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Adihex: Culture and heritage on exhibit
Adihex: Culture and heritage on exhibit Silvia Radan / 5 September 2013 With no pomp, no ribbon cutting, the 11th Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Adihex) opened its doors at 11am on Wednesday morning. For the next three days, until September 7, 39,000 square meters of the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre is being taken by 600 national and international organisations promoting the widest variety of products and services related to outdoor camping, hunting, falconry, horse riding and Arab culture and heritage. “The Adihex is one of the most important annual events of its kind, dedicated to the preservation of culture and heritage. We continuously aim to achieve greater success year after year, especially since Adihex is the only exhibition specialised in the culture and heritage in the Gulf region, and as such maintaining success is surely more difficult than just achieving it,” declared Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, chairman of adihex Higher Organising Committee and Culture and Heritage advisor at the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court. An instant eye catcher at the exhibition is Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority’s (ADTCA) pavilion, the biggest of them all. “We are as big as last year, over 1,200 square metres,” said Saeed Al Kaabi, manager of traditional productions at ADTCA and in charge of the pavilion. “The concept is inspired by the Qasr Al Hosn, Abu Dhabi’s oldest fort. The architecture of the old walls is reproduced here, at a smaller scale, of course. Inside, we have about 40 Emirati traditional handicrafts and activities represented. We have a coffee shop offering free Arabic coffee, tea and dates; a souk where handicraft makers supported by ADTCA sell their products; a corner where Emirati ladies demonstrate the art of saddu and tally; a VIP majlis designed in the style of an old Emirati house…. We have falconry and from 4pm till closing time at 10pm we have Emirati folklore,” Al Kaabi told Khaleej Times. The ADTCA pavilion is also the host of the Arabic Coffee competition, which this year will give away Dh50,000 in prizes in several age and gender related categories. “So far we have about 30 people registered in the competition, but we never close the registration. Sometimes, a person comes just as the competition is about to start and enters it,” explained Al Kaabi. It is close to never that a non-Emirati dares to enter such a local competition, but so far this year an Egyptian national is challenging a few dozen Abu Dhabi Bedouins at Arabic coffee brewing. Coastal traditions are represented too with a full size dhow boat and several miniature ones. Their makers sit next to them, singing sea tunes from the past while making fishing nets. “I made this boat four years ago and my friend here, Khalifa Khamis Ismail made the miniature boats. Dhows are always made by the sea and in Abu Dhabi we still have a workshop in Al Bateen, part of the Emirates Heritage Club,” said Saif Al Benghazi. Since Adihex began 11 years ago as a wild falcon preservation project, getting falconers to give up their wild birds and go for farm bred ones instead, environmental issues are still big at the exhibition today. “This year we focus our presence at Adihex on falconry, so we promote the Falcon Hospital and our falconry research project in Mongolia, which we started in 2010,” said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, secretary general of Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital plays a major role at Adihex, as it sets up a clinic where all falcon buyers may check the birds prior to purchase, free of charge, to make sure they are not getting a sick falcon. Since the hospital also has a pet and animal rescue centre, it brings here some of its rescued cats and dogs, ready for adoption. “It’s amazing! In the first hour of the opening we had one dog and two cats adopted, as well as four falcons for checkup. Last year, the adoption didn’t start until the last two days of Adihex,” revealed Dr Margit Muller, director of Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital. Adihex has prepared a full programme of shows from 5pm till 8pm that includes a short film on Adihex and equestrian, birds and camel shows, which will repeat every evening of the exhibition. silvia@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Police interrogate ‘lovers’ of woman cardboard bomber
