The eyes of tennis lovers are on Abu Dhabi at present, hoping the Capitala World Tennis Championships provides some indication of the relative strength of Nadal, Federer, and Murray in advance of the Australian Open later this month. In Britain, especially, viewing figures will be high for the pictures from the Emirates, as there are high hopes this will be the year Andy Murray finally wins a slam.
The tournament signals the start of the biggest year yet for sport in the Emirates, with the UAE football team defending the Gulf Cup in Oman later this month, world No 2 Sergio Garcia, and No 4 Padraig Harrington, competing in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championships, and the year culminating with the Club World Cup- the one recently picked up by Manchester United in Japan - at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in December.
Economic prospects do not look bright in the UK, but I suspect there are still one or two fans trying to scrape together a few pennies for a trip east.
While you're here
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MATCH INFO
Schalke 0
Werder Bremen 1 (Bittencourt 32')
Man of the match Leonardo Bittencourt (Werder Bremen)
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20SAMSUNG%20GALAXY%20Z%20FLIP5
While you're here
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West Asia Premiership
Dubai Hurricanes 58-10 Dubai Knights Eagles
Dubai Tigers 5-39 Bahrain
Jebel Ali Dragons 16-56 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
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Checks continue
A High Court judge issued an interim order on Friday suspending a decision by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to direct a stop to Brexit agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports.
Mr Justice Colton said he was making the temporary direction until a judicial review of the minister's unilateral action this week to order a halt to port checks that are required under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Civil servants have yet to implement the instruction, pending legal clarity on their obligations, and checks are continuing.
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Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
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