UAE to launch camel festival in January

October 5th, 2009 KULLU - The weeklong Kullu Dussehra festivities, unique to this Himachal Pradesh town, concluded Monday as 214 deities brought here for the celebrations started their journey back to the various temples in beautifully decorated palanquins. Kullu Dussehra is a centuries-old festival and celebrations here begin on 'Vijaya Dashami', the day when the festivities end in the rest of the country.

September 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF), the capital's answer to the Edinburgh festival, will reach out to the common man this year with interactive music and folk dance performances at malls and historic sites. "The festival is bigger and spread out across more venues.

September 3rd, 2009 SHARJAH - The 12th Islamic Art Festival opened here at the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), WAM news agency reported Thursday. The exhibition called Space of Mosaic was inaugurated by Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah, largest emirate of the UAE.

August 18th, 2009 LONDON - Prostitutes from around the globe have flown in to Scotland in hope of seeking clients to cash in at the month-long Edinburgh Festival. Women, apparently from as far as Brazil, the Philippines and Thailand, have jetted in the Scottish capital to provide services to festivalgoers.

August 9th, 2009 CANBERRA - Australian Government officials plan to wipe out 650,000 camels in the remote Outback area of the country. A Sky News report has said that marksmen are being roped in to shoot down thousands of came from helicopters.

August 7th, 2009 LONDON - Thousands of people gathered at the Big Chill festival near Ledbury, Herefordshire to set the world record for largest gathering of zombies. A total of 4,026 pale and bloodied revellers assembled at the festival and beat the record for the largest zombie gathering set last month with 3,894 participants in Seattle.

July 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Move over cow or goat's milk, the world's first chocolate made out of camel milk from Dubai is set to go on sale around the world. Al Nassma in partnership with the Austrian chocolatier Manner manufactures the end product at its Dubai facility.

July 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The bilateral cooperation between India and France which, already heightened with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attending the French National Day celebrations in Paris this week, will scale new heights this December when France unveils a 10-city mega festival - Bonjour India: Celebrating France in India. The festival was announced on the French National Day in Paris, a statement issued by the French Embassy in the capital said Thursday.

July 13th, 2009 BELGRADE - British punk group Madness closed Exit, the largest music festival in Serbia and the Balkans, Sunday night. Tens of thousands of fans gathered at the four-day Exit festival, which featured some 500 performers on 25 stages connected by cobbled streets and tunnels at the Petrovaradin fortress near the northern city of Novi Sad.

July 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US space agency NASA has postponed the launch of its space shuttle Endeavour until Monday due to thunderstorms near the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The launch was originally scheduled for Sunday.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - A beer festival, called the Beer on the Wye festival, in Herefordshire had to close before time, because customers drank the bar dry. The festival, which was to run until July 5, had to close after running out of beer, cider and perry on Saturday.

July 1st, 2009 PESHAWAR - Pakistan's traditional Shandur Polo Festival will be held from 7th to 9th of July at world's highest polo ground in Chitral. The NWFP Minister for Population Welfare, Saleem Khan, has announced that Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and NWFP Chief Minister Haider Khan Hoti would attend the final match on July 9th, the Dawn reports.

March 1st, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Theatre buffs in Kerala would be treated to more than a dozen award-winning plays at the fifth National Drama Festival that starts here Monday. The festival will be inaugurated by Chief Minister V.S.

January 23rd, 2009 BHOPAL - A large number of foreign filmmakers are expected to participate in the International Tribal Film Festival being organised here from March 20 with a view to preserve and promote tribal culture, officials said here Saturday. The three-day event to be hosted by the state's Tribal Welfare Department would include screening of films on the life of tribal people.

January 15th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - The United Nations will partner Kerala at a week-long Nishagandi Festival beginning here Jan 20. 'This is the first time that the UN is partnering an event in South India,' State Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters.