Saudi Informatics Team Competes at International Olympiad in Hungary

The Saudi talents are participating for the fifth time in the activities of the IOI. SPA
The Saudi talents are participating for the fifth time in the activities of the IOI. SPA
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Saudi Informatics Team Competes at International Olympiad in Hungary

The Saudi talents are participating for the fifth time in the activities of the IOI. SPA
The Saudi talents are participating for the fifth time in the activities of the IOI. SPA

The Saudi informatics team, comprising Adeeb Al-Shehri, Hameed Al-Hudhali, Eissa Al-Moussa, and Djouri Al-Juhani, is competing in the 35th edition of the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI 2023) held in Hungary with the participation of 360 male and female students from 90 countries.

The Saudi talents are participating for the fifth time in the activities of the IOI, the world’s most prestigious computer science competition for under-20 secondary-school students.

The IOI provides students with an opportunity to enhance their information science skills through problem analysis, algorithm design, data structures, programming, and testing.

Each participant is tasked with handling three assignments that involve problems to be solved within a five-hour timeframe.



Eel-eating Japan Opposes EU Call for More Protection

People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
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Eel-eating Japan Opposes EU Call for More Protection

People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

Japan's agriculture minister said Friday the country would oppose any call by the European Union to add eels to an endangered species list that would limit trade in them.

Eel is eaten worldwide but is particularly popular in Japan, where it is called "unagi" and traditionally served grilled after being covered in a sticky-sweet sauce.

Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that the country carefully manages stock levels of the Japanese eel in cooperation with neighboring China, Taiwan and South Korea.

"There is a sufficient population, and it faces no extinction risk due to international trade," AFP quoted him as saying.

Japanese media have reported that the EU could soon propose that all eel species be added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which limits trade of protected animals.

There are 19 species and subspecies of eel, many of them now threatened due to a range of factors including pollution and overfishing.

In 2014, the Japanese eel was listed as endangered, but not critically endangered, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which cited factors including habitat loss, overfishing, pollution and migration barriers.

Protecting the animal is complicated by their complex life cycle, which unfolds over a vast area, and the many unknowns about how they reproduce.