Dubai, October 02: Two salesmen allegedly stole an 8.4 karat diamond ring worth Dh 1.36m from Damas jewellery firm where they used to work.
The two Syrians, both in their thirties, had been working for Damas jewellery shop as salesmen and were the ones to report about the theft on September 11 last year. They both pleaded not guilty to the theft charge in the Court of First Instance on Thursday.
Abu Dhabi, October 02: The Supreme Court has upheld the lower courts’ verdict, granting divorce to an elderly woman from her husband for deserting her for five years, and humiliating and abusing her in public. The court said old age does not justify abusing the spouse, nor does it stop the court from granting the divorce.
The woman had filed a case in Khor Fakkan Shariah Court of First Instance demanding divorce for the agony she suffered after being deserted, humiliated and abused in public.
Sharjah, October 02: A beach clean-up campaign, titled ‘Because We Care’, will be carried out in Sharjah on October 3 in an effort to protect aquatic habitat.
The event is being organised by Sharjah Aquarium and Sharjah Maritime Museum as part of their commitment to the preservation of environment, according to a Press release issued by the Sharjah Museum Department.
Khawla Almuhrizi, curator of Sharjah Maritime Museum, said, “The marine environment is very fragile and needs timely attention as several species are being endangered because of littering.”
Abu Dhabi, October 02: The UNESCO’s Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage on Thursday identified and inscribed 12 traditions from eight countries, which are in need of urgent safeguarding.
The list was discussed and approved during the UNESCO Intangible Heritage conference taking place in Abu Dhabi.
The inscription of cultural practices in Belarus, China, France, Kenya, Latvia, Mali, Mongolia and Vietnam, which were examined by independent experts, also marks the launch of the List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
Mumbai, October 02: In a reflection of depressed overseas markets and impact of Mumbai terror attacks, India’s income from tourist services, export of software services among other receipts fell 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal from over 30 per cent rise recorded a year ago.
Abu Dhabi, October 02: Pakistan’s defence relations with the UAE are on the upswing as the navies and air force contingents of both countries conduct joint exercises regularly, Pakistani ambassador Khursheed Ahmed Junejo has said.
Speaking to Khaleej Times on Wednesday evening during celebrations at the Hilton hotel in Abu Dhabi to mark the Pakistan Defence Day, he said the defence relations between the two countries dated back to the early 1970s and have grown over the years.
Baghbad, October 02: The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has formed a new political bloc to contest January’s general election.
The State of Law alliance includes 40 political parties representing a variety of religious sects and ethnic groups. It will stand against Mr Maliki’s former Shia Muslim allies, raising the prospect of further sectarian violence.
Dubai, October 02: The International Day of Non-Violence will be observed in the UAE today with the Indian missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai hosting recitation of verses from the holy scriptures.
The United Nations had on June 15, 2007 declared October 2 as the International Day of Non-Violence in honour of Mahatma Gandhi, who was born on this day and had led a non-violent struggle for Indian independence from British rule.
Sharjah, October 02: Sameer Mohammed may have to pay an additional Dh2,000 a year for electricity use as a resident of Sharjah after the emirate’s electricity authority increased fees by half on Thursday.
After more than one month of power outages and blackouts, Mohammed, who struggled to meet previous costs, said the increase would force him to look elsewhere to live.
The decision by Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) raises the tariff from Thursday for residential and commercial buildings from 20 to 30 fils and for industrial units from 30 to 40 fils.
Washington, October 02: As the world celebrates International Day of non-violence, US President Barack Obama said on Friday that America has its “roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi.”
“His teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement,” Obama said on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Americans owe enormous gratitude to Gandhi, he said.
Washington, October 02: First Lady Michelle Obama will show children how to grow their own vegetables in a special episode to mark the 40th anniversary of US television’s Sesame Street, it has been confirmed.
Obama, who appeared on the long-running show in May to encourage healthy eating habits, has recorded a special segment for the premiere of the new season which will air on November 10.
Video of the footage on Thursday showed the first lady appearing alongside popular characters Big Bird and Elmo, helping children plant tomato, cucumber, lettuce and carrot seeds.
Tehran, October 02: Iran continues to provide “significant” amounts of support to insurgents in Iraq but to a smaller number of groups than it did before, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said on Thursday.
General Ray Odierno said Iraqi security forces in recent weeks have seized several “very large” caches of Iranian-made rockets and munitions known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, capable of piercing U.S. armor.
Jakarta, October 02: Rescue teams dug on Friday through the rubble of buildings shattered by an earthquake in the Indonesian port of Padang for people feared trapped and the United Nations said more than 1,000 had been killed.
Aid to thousands of displaced survivors started trickling in, but rescue operations in and around the West Sumatran capital of 900,000 have been hampered by power blackouts and a lack of heavy equipment to shift fallen masonry.
