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MT 17 April 2016

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43 Events maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 APRIL 2016 Emirates celebrates 30 years of connecting Sri Lanka to the world ON 1 April, 1986, an Emirates Boeing 727-200 Flight EK800 departed Dubai International Airport touching down in Co- lombo, Emirates' fourth global destination. Thirty years later, Emirates has logged 56 million miles, transported thousands of tonnes of cargo and continues to connect Sri Lanka to the world, with 34 f lights a week to Dubai, Malé and Singapore. With approximately 12,000 seats and 780 tons of cargo car- ried per week each way, Emir- ates' service to Sri Lanka has proven to be an indispensable resource for travellers, export- ers and importers over the years. The airline has already an- nounced it will increase capac- ity further with the addition of a fifth daily f light between Co- lombo and Dubai from 1st Au- gust 2016. "We would like to thank all our customers and industry partners in Sri Lanka for their long-stand- ing support over the years. We are proud to contribute to the country's thriving tourism and trade industry, connecting Sri Lanka with more than 150 des- tinations across six continents," said Ahmed Khoory, Emirates' senior vice president, Com- mercial operations- West Asia and Indian Ocean. Emirates has recorded solid year-on-year growth in Sri Lanka over the years, carrying nearly four million passengers on the route in the last two and half decades. Sri Lanka has also emerged as an important cargo desti- nation for the airline in the region as Emirates SkyCargo continues to be a preferred car- rier for the country's exports. "West Asia has always been an important growth region for SkyCargo. When combined with the efficiency of one of the youngest f leets in the skies, unrivalled ground-handling fa- cilities, and the very latest in- formation technology, Emirates SkyCargo is the ideal partner for Sri Lankan-based businesses as they look to boost trade," said Jassim Saif, Vice President Car- go Commercial - West Asia and South East Asia. Key Colombo exports include ready-made garments, fruit and vegetables, betel leaves, cut foli- age and edible fish, with the lat- ter accounting for over 40 % of Sri Lanka's total air cargo tonnage in perishables. Passengers on Emir- ates f lights from Co- lombo enjoy the famed hospitality of its multi- national Cabin Crew, which includes more than 150 Sri Lankans, as well as gourmet cui- sine and Emirates' award- winning ice entertainment system. With more than 2,500 channels, from movies, television programmes, games, audio books, and music, ice has been named the world's best in- f light entertainment system by Skytrax for 11 consecutive years. Emirates passengers also ben- efit from a generous baggage allowance of 30kg in Economy Class, 40kg in Business Class and 50 kg in First Class. Pas- sengers travelling in premium cabins enjoy lounge access as well as Emirates' Chauffeur- drive service. All travel with Emirates earns passengers Sky- wards Miles on the airline's award-winning frequent f lyer programme. Accrued Sky wards Miles can be redeemed for free tickets, travel upgrades or other benefits. Emirates operates daily sched - uled f lights between Malta and Dubai. Emirates f lies twice weekly to Malta, on Mondays and Wednesdays, via Larnaca in Cyprus, and on Sundays, Tues- days, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays the airline operates the Dubai - Malta route on a cir- cular routing via Tunis in Tuni- sia. The return f light f lies direct from Malta to Dubai. Maltese online dictionary met with positive feedback WHETHER one is a student, a teacher, a lawyer, a writer, a general user or simply has a general interest in the Maltese language, a diction- ary is a very essential tool for every- one. It also helps enrich one's vocab- ulary and is a critical component of the very early studies. The age of the Internet brought online dictionaries to the desktop and, more recently, to the smart phone and tablet. Con- sidering the general lack of digital resources supporting the Maltese language, the free online dictionary launched just last week is certainly a step in the right direction. Unlike a number of other websites that operate as online dictionar- ies for the Maltese language, this newly launched online dictionary is recognised by the Malta Communi- cations Authority (MCA), the Uni- versity of Malta and its Institute of Linguistics, the Vodafone Founda- tion, through the Mobile for Good Programme, the National Council for the Maltese Language, and a number of linguists and independ- ent researchers that all contributed to its development. Since its launch just over a week ago, the feedback has been positive and extremely encouraging, with more than 25,500 online sessions. Feedback, queries and sugges- tions have been sent by the public, amounting to more than 150, and many of these have already been