Month: September 2009

Tehran, September 27: Iran is to take measures including the storage of liquid gas to prevent a potential lack of natural gas for domestic consumption during the incoming winter.

“We expect a natural gas shortage of around 200 million cubic/meters during the incoming winter, but we hope to prevent a cutoff of gas flow by storage of needed gas for power plants and management of household consumption,” Iran’s Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters on Saturday.

Ankara, September 27: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has called for a report on the alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip to be reviewed by the UN Security Council.

A UN fact-finding mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone issued a report last week that said both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants had committed war crimes during the December-January war in the Gaza Strip.

Turkey, which is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, could annoy the US by its call for taking the report to the Security Council.

Kabul, September 27: Three French soldiers serving under ISAF command in Afghanistan have reportedly been killed in Afghanistan, an official statement reveals.

The French presidency said in a statement on Sunday that the three soldiers were killed in an operation in Afghanistan.

The statement gave no further details of the location where the soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed.

Al Ain, September 27: Three persons, who were seriously injured in separate accidents in Al Ain last week, were transferred to the hospital by Al Ain Police Air 
Wing personnel.

Dubai, September 27: An empty beverage can, discarded with the rubbish and, perhaps, heaped into a landfill, is being sought-after by a Brazilian collector.

Andre Marques is an ‘OCOC’ collector – which stands for one can,

one country.

Marques, who has around 4,000 cans in his collection, is looking for a rare Budweiser edition that was available only in the UAE and Qatar in 2006.

Dubai, September 27: The water bus service operated by Roads & Transport Authority’s (RTA) Marine Agency is getting to be more and more popular in Dubai.

Trips saw an increase of 32 per in August as compared to 2008.

Recent statistics released by the Marine Agency at show that 39,781 passengers had been served in 11,284 trips by the Water Bus during August 2009.

Dubai, September 27: Thirty-six cases of bribery have been recorded so far this year, mostly involving members of the 
public trying to bribe traffic policemen to avoid fines or to fast-track a 
driving licence.

The trend has prompted Dubai Police to step up vigil and bring to book both the seeker and the giver of bribes.

Rashid bin Dhaboi Al Falasi, director, Criminal Records Section in Dubai Police’s General Department of Criminal Investigation, said the department and courts imposed strict penalties.

Falasi said in 2008, 37 bribery cases were recorded in the UAE.

Dubai, September : A local pharmaceutical firm has been given the go-ahead to produce a generic version of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu effective in treating A (H1N1).

The drug will be manufactured and marketed by the Abu Dhabi based pharmaceutical firm Neopharma under the brand name BR Flu (Oseltamivir).

The head of the company said on Saturday that the firm had the capacity to produce 20 million capsules per month.

He also said that the medicine would be made available immediately since it had earlier been marketed during the global avian flu outbreak in 2007.

Kabul, September 27: Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is likely to decrease by next year, an Afghan official said on Sunday, but the country needs more money and help from NATO to reach its goal of becoming “poppy-free”.

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest supplier of the source material for heroin, has decreased by 22 percent so far in 2009, compared with last year, according to the United Nations, with 20 provinces now described as “poppy-free”.

Body of dead Malaysian cult leader wrapped in plastic for 13 months
Kuala Lumpur, September 27: Followers of a religious cult in Malaysia’s eastern Sabah state wrapped the body of their dead cult leader in plastic and lay it in his home for 13 months while waiting for him to be resurrected, a news report said Sunday.

The leader of the “Benevolent Missionary Association,” Ching Chi Vui @ Ivan, was believed to have told his followers not to bury him if he were to die, because he would come back to life, the Sunday Star reported.

Kabul, September 27: An Afghan cabinet minister survived a roadside attack in Afghanistan’s western Herat province Sunday, but police said four civilians were killed and 17 others injured.

Energy Minister Mohammad Ismail Khan was on his way to the airport in Herat city when a motorbike laden with explosives detonated near his convoy, western region police spokesman Abdul Raouf Ahmadi said.

“Fortunately he (Khan) was not hurt in the attack, but four civilian passersby were killed,” Ahmadi said, adding that 17 people including four of Khan’s bodyguards were wounded in the blast.

Tel Aviv, September 27: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the imposition of harsh sanctions on Iran, in wake of evidence of a clandestine Iranian nuclear facility, the Israel Ha’aretz daily reported Sunday.

“If not now, when?” the daily quoted Netanyahu as reportedly saying to US officials. “Action must be taken in all areas to increase pressure on Iran and impose crippling sanctions on it.”