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World of Food Abu Dhabi, part of the Abu Dhabi Food Festival, kicks off at Umm Al Emarat Park from 13th to 17th December from 18.00 to midnight on weekdays and from 14.00 to midnight on weekends.

The popular foodie event will run for five days with a host of family entertainment and food from around the world. It offers 15 main dining stations, where several master chefs will showcase their culinary skills, during live cooking demonstrations, including President of World Chefs, Thomas Gugler, who will be participating on Thursday and Friday. Popular Jordanian TV chef Manal Alalem will also present a daily live cooking demonstration of her famous recipes, so visitors can learn her latest recipes, cooking tips and tricks.

Some of the world’s most famous master chefs will be exhibiting their culinary skills during the festival, including Michelin starred chefs Claude Taffarello from France, Julia Komp from Germany and Vineet Bhatia from India. Live cooking presentations will be facilitated by the UAE Culinary National Team, Indian restaurateur Sanjeev Kapoor, Chef Sultan Al Otaiba from the UAE, Chef Tarek Ibrahim, Chef Domenico Maggi from Italy, as well as chefs from Switzerland, Iceland, India, Malaysia, Britain, South Africa, Mauritius, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Russia, Slovenia and Mexico.

It is a great opportunity for park visitors to take their palates on an international culinary journey and taste delicious international dishes prepared by some of the world's best chefs. Visitors can also enjoy the coffee station corner, cake decorating, ice, fruit and vegetables carving, sushi rolling competition and gingerbread house decorating for children.

Joanne Cook, CEO and organiser of World of Food Abu Dhabi, said, "We are excited to celebrate this exquisite selection of world cuisines, at Umm Al Emarat Park. We have prepared an exciting line-up of master chefs from around the globe, who will showcase their skillsets, in addition to an array of food-inspired, interactive activities for the entire family. Umm Al Emarat Park is the perfect venue for this extraordinary event, with its modern and diverse facilities, and we are delighted to start our event here today."

Umm Al Emarat Park has hosted a number of food festivals in previous years that attracted thousands of visitors like 'Love Food Festival', 'Big Piknik' and 'Abu Dhabi Flavours Festival'.

Ever since we have started to become chained to our smartphones and tablets, people have been saying that the waves coming off these devices must be bad for us.

So often laughed off as conspiracy theorists, it now looks more and more like they might not be entirely wrong.

The main perpetrator, however, looks to be the blue light from these electronic devices - and the damage is not insignificant either.

Optical chemistry research from the University of Toledo in Spain has found that the blue light can turn molecules in our eyes into cell killers. This can lead to macular degeneration - an age-related disease that is a leading cause of blindness.

"It's no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye's retina. Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop," says Dr. Ajith Karunarathne, assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

The research found that the blue light triggers a certain chemical reaction which Karunarathne says is "toxic" for the eye's photoreceptor cells. "Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye. When they're dead, they're dead for good."

But that's not all. As if the possibility of blindness weren't bad enough, a different study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) has found that blue light could be linked to certain types of cancer.

"There is evidence pointing to an association between exposure to artificial light at night ... and breast and prostate cancers," says Manolis Kogevinas, ISGlobal researcher and coordinator of the study.

ISGlobal's research shows that high exposure to blue light increases your risk of developing breast and prostate cancer by between 1.5 and 2-fold.

So can anything be done? Yes.

To protect your eyes from the blue light emitted from the sun, it is important to wear UV sunglasses outside. When it comes to your tablet or your phone, the risk is highest when you look at the screen when your surroundings are dark - so try and avoid doing that as much as possible.

Smartphone and laptop companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google also have blue light filters - so if you have the option, and are concerned about these risks, you should turn on your device's blue light filter.

A bowl of green doesn't automatically have to be a salad. Take this green curry for example: Thanks to green curry paste and wilted spinach, you get a hot, green, healthy and delicious meal.

Serve with white rice to round out the meal. The overnight method for dried chickpeas can be skipped by using canned ones instead.

Ingredients (makes 2 servings):

50 grams dried chickpeas, 250 grams spinach, 1 onion, 2 tablespoons coconut oil, 1 tablespoon green curry paste (alternatively, 1 tablespoon curry powder), 400 grams coconut milk, salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Place chickpeas in a bowl, cover with cold water and allow to sit overnight. The next day, drain chickpeas using a colander, then rinse under a running tap. Place in large pot and cover with fresh, cold water. Bring to a boil, then cover and allow to simmer at medium heat until chickpeas are softened, about 40-50 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, sort through spinach, wash well and shake dry. Peel and finely dice onion. Drain cooked chickpeas in a colander.

3. Heat coconut oil in a pan. Add onions and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring often. Add chickpeas and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir curry paste into mixture, then pour in coconut milk. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cover, stir in spinach and let cook for 2-3 more minutes, until the spinach has wilted down.

4. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve curry in bowls.

Slurping up a hot, brothy soup is probably the easiest way to banish any sensation of cold. This celery root soup does just the trick, rounded out with equally "warm" spices as a garnish.

The soup can be served in the not-especially-pretty hollowed-out celery root for an extra dose of charm, but it's not necessary.  