ad- dressed. To date, the dictionary has been accessed from 79 different countries around the world with Malta rank- ing at the top, followed by Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Belgium and Canada. There were 16,000 unique visitors and 35,000 page views. The dictionary is avail- able at www.maltesedictionary.org. mt and also a freely downloadable app is available for Android devices, which so far has already been down- loaded by more than 580 persons. This dictionary contributes to the sustainability of the Maltese national identity, culture and lan- guage. Being digital means such a resource is accessible to individuals beyond our shores, reaching out to communities of Maltese speaking individuals living abroad and those who have interest in the Maltese language. At present, the dictionary allows users to search for Maltese words. The result provides their equiva- lent definitions in English, as well as grammatical information such as a word's part of speech and its root. If one does not know the exact Mal- tese word, but knows the English equivalent, it allows you to search in English, through the 'advanced search' mechanism. The diction- ary will return all the words which match your search. It also provides other features, such as the various forms for different genders, the plu- ral or, in the case of verbs, the per- fective and imperfective. This dictionary is a constant work-in-progress. The intention is to keep on updating this resource based on user feedback in line with current trends and user views. The fact that it is online makes it far eas- ier and more cost effective to keep it updated. The interactive nature of the tool allows users to suggest modifications and/or the inclusion of other entries. The public is there- fore strongly encouraged to make use of in-built feedback facilities to suggest new additions or other up- dates. AS part of its annual Cor- porate Social Responsibil- ity initiatives, Farsons Group recently organized its annual blood donation drive at the Farsons Brewery encourag- ing not only staff but also neighbouring companies to participate. "Once again it was great to see the overall positive feel- ing of the many employees who welcome this annual opportunity to donate blood as a give a gift of life to others. We were also joined by some employees from neigh- bouring organisations, namely Fino and Misco," said John J At- tard, Employee Relations & Secu- rity Manager at Simonds Farsons Cisk plc. Farsons Group employees and their families also renewed their participation in the annual CSR Day, held on 19th March. Partner- ing with employees from other companies such as AIS Group (GreenPak Co-op), Express Group, Forestals Group, HSBC Bank Malta, HSBC UK Contact Centre Malta, Maypole Group, Multigas Limited, and Tumas Group, they have donated their time on a pub- lic holiday to the local community, providing various forms of sup- port ranging from maintenance work and tiling to painting and gardening to various charitable homes. Farsons Group employees, Joe Muscat (left) and Bjorn Desira giving blood during Blood Donation Day organised by the Group for its employees and neighbouring companies Farsons Group organizes CSR activities Visa customers in with a chance to win tickets to Rio 2016 Olympics VISA Europe, a worldwide sponsor of the Rio 2016 Olym- pic Games, has previously an- nounced a grand prize give- away, worth approximately €25,000. One Visa cardholder could be in the chance to win a four-night packaged dream- trip for two to the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil. The winner and their guest will fly in August from Malta to Brazil. Throughout the course of the trip, the winner and their guest will experi- ence the opening ceremony in vibrant Rio de Janeiro as well as two pre-selected events, includ- ing a football game, hotel accom- modation, daily breakfast Ground transport between the hotel and sporting venues will be provided to make access to the Olympic Games as easy and stress-free as possible. On top of the thrill of experiencing the Olympic Games first-hand, the winner will get treated to a complimentary tour of an iconic Rio landmark. After a whirlwind and memo- rable four-nights at Rio marking the adventure of a life-time, the winner will be flown back to Malta to share their experience of the Olympic Games with everyone back home. To enter the grand prize com- petition, all local Visa card- holders need to do is to shop with their Visa card locally be- tween the 15 April 2016 and the 15 May 2016 to be automatical- ly entered into a competition. The winner of the competition has to answer a question cor- rectly to be awarded the prize. The more a participant uses their Visa debit and credit card locally, the more chances they'll have of winning! Visit visa.com. mt for more information. The winner will be announced on 1 June 2016. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games will open on the 5 August 2016.

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