, 2026. REUTERS/Marco Garcia
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UN: Intense Sand and Dust Storms Struck China, US in 2025

US military officials are enveloped in a dust cloud created by the rotor wash of a landing MV-22 Osprey aircraft during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows (MCTAB) in Waimanalo, Hawaii, US, July 9, 2026. REUTERS/Marco Garcia
US military officials are enveloped in a dust cloud created by the rotor wash of a landing MV-22 Osprey aircraft during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows (MCTAB) in Waimanalo, Hawaii, US, July 9, 2026. REUTERS/Marco Garcia

China and the southern United States were hit last year by some of the worst sand and dust storms in decades, the United Nations said Friday.

The UN's weather and climate agency said these episodes affected public health and the environment, and disrupted transport and economic activity.

In its 10th annual Airborne Dust Bulletin, the World Meteorological Organization said that globally, overall average dust concentrations last year were similar to 2024 -- though with big regional variations.

"Every year, around 2,000 million tons of dust enters the atmosphere, and can be transported for hundreds of kilometers and even thousands of kilometers, across continents and oceans," the WMO said.

The main dust sources are major deserts such as the Sahara in Africa, the Gobi in Asia, and the Arabian Desert in the Middle East.

Though a natural process, poor water and land management, drought and environmental degradation "are increasingly to blame" for a hazard which affects more than 150 countries, the WMO said.

The highest annual mean dust concentrations worldwide again were in the Bodele Depression in Chad, one of the world's most active dust source regions.

"Sand and dust storms affect air quality and human health," said WMO chief Celeste Saulo.

"They reduce agricultural productivity, disrupt transport and aviation, strain water and energy systems, and damage ecosystems. No country is immune to their impacts."

The desert border region of Mexico and the United States saw exceptionally frequent, intense and prolonged dust storms in 2025.

El Paso in Texas experienced 50 days with dust weather -- more than double the annual average.

The number of dust storms was the greatest since 1935, the WMO said.

The problem peaked on March 18, with a daily average concentrations of inhalable particles (PM10) at 2,064 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

The highest hourly peak hit 8,142 micrograms -- the highest measured in Texas since hourly PM monitoring began around 27 years ago.

PM10 is particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometers.

The World Health Organization's air quality guideline annual level is 15 micrograms, or 45 in a 24-hour period.

In April 2025, China suffered its worst dust and sand storm in a decade, in terms of its intensity, duration and influence.

As dust swept in from Mongolia, hourly PM10 concentrations exceeded 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter in northern China.

In some places, the figure was as high as 3,000 to 4,000 micrograms.

Saulo said because sand and dust storms cross borders, countries needed to share early warning data.

The agency said artificial intelligence had the potential to improve sand and dust forecasts, but more research was needed at this stage.

Currently, some AI systems are better at forecasting short-lived, rapidly-developing local dust storms, while others are more consistent on large-scale events that develop and travel over several days.