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Madinah, KAEC, Al-Ahsa Join UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities

The UNESCO logo is seen during the opening of the 39th session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at their headquarters in Paris, France, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer
The UNESCO logo is seen during the opening of the 39th session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at their headquarters in Paris, France, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer
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Madinah, KAEC, Al-Ahsa Join UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities

The UNESCO logo is seen during the opening of the 39th session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at their headquarters in Paris, France, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer
The UNESCO logo is seen during the opening of the 39th session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at their headquarters in Paris, France, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced that the cities of Madinah, King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), and Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia have joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities.

With the new announcement, Saudi Arabia now boasts five cities enlisted in the UNESCO GNLC, contributing to the goal of equipping globally competitive citizens in alignment with the sustainable development goals and Saudi Vision 2030.

The enlistment of these cities is the result of the collective efforts of the National Committee for Education, Culture, and Science, under the directives and support of the Minister of Culture, Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan, and Education Minister Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Benyan, who is also the committee's deputy chairman.

Previously, Yanbu Industrial City was designated as a UNESCO Learning City in 2022, and Jubail Industrial City earned the Learning City status in 2020. Moreover, Jubail Industrial City received the UNESCO Learning City Award in 2021.

These recognitions serve as a testament to the quality of education in the Kingdom and its commitment to lifelong learning for all, as well as the implementation of policies that promote comprehensive and sustainable development.

The National Committee for Education, Culture, and Science aims to further increase the number of Learning Cities within the network.

Launched in 2012, the UNESCO GNLC aims to support and improve lifelong learning practices in cities worldwide. This is achieved by fostering dialogue on education policies, establishing connections between cities and various educational institutions, and enhancing partnerships between cities at local and international levels.

Learning Cities leverage their resources across all sectors to promote comprehensive learning for all, from primary education to higher education. They also stimulate learning within families and local communities, facilitate learning for work, and expand the use of modern educational tools to foster a culture of lifelong learning.

These efforts enhance individuals' capabilities, social cohesion, and the economic and cultural growth of communities, ultimately contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals. Additionally, these initiatives aim to expand the use of modern learning technologies and enhance the quality and excellence of education, recognizing them as key components in spreading a culture of lifelong learning.

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Dutch Zookeeper Dies after Leopard Attacked her in the Animal's Enclosure

This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)
This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)
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Dutch Zookeeper Dies after Leopard Attacked her in the Animal's Enclosure

This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)
This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)

A longtime zookeeper at a safari park in the Netherlands died Tuesday from injuries she suffered when she was attacked by a leopard in its enclosure over the weekend.

The Beekse Bergen Safari Park said in a statement that the woman, whose name has been withheld in accordance with Dutch privacy law, had passed away after she suffered serious wounds to her head and neck on Saturday while working in an enclosure with two male Persian leopards.

“Her passing deeply affects us all, and we sympathize intensely with her family, friends, and loved ones,” the zoo in the southern town of Hilvarenbeek said in a statement, which was made together with her family.

The woman began working at the zoo when she was 17 and spent nearly all of her 40-year career there.

An investigation is underway to determine why the woman was in the enclosure with the leopards. Zoo staff are typically not permitted to be in the same space as predatory animals, The Associated Press reported.

According to the zoo, the woman was able to alert colleagues via a walkie-talkie that she had been hurt. An ambulance and a trauma helicopter were dispatched to the park at around 11 a.m. local time on Saturday.

The woman underwent emergency surgery, but her condition worsened Sunday evening and the zoo said they did not expect her to survive. The safari park said an area in the park will be set up where condolences can be left.

Varieties

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Named after British Dad

An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS
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Newly Discovered Dinosaur Named after British Dad

An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS

A new species and genus of dinosaur has been named after a dad in Surrey, in the UK, according to BBC.

Paludohadros proudlovii - an iguanodontian - was named in honor of the late Will Proudlove, who managed the Ewhurst brick and roof tile works where the dinosaur was discovered.

Proudlove passed away at the age of 35, shortly before the dinosaur's fossil was found in 2001 and donated to the Natural History Museum.

His wife Rachel told BBC Radio Surrey there was a history of finding dinosaur remains where the father-of-two worked.

“He was quite fascinated by this,” she said.

Each time a layer of clay was removed from the quarry, Will checked if there was anything that looked like dinosaur fossils, Rachel added.

Rachel said the dinosaur being named after Will - who worked his way up the ranks to become manager - was a “huge” honor.

“It's very exciting,” she told the BBC. “It's a great legacy for my husband to be remembered by. [We’re] absolutely thrilled.”

The remains at the Ewhurst works belong to a member of the iguanodontians – a group of dinosaurs known for their thumb spikes, according to the Natural History Museum.

Historically, it added that iguanodontians found in southern England were considered to be either Iguanodon or its smaller relative, mantellisaurus.

However, a detailed redescription of the latter by Natural History Museum scientists in 2023 has allowed key differences to be identified.

This has led to several newly named iguanodontians in recent years, including brighstoneus, comptonatus, the sail-backed istiorachis and now paludohadros.

The four-legged herbivore lived around 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Period, the Natural History Museum said.

At the time, southern England would have been covered in muddy wetlands - helping give the dinosaur its name, as palus means swamp in Latin, it added.

At around five meters long and around 1.5 to two tons in weight, the paludohadros proudlovii would have been a similar size to a rhino when it died.

Varieties

Ancient Armored Bottom-feeder is First Seagoing Amphibian

An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS
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Ancient Armored Bottom-feeder is First Seagoing Amphibian

An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS

Amphibians rely on their permeable skin for the crucial functions of breathing and drinking, a wonderful adaptation in freshwater that is subverted by the salt in seawater. As a result, there has been no known amphibian — extinct or extant — with a fully marine lifestyle. Until now, that is.

Researchers have discovered in China's Guizhou Province two nearly complete skeletons of an amphibian that lived in the sea about 237 million years ago during the Triassic Period, with a flat, disc-shaped and armored body and a wide mouth indicative of a bottom-dwelling suction feeder that ambushed its prey.

The creature, named Gerrothorax maritimus, measured about 30 inches (75 cm) long and predated the dinosaurs.

"The most important finding is that there was an early amphibian that lived in the sea full-time," said paleobiologist Ryosuke Motani of the University of California, Davis, one of the leaders of the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

It was unearthed in rocks that formed from ocean sediment, and was found near fossils of an ichthyosaur — a type of marine reptile — called Guizhouichthyosaurus that was about ⁠23 feet (7 meters) long. ⁠Ichthyosaurs were the apex marine predators of the time, and justified the amphibian's bony body armor.

Its use of suction feeding is suggested by the shape of its mouth and the structure of its throat. Suction feeding occurs when an aquatic animal quickly expands its mouth cavity to create a drop in pressure, drawing water and prey inside.

"The skull is flat and wide with a large mouth, having many small conical teeth," paleontologist and study co-author Da-yong Jiang of Peking University in China said, according to Reuters.

"It is a bottom animal, a suction feeder that lived on a muddy to silty seafloor. It would likely capture anything that swam by, such as fish, worms and maybe cephalopods," Jiang ⁠said, referring to squid relatives.

The wobbegong, a bottom-dwelling and suction-feeding shark of comparable size, is a good present-day analog, Motani said.

The researchers said Gerrothorax maritimus evolved from armored freshwater ancestors. Fossils of a closely related armored freshwater amphibian were previously discovered.

There are more than 8,000 species of living amphibians such as frogs, salamanders and legless caecilians. Some can withstand brackish water — saltwater and freshwater mixing where bodies of water like rivers meet the sea.

But less than 2% exhibit any salt tolerance, and none live in fully marine environments. In addition, no previous amphibian fossil indicated a marine existence.

An amphibian's skin is multifunctional, acting among other things as the main gateway for breathing and water intake.

"Their skin, however, does not work the same way in seawater," Motani said.

"When a frog swims in seawater, it loses its body water because the seawater sucks out the body water through the permeable skin through osmotic pressure. It cannot drink water either for the same reason. As a result, it loses body weight and will have to rest in ⁠freshwater to recover. This key feature ⁠prevents amphibians from becoming fully marine."

Gerrothorax maritimus was able to do so through a phenomenon called exaptation, in which a biological trait that evolved for one function is repurposed for a different function.

"There was a freshwater amphibian that happened to have the equipment needed to colonize the sea — the body armor. The armor protected the animal from predators in freshwater but it could also be used to protect the bearer from seawater when the lineage colonized the saltier part of the water system," Motani said, like a person wearing a dive suit for underwater exploring.

The armor would have inhibited seawater absorption through the skin, requiring the animal to drink saltwater through its mouth and then filter out the salt with its gills.

In the fossil record, there are examples of land animals and freshwater aquatic animals whose bodies were carried out to sea after death. But the researchers expressed confidence that this amphibian was a genuine marine creature, in part because its bones exhibited a chemical signature of Triassic seawater, showing the animal developed and grew in the ocean.

"Very odd and charming in its own way," Motani said of the new species. "Its charm is in its unique, somewhat comical appearance and physiological peculiarity. I did not ever imagine that there was an amphibian that shared time and space with ichthyosaurs. That alone made a big impression on me."