Doha (Qatar): Qatar and the Museum of Islamic Art have established a new Guinness World Record for most Languages in a Reading Relay last Wednesday evening.

There were 56 different readers reading passages from the Little Prince by the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, including Arabic, French, Korean, Spanish, Slovak, Sanskrit, Urdu, Swahili, Hindi, Persian, Gujarati, Turkish, Italian, Greek and multiple other languages. 

Among the readers was Boluwatife Agbelusi from Museum of Islamic Art, who is the official translator of the book in Yoruba (one of the languages of Nigeria). Another was Saleh Al Marri from MIA Guides reading the text in Japanese! 

There were 75 judges in place who had the serious job of evaluating the readers language skills and acting as expert witness. Mr. Pravin Patel had flown in from Dubai as the Guinness Adjudicator who gave the final decision on if team was the new record setters. 

Participants from India, read out the translated portions from the story The Little Prince, in prominent Indian languages such as Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Gujarati. Engr. Noor Ahmed Sanadi who hails from Karnataka, was one of the independent judges for several Indian languages. 

The museum atrium looked gorgeous, the event was beautifully organized and supported by the French Embassy and Qatar TV. It was also impressive to see so many readers coming in their stunning national dresses. 

Reactions after were excitement, pride of Qatar and community. The Museum building projected the Guinness Attempt logo during the event.

 

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Pakur (PTI): Three persons have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and raping a girl in Jharkhand's Pakur district, police said on Saturday.

Search is underway to nab three more accused in the case, they said.

The incident took place on February 17, but the FIR was lodged on Friday at Malpahadi police station, a senior police officer said.

“The minor alleged in the complaint that four people of her village (in Malpahadi area) and two others kidnapped her and then raped her in a truck," SP Nidhi Dwivedi told reporters.

"Considering the seriousness of the matter, a special investigation team (SIT) was set up. Three accused have been arrested from Malpahadi and Majhdiha areas," she said.

The accused are aged between 20 and 22 years.

"We have intensified the search operation to trace the remaining three accused," the SP added.