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Moscow Wins Top City Prize in World Travel Awards

Tourists in traditional dresses walk towards Voskresenskiye Vorota (Resurrection Gates) leaving the Red Square in Moscow on July 9, 2017. (AFP)
Tourists in traditional dresses walk towards Voskresenskiye Vorota (Resurrection Gates) leaving the Red Square in Moscow on July 9, 2017. (AFP)
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Moscow Wins Top City Prize in World Travel Awards

Tourists in traditional dresses walk towards Voskresenskiye Vorota (Resurrection Gates) leaving the Red Square in Moscow on July 9, 2017. (AFP)
Tourists in traditional dresses walk towards Voskresenskiye Vorota (Resurrection Gates) leaving the Red Square in Moscow on July 9, 2017. (AFP)

The Russian capital has been named the world's leading city destination in 2019 by the World Travel Awards in a ceremony held at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman.

Moscow competed with other cities in three categories: "World's Leading Festival and Event Destination," "World's Leading Sports Tourism Destination," and" World's Leading City Destination." The Russian capital got the highest number of votes in the last category, and won this prize for the first time.

Observers agreed that Moscow deservedly won the contest, and fairly competed against tourism capitals, such as London, Paris, New York, Lisbon, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and others cities.

Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin shared the good news on his Instagram account, with a picture of Moscow and a caption reading: "It is truly the best city on Earth. We got one of the most prestigious tourism awards. We won the Oscar for the best tourism destination in the world."

Over the past two decades, the city has witnessed extensive construction and maintenance works, including the reorganization and improvement of its main streets, and the elimination of random kiosks that were scattered on the sidewalks. Dozens of new parks have also been opened, and sidewalks have been expanded in historic areas to allow tourists to wander freely around the city's cultural monuments dating back to several eras.

More than 20 million foreign tourists from around the world visit Moscow every year, in addition to tens of millions of visitors a day coming from other regions in Russia and the former Soviet republics.

The city of Petersburg (formerly known as Leningrad), a historical treasure with its unique monuments, was among the winners as well. It was named the "World's Leading Cultural City Destination". The World's Leading Airlines prize went to the Russia’s Aeroflot.

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Varieties

Police 'Recover' Faberge Egg Swallowed by Thief

This handout photo release by New Zealand Police on December 5, 2025 shows an officer displaying a recovered diamond-encrusted green Fabergé egg in Auckland after keeping a six-day watch over the thief accused of swallowing it. (Photo by Handout / NEW ZEALAND POLICE / AFP)
This handout photo release by New Zealand Police on December 5, 2025 shows an officer displaying a recovered diamond-encrusted green Fabergé egg in Auckland after keeping a six-day watch over the thief accused of swallowing it. (Photo by Handout / NEW ZEALAND POLICE / AFP)
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Police 'Recover' Faberge Egg Swallowed by Thief

This handout photo release by New Zealand Police on December 5, 2025 shows an officer displaying a recovered diamond-encrusted green Fabergé egg in Auckland after keeping a six-day watch over the thief accused of swallowing it. (Photo by Handout / NEW ZEALAND POLICE / AFP)
This handout photo release by New Zealand Police on December 5, 2025 shows an officer displaying a recovered diamond-encrusted green Fabergé egg in Auckland after keeping a six-day watch over the thief accused of swallowing it. (Photo by Handout / NEW ZEALAND POLICE / AFP)

New Zealand police have recovered a diamond-encrusted green Faberge egg after keeping a six-day watch over the thief accused of swallowing it.

The 32-year-old allegedly gulped down the egg late last week from a store in the country's largest city, Auckland, but was arrested before he could flee.

"Police can confirm the pendant was recovered," they said in a statement Friday.

Police had assigned an officer to watch over the man while waiting for nature to deliver the trinket -- valued at around US$20,000, AFP reported.

The special edition locket was inspired by the James Bond film "Octopussy", which revolves around a plot to steal a rare Faberge egg.

"The exterior of the egg closely follows the design of the Faberge egg featured in the film Octopussy, with a beautiful 18k gold lattice framework which is delicately set with blue sapphires and white diamonds in a floral-like design," reads an online description.

