Tag Archives: lifestyle
EU approves agreement on amendment to exempt Emiratis from Schengen Visa
EU approves agreement on amendment to exempt Emiratis from Schengen Visa (Wam) / 13 February 2014 Earlier, the European Parliament had proposed an exemption of UAE citizens from the requirement of obtaining entry visa. The Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament, today ratified the agreement between the Parliament and the Greek Presidency of the European Union, on amending the regulations to exempt citizens of the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Peru and 15 other Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean countries from the requirement of obtaining visa to enter into the unified visa zone of “Schengen”. A statement from the European Parliament said that “This exemption should be reciprocated on the basis of agreements signed between the EU and each of these countries. It will start when the bilateral agreement comes into force.” Earlier, the European Parliament had proposed an exemption of UAE citizens from the requirement of obtaining entry visa. It was approved by the Commission and the Cabinet. Mariya Gabriel, who prepared the report and led the European Parliament group to negotiate with the Presidency of the European Union, said, “The agreement today has double importance as we progress towards expanding the cooperation with those countries, on the other hand we send a positive message to European citizens, clarifying measures on putting non European countries in the positive list.” Suleiman Hamed Salem Al Mazrouei, Head of the UAE Mission to EU, UAE Ambassador to Belgium, said the achievement is a fruit of huge efforts exerted by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in line with the directives from Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister. He added that the procedures for exemption are almost complete. The EU has a positive list including countries, whose nationals are allowed to enter into EU without visa, and the negative list for countries, whose nationals must obtain prior entry visa. The European Parliament is expected to vote for this agreement in April. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Set up own firms, don’t look only for govt jobs: DM chief
Set up own firms, don’t look only for govt jobs: DM chief Sajila Saseendran / 12 February 2014 Hussain Nasser Lootah says government cannot hire all Emiratis and they should start their own companies instead of becoming employees. The government cannot hire all Emiratis and they should start their own companies instead of becoming employees or civil servants, Dubai’s civic chief Hussain Nasser Lootah said at the Dubai Government Summit on Tuesday. Speaking at a session on “Optimising Government Service: The Potential of Public-Private Partnerships,” Lootah said unemployment of citizens was a dangerous indicator that they were heavily relying on government for jobs. “If we start considering citizens as our workforce, we will end up having all of them as employees or civil servants. It is not a healthy mindset. They should stop looking for jobs and instead build ideas for making their own companies and providing jobs to others.” Lootah’s remarks received applause from the audience, including heads of several government departments. He noted that the electronic revolution in each and every household itself has a huge dimension in building specialised projects. “Small and medium companies play an important role in delivering services. The government sector cannot be responsible for hiring all. Young Emiratis should explore such opportunities,” he said. Speaking to Khaleej Times after the session, he said government departments could no longer employ many Emirati graduates. “Media keep saying (government) find jobs for Emiratis and there is unemployment. I don’t agree with it. Most of the government departments have all of them. It is time to reverse the process. “We should study and prepare small projects and ask Emiratis to run them. Every year we have a lot of graduates. Some of them can be employees, but not all. They should be bosses. We need more and more young Emirati men and women to start SMEs.” At the session, he said how private-public partnership should focus on satisfying the customers by meeting their needs within a timeframe. He said the municipality already had partnership with private firms in projects like the upcoming Crocodile Park and the existing waste-to-energy plant that generates electricity from landfill waste. Fadi Ghandour, founder and vice-chairman of the Board of Directors, Aramex, said empowerment of entrepreneurs is a solution for unemployment of youth. He called for financial support from banks, with government’s guarantee, for unemployed youth to start SMEs. Lootah noted that there were a few government initiatives under Tanmia and Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development that supported Emiratis to set up SMEs. sajila@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Ministry says 77 killed in Algerian military air crash
Ministry says 77 killed in Algerian military air crash (Reuters, AFP) / 12 February 2014 Defence ministry announcement brings death toll down to 77 instead of local media reports of 102 casualties. A total of 77 people died in the crash of an Algerian military transport plane carrying members of the armed forces and their relatives on Tuesday, the defence ministry said, fewer than the 103 dead that had been cited by local media. The ministry said in a statement bad weather was the likely cause of the accident, one of the worst air crashes in the North African country in a decade. Earlier, local media and emergency officials said the military aircraft carrying 103 people crashed in Algeria’s mountainous northeast, with just one survivor found in one of the country’s deadliest air disasters. The C-130 Hercules aircraft, which crashed in the Oum El Bouaghi region, was carrying 99 passengers — soldiers and their families — as well as four crew members, a security source told AFP. Emergency services officials told public radio that they had found a sole survivor, who was suffering from head trauma. By early evening, the emergency services had recovered 76 bodies from the crash site, including the remains of four women, public radio reported, after an extensive search and rescue operation was launched. A security source had said earlier that all on board had perished. The plane was flying from the desert garrison town of Tamanrasset in the deep south to the city of Constantine, 320 kilometres (200 miles) east of the capital, and lost contact with the control tower just as it was beginning its descent. The aircraft slammed into Mount Fertas in the Oum El Bouaghi region at around midday (1100 GMT), state media quoted army spokesman Colonel Bouguern as saying. “Very bad weather conditions, involving a storm and heavy snowfall, were behind the crash,” the defence ministry said in a statement. Military and civilian personnel were deployed for the search operation, the ministry added, with hospitals in Constantine and nearby Ain M’Lila placed on alert to treat any survivors. Nearly 250 rescue workers had reached the site of the crash, despite the difficulties caused by the mountainous terrain and wintry conditions. Tamanrasset, where the flight had departed from, lies in the far south of Algeria, near the border with Mali, and is the main base for the country’s southern military operations. Extra troops and equipment have been stationed there in recent months as part of efforts to beef up surveillance of Algeria’s frontiers with Mali and Libya, following a deadly hostage-taking by Islamist militants at a desert gas plant in January last year. The city lies 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) from Constantine, and was the site of the worst previous aviation disaster in Algeria, in March 2003. In that accident, all but one of 103 people on board were killed when an Air Algerie passenger plane crashed on takeoff after one of its engines caught fire. The sole survivor, a young Algerian soldier, was left in a critical condition. In December 2012, two military jets conducting routine training operations collided in mid air near Tlemcen, in the northwest, killing the pilots of both planes. A month earlier, a twin-turboprop CASA C-295 military transport aircraft, which was transporting a cargo of paper for the printing of banknotes in Algeria, crashed in southern France. The plane was carrying five soldiers and a representative of the Algerian central bank, none of whom survived. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
