Another week, and another mishap. This time the location is Lahore, Pakistan. The tragic incident involved a suicide bomber detonating himself just meters away from children’s rides in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal park. Reportedly, this resulted in at least 70 deaths and several others were left injured. The news trended on twitter with #LahoreBlast and #Pakistan.
And as if this was not enough, two days later an Egyptian decided to hijack a plane only to send a message across to his ex-wife. Thankfully, the six hours ended peacefully, with passengers and crew leaving the plane gradually. As soon as all the passengers were declared safe, the hijack news turned to a troll on Twitter. Hashtags such as #الطايره_المصريه_المخطوفه #EgyptAir, #EgyptAirHijack and #LoveIsInTheAir were used to share jokes on the hijack. I am sharing few here just for the humor.
Also a passenger from the flight gave his insights on the incident
And to top all the jokes, here is a picture of one of the passenger with the hijacker.
To cap up the tragedies for the week, a building in Ajman caught fire. Fortunately no deaths or major injuries have been reported. However the #Ajman trended during the day in UAE, as this is the second ‘Building on fire’ incident of the year.
On the more heartening news, India avenged its World Cup semi-final loss to Australia, by a victory over the team from down under in the ongoing T20 World Cup. The match trended with #IndvsAus. The victory in turn allowed India to move into the semi-finals of the tournament which will be played today against West Indies. The first semifinal of the T20 World Cup took place yesterday with #ENGvNZ trending throughout the day.
Another trending headline this week was the launch of Expo2020 (#Expo2020) official logo by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The design for the logo is inspired by a 4000 year-old ring that was excavated from an archaeological site in Dubai. Surely an intriguing inspiration for an event logo.
The next week looks to be a fun one in the Middle East. Some exciting upcoming events to look forward to are the Middle East Film and Comic Con 2016 gathering from April 7-9, 2016, the El Clasico clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid on Saturday, and the Step Conference that will take place on April 4-5, which AM will be attending and keeping you posted on. On that note, here is me hoping that the next week’s trending headlines are happier, free from any tragedies and calamities.
