Japanese Patent Office Honors Manga Arabia

Dr. Issam Bukhari, General Director and Editor-in-Chief of Manga Arabia, receives the honor. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Dr. Issam Bukhari, General Director and Editor-in-Chief of Manga Arabia, receives the honor. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Japanese Patent Office Honors Manga Arabia

Dr. Issam Bukhari, General Director and Editor-in-Chief of Manga Arabia, receives the honor. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Dr. Issam Bukhari, General Director and Editor-in-Chief of Manga Arabia, receives the honor. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Manga Arabia Company, affiliated with the Saudi Research and Media Group, was honored by the Japanese Patent Office for participating in a digital awareness campaign to combat electronic piracy and protect intellectual property (IP).
The campaign was organized by the patent office and the International Intellectual Property Protection Forum (IIPPF), managed by the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO).
Manga Arabia participated in the campaign by translating visual materials into Arabic and sharing them on its digital platforms.
The company has a significant online presence in the Middle East, with over 1.2 billion appearances on various digital platforms and over 7.5 million application downloads across 190 countries. The extensive reach positioned Manga Arabia as an influential asset for reaching and educating young people.
Manga Arabia’s editor-in-chief, Issam Bukhari, emphasized the company’s commitment to supporting anti-piracy measures and promoting IP values. He highlighted the company’s goal of creating a safe and reliable environment for its products to inspire and empower imagination in the Arab world.



Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
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Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

With politics set aside, well-wishers gathered to wish the Taipei zoo’s senior panda a happy 20th birthday.
Visitors crowded around Yuanyuan's enclosure to take photos of her with a birthday cake in the shape of the number 20.
Yuanyuan was born in China and arrived in 2008 with her partner Tuantuan. He died in 2022 at age 18 but not before fathering two female cubs, Yuanzai and Yuanbao, now 11 and 4 respectively and still living at the zoo.
Danielle Shu, a 20-year-old Brazilian student in Taiwan, said she found online clips of the pandas an enjoyable distraction. “And I just find it really funny and cute,” The Associated Press quoted Shu as saying.
Giant pandas are native only to China, and Beijing bestows them as a sign of political amity. Yuanyuan and Tuantuan arrived in Taiwan during a period of relative calm between the sides, which split amid civil war in 1949. China claims the island its own territory, to be annexed by military force if necessary.
Faced with declining habitat and a notoriously low birthrate, giant panda populations have declined to around 1,900 in the mountains of western China, while 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers in China and around the world.