A small golden octopus is nestled inside.

Russia's House of Faberge gained international fame in the late 19th century by designing opulent Easter eggs decorated with gold and precious gems.

Varieties

Center for Space Futures Holds Workshop with Participation of 40 Global Experts

The Saudi flag. Asharq Al-Awsat
The Saudi flag. Asharq Al-Awsat
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Center for Space Futures Holds Workshop with Participation of 40 Global Experts

The Saudi flag. Asharq Al-Awsat
The Saudi flag. Asharq Al-Awsat

The Center for Space Futures (CSF) held an international workshop in Riyadh on Thursday, bringing together nearly 40 experts from around the world to explore “The Next Decade of Transformative Space Technologies.”

The event forms part of the center's ongoing efforts to advance the global space economy and strengthen international collaboration in emerging space domains, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday.

During the workshop, CSF presented the findings of its global expert survey, from which the five priority technology domains were derived directly from expert responses, not pre-selected by CSF.

The domains, identified as most influential for the space sector by 2035, are: artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy and robotics, on-orbit servicing and ISAM propulsion, ISRU, and space communication and on-orbit data infrastructure.

Established through a partnership between the Saudi Space Agency and the World Economic Forum, the CSF is the first space-focused entity within the forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Network. It serves as an impartial global platform dedicated to advancing space policy, fostering innovation, and strengthening cross-sector collaboration to support the sustainable growth of the global space economy.

Varieties

Australia Says the World Will Follow Social Media Ban as Meta Starts Blocking Teens

(FILES) This photo taken on October 24, 2025 shows a 14-year-old boy posing at his home near Gosford as he looks at social media on his mobile phone. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)
(FILES) This photo taken on October 24, 2025 shows a 14-year-old boy posing at his home near Gosford as he looks at social media on his mobile phone. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)
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Australia Says the World Will Follow Social Media Ban as Meta Starts Blocking Teens

(FILES) This photo taken on October 24, 2025 shows a 14-year-old boy posing at his home near Gosford as he looks at social media on his mobile phone. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)
(FILES) This photo taken on October 24, 2025 shows a 14-year-old boy posing at his home near Gosford as he looks at social media on his mobile phone. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)

Australia's internet regulator said a teen social media ban would be the first domino to fall in a global push to rein in Big Tech, as Meta's Instagram, Facebook and Threads began locking out hundreds of thousands of accounts ahead of a deadline next week.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she had initially expressed concern about the "blunt-force" approach of blocking under-16s from social media but she had come to embrace it after incremental regulatory changes were not effective enough. "We've reached a tipping point," Inman Grant said on Thursday at the Sydney Dialogue, a cyber summit.

"Our data is the currency that fuels these companies, and there are these powerful, harmful, deceptive design features that even adults are powerless to fight against. What chance do our children have?"

Governments around the world were watching as the Australian law takes effect on December 10, and "I've always referred to this as the first domino, which is why they pushed back", she added, referring to the platforms. After more than a year campaigning against the ban which carries a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million), platforms owned by Meta, TikTok, Snap's Snapchat and Alphabet's YouTube have said they will comply. Some 96% of Australian teenagers under 16 - more than a million of the country's 27 million population - have social media accounts, according to eSafety.

Although the law takes effect on December 10, Meta's Instagram, Facebook and Threads began deactivating accounts from Thursday, according to screenshots seen by Reuters.

Most other affected platforms have started contacting underage users advising them to download their photos and contacts and offering the choice of deleting their accounts or freezing them until they turn 16.

"It's a great thing and I'm glad that the pressure is taken off the parents because there's so many mental health implications," said Jennifer Jennison, a Sydney mother.

"Give my kids a break after school and they can rest and hang out with the family." At the conference, Inman Grant said lobbying by the platforms had apparently involved taking their case to the US government, which has asked her to testify at its congressional House Judiciary about what it called an attempt to exert extra-territorial power over American free speech.

Inman Grant didn't say if she would agree to the request but noted that "by virtue of writing to me and asking me to appear before the committee, that's also using extra-territorial reach".