Queen Beatrix, Prince Willem-Alexander & Princess Maxima in Middle-East trip to UAE & Oman

This caption stirred a row in the Netherlands, for the fact the Queen and Princess Maxima used veils in a sacred place. No comments.

On January 8th, Queen Beatrix accompanied by Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Máxima, and a delegation of business leaders visited the UAE, invited by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This was the Queen’s fiftieth state visit since she was crowned in 1980.


On January 10th, the Queen and her entourage traveled on to Oman at the invitation of Sultan Qaboos. A prior state visit, planned in March, was called off in view of the ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations and the violent crackdown by Oman’s authorities. The Dutch parliament cancelled the state visit after two demonstrators died in clashes with Omani security forces in February. Dutch MPs did not want the state visit to be seen as endorsing the regime. In a surprise move, Queen Beatrix travelled to Oman after all, arguing her tip had been downgraded to a private visit.


Sultan Qaboos is Oman’s head of state, prime minister, defence minister, foreign minister and the head of the armed forces. The country has no legal political parties.


The UAE is a federation of seven absolute monarchies. The Federal National Council consists of 40 members drawn from all the emirates. Half are appointed by the emirates’ rulers, and the other half are indirectly elected to serve two-year terms.The first indirect elections took place in 2006.

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[UAE] Princess Haya makes cricket a curricular school sports in Dubai

Former England allrounder Andrew Flintoff yesterday officially introduced cricket into the curriculum of public schools as part of the initiative of Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The initiative aims to promote physical education and an active lifestyle amongst school children. After the launch, Flintoff said: "The population of Dubai is made up of expatriates from India and Pakistan who are cricket lovers. It was great to see national kids too enjoying the game though they may have probably been seeing cricket for the first time today. So [the] broader [audience] cricket can reach, the better it will be for the game."

Ahmad Abdul Rahman, the project manager of the initiative said: "We wanted a great cricketer like Flintoff to inspire them. It is part of our programme to induce children into sports which they haven't played and get them interested."

from gulfnews.com