Police interrogate ‘lovers’ of woman cardboard bomber Amira Agarib / 4 September 2013 Police are interrogating a number of potential former and current lovers of the woman who threatened to blow up herself, her son and the Dubai Public Prosecution headquarters on Sunday. The woman, 32-year-old Uzbeki Zulfiya Hamraeva who is now in police custody along with her five-year-old son, was engaged in a 13-hour standoff with a Dubai Police negotiating team, which lasted from midday on Sunday till 1.30am on Monday. She entered the building, with what appeared to be a belt of explosives, which she threatened to detonate unless officials recognised her son was fathered by an Emirati man she was in an unofficial Urfi marriage with. However, once the woman was arrested, it transpired the ‘belt’ was a cardboard carton, with two softdrink cans. Officials negotiating with the woman. – Courtesy Twitter Police have been investigating Hamraeva’s background in an effort to determine whether the woman was aided by any person and in what manner, a police source told Khaleej Times . The police have arrested a 33-year-old Emirati man — a captain in one of the country’s services — who was discovered at a flat in Dubai’s Discovery Gardens. The man, understood to be married with children, was the last person Hamraeva was in contact with before committing the stunt. Police have also arrested a Pakistani man who was tracked through CCTV footage, after he dropped Hamraeva off at the Public Prosecution building prior to the incident. The man has reportedly told police he had no romantic connection to the woman, but just dropped her off places from time to time. Police have also allegedly detained a number of other men who Hamraeva had connections to and may have been in relationships with. Police are conducting paternity tests on all the men, as well as interrogating them to determine whether they played any part in helping Hamraeva conduct the bomb scare. Police still have her and her son in custody, while investigations continue, though it appears likely she will be charged with offences relating to affecting UAE security and inciting panic. news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Wave of bombings, attacks in Iraq kill at least 67
Iraq bombing wave claims 33 lives (AP) / 4 September 2013 A series of coordinated evening blasts in Baghdad and other violence killed at least 67 people in Iraq on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a months-long surge of bloodshed that Iraqi security forces are struggling to contain. Many of those killed were caught up in a string of car bombings that tore through the Iraqi capital early in the evening as residents were out shopping or heading to dinner. Those blasts struck 11 different neighbourhoods and claimed more than 50 lives in a span of less than two hours. The evening’s deadliest attack happened when two car bombs exploded near restaurants and shops Baghdad’s northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, killing nine people and wounding 32. A row of restaurants was also hit in the eastern neighbourhood of Talibiyah, killing seven and wounding 28. Another car bomb hit the nearby neighbourhood of Sadr City, killing three and wounding eight, according to police. At around the same time, authorities say back-to-back car bombs blew up near a police station in the western neighbourhood of Sadiyah, killing six and wounding 15. Another blast hit a central square in the commercial district of Karradah, killing six and wounding 14. The force of the blast shattered the windows of Karim Sami’s nearby clothing shop. Like many Iraqis in recent months, he expressed frustration with the Shia-led government’s inability to stop repeated attacks despite assurances that it is tightening security. “We started to feel a little bit safe over the past few days because they were relatively calm, but the violence is back today,” he said. “Whenever the government assures us that security is being tightened, we see attacks like these.” Car bombs also struck shopping streets in the religiously mixed western neighbourhood of Shurta, killing five people and wounding 12; the southeastern neighbourhood of Zafaraniyah, killing four and wounding 11; the southern neighbourhood of Abu Dashir, killing two and wounding nine; the New Baghdad area, killing six people and wounding 17; and the Dora neighbourhood, killing two and wounding five, according to police. Another car bomb exploded near an outdoor market in the village of Maamil, in the eastern suburbs of the capital, killing 3 people and wounding 41. No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attacks, but coordinated car bombings and attacks on civilians and Iraqi security forces are a favorite tactic of the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda. It typically does not lay claim to attacks for several days, if at all. Iraqi officials say the lawlessness roiling neighbouring Syria, where the civil war has taken on sharp sectarian overtones similar to those that nearly tore Iraq apart, is fueling the upsurge of violence inside Iraq. “The recent threats of a military operation against Syria have encouraged the insurgents to wage more attacks inside Iraq. We have warned of this, but unfortunately, nobody is listening,” said Ali Al Moussawi, the spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki. The evening blasts added to a death toll that had been mounting throughout the day. Authorities awoke to find four bodies with gunshot wounds to the back laying in the streets in different locations around the Iraqi capital. Gunmen shot two other people dead in Baghdad’s southern Dora neighborhood, police said. In Baghdad’s southern suburbs, gunmen stormed the house of a member of a Sunni militia opposed to Al Qaeda, killing him and his wife and three children in a southern suburb of the capital, according to police. Elsewhere, a car bomb blew up early Tuesday at a restaurant in the town of Jbala just south of the capital, killing two people and wounding seven. Continue reading
