Month: March 2011

Ras Al Khaimah, March 31: Residents of the Digdag area of RAK have complained of a strong stench and dirty surroundings as a result of animals being kept in the neighbourhood.

The dung and urine from cattle, sheep and goats being kept in residential areas, produce a very bad smell especially during the evenings, complained some residents. Residents have asked municipal officials to take measures against keeping cattle near homes, stressing it was a menace to others.

Dubai, March 31: Minister of Health Dr Hanif Hassan opened a new preventive medicine complex in Khorfakkan on Wednesday.

The new complex offers a wide range of services, including maternity and childhood, dental, school health, labour tests and vaccinations for
all categories.

During the opening, the minister said that studies show that prevention is better than treatment, if it is on time. “The ministry is working on several new projects in the Northern Emirates that will be opened soon,” he said.

Abu Dhabi, March 31: Some pretty impressive — and some pretty mysterious too — names have been announced by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) for its third Womad 
Abu Dhabi.

The giant international music and arts festival with its roots in the UK and founded by Peter Gabriel in 1980, will take place at Abu Dhabi Corniche on April 7-9 and in Al Ain’s Al Jahili Fort on April 7-8.

Standing out in the line-up of artists announced so far is the Afro Celt Sound System.

Abu Dhabi, March 31: A total number of 846 Indians living in the UAE, died due to various reasons between January 1, 2009 and March 27, 2011, death statistics of the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi said on Wednesday.

Dubai, March 31: A woman broke down in tears in court on Wednesday following the pronouncement of judgement against the killers of her son.

As Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir Fahmi of the Court of First Instance pronounced the verdict sentencing two Somali men to seven-year imprisonment for murdering a compatriot, the victim’s mother wept and shouted in an apparent dissatisfaction with the verdict.

Dubai, March 31: An Emirati widow, accused of having sex out of the wedlock, was sentenced to one-year imprisonment by the Court of Misdemeanours on Wednesday. Her illicit stateless partner was also given one-year jail term to be followed by deportation.

The woman’s trial began in November last year, less than seven months after her husband committed suicide. The housewife, 34, is accused of having illicit sex with a 27-year-old businessman.

The woman was arrested on July 7 last year after fingerprints taken from her house in Rashidiyah matched with the male defendant’s.

Dubai, March 31: A 23-year-old Nigerian woman created a scene in a court, screaming and falling on her back on her own in protest, when the presiding judge sentenced her and a 30-year-old compatriot woman to five-year imprisonment each for human trafficking.

The two were convicted by the Court of First Instance of forcing three women into prostitution and ordered to be deported after serving their jail terms.

Dubai, March 31: A six-point Declaration was adopted at the culmination of the 8th Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition (DIHAD) on Wednesday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Declaration focused on information and communication technologies as instruments that need to be duly tailored to the information management needs of humanitarian actors.

Dubai, March 31: — Emirates Airlines honoured 24 Emirati graduates of the latest National Cadet Pilot Programme at a ceremony held at the auditorium of the airline’s headquarters on Wednesday.

Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, presented trophies and certificates to the graduates who successfully completed the two-and-a-half-year programme.

Sharjah, March 31: ‘The Pink Caravan – Riding for Courage’, an initiative of the Friends of Cancer Patients (FOCP) and supported by Sharjah Islamic Bank, will start its journey to raise awareness about breast cancer in the UAE from the emirate on April 2.

Dubai, March 31: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said it will, on Friday, launch a Shuttle Bus Route (300) to operate from within the International City. The authority said it would also change the existing routes.

“As of that date, the agency will modify routes X23 and 53, which starts from the Gold Souk Station towards International City so that the first journey will continue to run from the morning up to 10am, and the second journey will continue to be run from 5pm to 8pm,” according to the Director of Planning & Business Development, Mohammed Abu Baker Al Hashimi.

Dubai, March 31: The Gulf Film Festival, the event of bold, experimental and contemporary cinema from the Arabian peninsula, has announced two eminent jury panels comprising filmmakers, authors and critics to select standout voices in local, regional, and international short films, documentaries and feature films.

Abu Dhabi, March 31: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) predicts that road fatalities in the UAE will be reduced to one per 100,000 population in the next three years.

“MoI’s strategy is to reduce the number of fatalities, and this is a realistic prediction for 2008 to 2011,” said Amina Al Saadi, researcher at the General Directorate of Traffic Coordination at MoI.

She noted that the number of deaths due to vehicular accidents last year was 1.5 per 100,000 population.

Abu Dhabi, March 31: Emirati woman Dana Al Hamadi, who made it to the South Pole in 20 days, has paid rich tribute to Shaikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, representative of the President and Chairman of the Emirates Heritage Club, for his kind sponsorship .

In a statement to the Press after returning home, she said the support given to her by Shaikh Sultan had achieved the wish of all citizens of the country — raising high the picture of the President, His highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and hoisting the UAE flag on the South Pole.

Sharjah, March 31: The Sharjah Transport has added more bus stops and sales posts to its three major bus routes towards Dubai, as of today.

Adel Khalil, Manager of the Sharjah Intercity Transport, said the amendments span the launch of new spots for loading passengers and selling tickets on bus route No113, which connects Sharjah and Al Qusais, and bus route No308 which starts from Sharjah and ends at Jebel Ali and Al Quoz.

He said the changes are only applicable to trips towards Dubai and not to return trips. New pick-up points will be at the Mulaiha, King Faisal, and Union roads.

Dubai, March 31: Every school bus carrying girl students as well as buses carrying mixed students up to primary level will require to have at least one female conductor, the RTA announced.

Every school bus carrying girl students as well as buses carrying mixed students up to primary level will require to have at least one female conductor, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced on Thursday.

Syria, March 31: President Bashar Al Assad defied calls to lift a decades-old emergency law and said Syria was the target of a foreign conspiracy to stir up protests.

Speaking in public for the first time since the start of the unprecedented demonstrations, inspired by uprisings across the Arab world, Assad said he supported reform but offered no new commitment to change Syria’s rigid, one-party political system.