Peshawar, October 02: An al Qaeda-linked Uzbek militant leader was killed in Pakistan in a U.S. drone missile strike in August, Pakistani intelligence agency officials said on Friday.
Tahir Yuldashev, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was killed in a missile strike in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, where he had been based for some years, they said.
“The man is dead. He was killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan on August 27,” said one Pakistani intelligence agency official in the city of Peshawar.
Patna, October 02: Maoist rebels killed 16 people, including five children, in an early morning attack Friday on a rural village in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, a police official said.
Security forces were combing the villages and forests around the attacked village, Amosi Bharen, in search of the rebels, said Additional Director General of Police Neelamni, who uses only one name.
The village is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Patna, the capital of the east Indian state of Bihar.
Washington, October 02: The unemployment rate hasn’t topped 10 percent since June 1983, but it could return to that painful level soon — possibly as early as Friday, when the Labor Department issues its monthly jobs report.
Even as the economy shows signs of life, some employers are still cutting jobs, and many more are reluctant to hire after enduring the worst recession since the 1930s.
Colombo, October 02: An explosion in a van which wounded 13 people in northwestern Sri Lanka appeared to be part of a personal feud, and not caused by remnants of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, authorities said.
The blast occurred in the northwestern town of Kurunegala and was the first since the separatist rebels were crushed in May.
“When the driver tried to start the van it exploded. Twelve schoolchildren and the driver of the van were injured,” said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.
Washington, October 02: Judges rejected an appeal by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi Friday against her extended house arrest, lawyers and officials said.
A divisional court in Yangon upheld the Nobel Laureate’s conviction, delivered in August, over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam uninvited to her home, earning her an extra 18 months in detention.
“The appeal was rejected but we will take it to the high court,” said Suu Kyi’s lawyer and the spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Nyan Win, after the hearing.
Manila, October 02: Filipinos in the likely path of a looming typhoon began evacuating Friday, as the toll from a storm that tore across Southeast Asia days earlier rose to more than 400.
Officials fear Typhoon Parma — due to hit Saturday unless it changes course — will cause a second disaster in the northern Philippines after the worst flooding in four decades swamped the homes of more than 2 million people.
Karachi, October 02: A psychologist, who has been counselling the Pakistan cricket team ahead of major ICC events, feels Younus Khan’s men are well on course to lift the Champions Trophy as they have conquered the fear of failure.
Maqbool Babri, a clinical psychologist and hypnotist who counseled the players before the Twenty20 World Cup in England and before the Champions Trophy, felt the body language and mental attitude of the players in South Africa was encouraging.
New Delhi, October 02: Fertiliser sales declined by at least 33.5 lakh tonnes during this kharif season after drought descended on about half of the country, jeopardising the scope of using farm nutrients.
If the demand placed by different states is an indicator of consumption level, sales have lagged significantly the supply by the Centre, especially in case of urea and MOP, official data showed.
“We have provided the states adequate fertilisers during the kharif so that they do not face any shortage but sales have been low,” Fertiliser Secretary Atul Chaturvedi told PTI.
Hyderabad, October 02: One month after the helicopter crash that killed chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Andhra Pradesh continues to be in a limbo — as investigators struggle for clues, political confusion also persists with the ruling Congress split on the issue of anointing his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as political successor.
The reasons for the Sep 2 crash, which plunged the state into shock and triggered chaos in the ruling party, remains a mystery though four simultaneous probes were ordered by the state and central governments.
Rome, October 02: Any hope Silvio Berlusconi might have had of putting the summer sex scandals behind him evaporated last night when state television broadcast a live interview with the prostitute who claims to have taped her intimate bedroom conversations with the Italian Premier.
Patrizia D’Addario – who at 42 is more than 30 years Mr Berlusconi’s junior – has already made what she claimed were tapes of their intimate pillow talk. But the potential political embarrassment she might cause on live TV had the government incandescent in the run-up to last night’s broadcast.
New Delhi, October 02: Indian banks are expected to remain robust during the current fiscal and the next even if non-performing assets and interest rates rise, according to global rating agency Fitch.
“… the Indian banking system is expected to remain resilient even under rigorous stress assumptions on both asset quality and profitability during FY10 and FY11,” the global ratings agency said.
New Delhi, October 02: Little is recorded about Mahatma Gandhi’s choice of writing implement, but one thing is clear: when the great ascetic set down the ideas that would prompt a generation of Indians to a peaceful revolution, he probably did so with a pen that cost rather less than £14,000.
That price, nevertheless, is what the prestigious Hamburg-based penmaker Montblanc is going to charge for a gold and rhodium-plated fountain pen that will bear his name.