Lunar New Year is the beginning of a year whose months are coordinated by the cycles of the moon. The whole year may account to a purely lunar calendar or a lunisolar calendar. However, some people have decided to spotlight on the pig costumes especially during the Lunar New Year parade in Hong Kong in order to mark the "Year of the Pig" which is the last zodiac animal on the Chinese lunar calendar.

Jordan Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II arrived in the Bahraini capital Manama on an official visit on Tuesday. He was welcomed by Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain and Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, as well as a number of Bahraini officials. Prince Hussein, Wednesday, visited the Bahrain Royal Guard Command. Bahrain Royal Guard Commander Maj. Gen. Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa noted the historical ties between Jordan and Bahrain, highlighting military cooperation and Jordan’s role in the establishment of ...

Iraq's Yazidis attend the funeral of Mir Takhsin-Beg (Tahseen Said Ali), hereditary leader of the Yazidi community in the world, in the town of Sheikhan. The longtime head of the world's Yazidis, a minority whose Iraqi community was ferociously targeted by the Islamic State group, died in Germany after a long illness, officials said. Prince Tahseen died in the KRH Siloah Hospital in Hanover at the age of 85, according to head of the Iraqi Kurdish Kegion's head of Yazidi affairs Khairi Buzani. Tahseen was born in 1933 in Iraq's ...

Ethiopians mark a monthly event called 'Car Free Day'. The event is designed to promote a healthy lifestyle as well as to combat air pollution and it takes place in Addis Ababa and many other cities across Ethiopia. This day was instituted by the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. It also allowes skateboarders to show off their skills.

Pope Francis arrived in the UAE on 3 February for a 48-hour trip, the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula, birthplace of Islam, where he will meet leading Muslim clerics and hold an open-air mass for some 135,000 Catholics. Pope Francis was welcomed by Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan upon his arrival at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE capital on February 3, 2019. This is the first such visit for any pontiff. He will celebrate mass in Abu Dhabi with 120,000 of the ...

Qatari national football team players and staff celebrate at Doha Corniche in Doha on February 2, 2019, as they come back from the United Arab Emirates with the trophy after winning the 2019 AFC Asian Cup football tournament. KARIM JAAFAR / AFP

When Mr Tim Linhart first started making instruments from ice, they were more likely to explode with a bang than produce music, but things have come a long way since then, according to the Straits Times. Today, the US-born artist is in charge of an ice orchestra of local musicians playing a series of concerts at sub-zero temperatures in a vast, custom-built igloo high in the Italian Alps. "I made snow and ice sculptures in the ski resort where I'm from in New Mexico (for 16 years)... and then I ...

Thousands of Iranians gathered at the mausoleum of the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran to launch celebrations for the 40th anniversary of its 1979 revolution. As an army band played revolutionary anthems, the huge hall of the mausoleum was filled with people from all walks of life, amidst schoolchildren dressed in red, white and green of the Iranian flag. On February 1 each year, Iran begins a 10-days celebrations to mark the anniversary of Khomeini return from exile after the pro-Western Shah was forced to leave Iran ...

Spanish King Felipe VI on Wednesday arrived in Baghdad for the first official visit by a Spanish monarch to the Iraqi capital in four decades, according to the state media. At a formal reception, Iraqi President Barham Salih received King Felipe. Salih received the Spanish king at his office in the Green Zone in central Baghdad and they discussed bilateral ties, state-run Iraqiya channel said. The king, whose country is part of an international coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq, held talks with the commander of the coalition and expressed his ...

An overpopulated huge city of more than 20 million people, Cairo is already plagued by thick traffic jams, widespread litter waste, and thick pollution. Packs of stray dogs only adding to the mounting city challenges. Stray dogs, commonly referred to as 'baladi dogs' in Egypt. They are typically seen running about the streets and scavenging food from garbage dumps. There are no official data on the size of the stray dogs' population but activists say they are running loose in millions. Animal rights advocates have sought to offer solutions to ...

Lebanese singer Maya Diab had a new photo shoot for Harper's Bazaar Arabia Magazine. Maya appeared in the photos without putting any makeup, nor did she use Photo editing software, sending a message saying: "You should always remember that you are beautiful without makeup." Check Maya's Pictures in the Slideshow: