Tag Archives: technology
Welfare of citizens top priority: Shaikh Mohammed
Welfare of citizens top priority: Shaikh Mohammed (Wam) / 5 September 2013 His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has affirmed that the UAE, under the leadership of the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is making steady progress in terms of all development indices. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, arriving to watch the world premiere of the documentary, Ultimate Airport – Dubai, featuring the emirate’s aviation sector, at Meydan Imax Theatre. It was shown by the National Geographic Channel’s global network. – KT Photo by Mukesh Kamal “The UAE government is continually following up these indices issued by prestigious international corporations, because retreat is not an option in our government,” Shaikh Mohammed said while commenting on the results of the Global Competitiveness Report issued by the World Economic Forum (Davos) for 2013-2014, in which the UAE advanced five positions in the total competitiveness of its economy in one year, from 25 th last year to the rank of 19 th this year, thereby coming ahead of such countries as France, Ireland and Australia. “Thanks to the federal and local teams who are jointly working in line with a vision, the term of which extends to the year 2021, as well as with agendas and plans that are continuously being revised and assessed as per our growing ambitions in all sectors… our economy is continuously developing, and the indices for security and stability are the best globally. The welfare of our citizens is at the top of our priorities,” Shaikh Mohammed said. Overall, the UAE’s competitiveness reflects the high quality of its infrastructure, where it ranks a solid fifth, as well as its highly efficient goods markets which ranks fourth. 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