Ingredients (makes 2 portions):

1/4 celery root (or 2 entire celery roots, if using them for serving), 2 medium-sized floury potatoes, 1 onion, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 pear, 100 millilitres dry white wine, 500 millilitres vegetable broth, 100 millilitres heavy cream, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil

2-3 pinches each: cloves, allspice, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, white pepper, salt 

Preparation:

1. If serving the soup in the roots: Clean celery roots and cut off the tops. Using a melon baller or a small, sharp kitchen knife, hollow out the roots. If needed, cut away at the roots' bottoms in order to make them stand straight. 

2. Peel and coarsely chop celery root and potatoes. If the soup is being served in the roots, instead chop the flesh that was scooped out, and from the top. Peel and finely dice onion and garlic.

3. Finely chop pear, discarding seeds and stem.

4. Heat butter and olive oil in a pan at low heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook until fragrant. Pour in white wine and bring to a boil. Turn down heat, add pear and let sauce reduce down. 

5. Add celery root, potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil, then allow to simmer, covered, at medium heat for about 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are fork-tender. 

6. Meanwhile, combine ground spices in a separate bowl.

7. Using an immersion blender, puree soup. Add heavy cream, puree once more, then heat soup through. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.

8. Ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle spice mix over it. Set the remaining mix on the table so more spices can be added as desired. 

An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the second-worst in history, the International Rescue Committee said Thursday.

"As of today, the outbreak has seen 426 cases of infection, 245 deaths, with a case fatality rate of 57 per cent," the US humanitarian organization said in a statement.

The IRC's toll would surpass the 2000-2001 outbreak in Uganda, which killed 224 of the 425 people it infected, making it the second-worst after the virus killed over 11,000 people in West Africa between 2014 and 2016.

According to figures from the Congolese Ministry of Health, 47 of the 426 cases are "probable" but not confirmed, while an additional 75 cases are "suspected."

The outbreak is concentrated in North Kivu, an eastern region where numerous militia groups are fighting for control over the country's rich natural resources.

Almost half of the 106 confirmed deaths were in the city of Beni which has a population of approximately 800,000 people, according to the ministry.

"This tragic milestone clearly demonstrates the complexity and severity of the outbreak," said Michelle Gayer, the IRC's senior director of emergency health.

"While the numbers are far from those from West Africa in 2014, we're witnessing how the dynamics of conflict pose a different kind of threat," Gayer said adding that it was "highly likely" that the outbreak will not be under control for another six months.

The outbreak began shortly after the country's government declared an end to another outbreak in the country's west in June. 

More than 120 Chinese scientists on Monday condemned a researcher’s claim that he has – for the first time in history – edited the genes of two babies, in a case with profound medical and ethical implications.

Experimenting on humans is "insane" and carries grave potential consequences, said an open letter signed by scientists from several institutions, including Tsinghua, Peking and Fudan universities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"These irreversible transformations of human genetic material, which are highly uncertain in science, will inevitably be mixed into the human gene pool," the letter said.

"Indeed, it’s possible that the children born this time are basically healthy for a period of time, but the potential risks and harm to the human group ... are immeasurable."

Researcher He Jiankui from the south-eastern city Shenzhen said the genes of two Chinese girls had been modified so they cannot be infected with HIV, according to a YouTube video posted Sunday. 

The girls, named Lulu and Nana, "came crying into the world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago," he said.

He claims he performed gene surgery on fertilized eggs using the CRISPR/Cas9 protein with instructions to prevent future HIV infection. He has yet to publish a paper about the highly controversial procedure. 

The Southern University of Science and Technology researcher said the gene surgery was successful and "no gene was changed except for the one to prevent HIV infection."

He is the founder of Direct Genomics, a private company that claims on its website to be "making genomics an affordable part of everyday patient care." He studied at Rice and Stanford universities in the United States.

Southern University of Science and Technology said in a statement Monday that He conducted the research outside the school and without the knowledge of the school or his department.

The university added He’s research violated academic ethics and norms and called for an official investigation into his work.

Shenzhen authorities announced Monday that a committee of medical ethics experts had been formed and is looking into He’s research. 

He said in the video he expected his work to be controversial but was willing to face the backlash on behalf of families who need gene-editing for "healing." 

"Enhancing IQ or selecting hair or eye colour ... should be banned," he added.

He could not be reached for further comment.

Peter Dabrock, chairman of the German Ethics Council, said Monday the work represents "irresponsible experiments on humans."

"Whether what Chinese researcher He claims is true, at present such attempts and even announcements are to be criticized in the strongest terms," Dabrock said, adding that secondary and late effects of gene editing are difficult to predict and control.  

The Chinese scientists also called for a comprehensive investigation into He’s research.

"Pandora's Box has been opened, and we may have a chance to close it before it is irreparable," they said.

A Russian medical team on Saturday provided medical services to hundreds of patients in the town of Tabliseh in the northern countryside of Homs province.

Head of the medical team Dr. Alexander Ivanov said in a statement to journalists said the team includes GPs, surgeons, optometrists, otologists, cardiologists, pediatricians, and dermatologists.

He said the team provided services for patients suffering from various ailments such as heart diseases and respiratory tract infections, as well as children.

Ivanov added that food aid was also distributed among needy patients in the town.