Tag Archives: weather
Suspected ‘murder’ turns out to be a cat run over by vehicle
Suspected ‘murder’ turns out to be a cat run over by vehicle Staff Reporter / 18 March 2014 Concerned citizen calls police after seeing a woman burying some blood-stained object. A concerned Abu Dhabi citizen reported a suspected murder to the police after he witnessed a woman getting out of her car and burying something. He also saw bloodstains all over the place. The ‘murder’ victim later turned out to be a cat, which was run over by a vehicle. The citizen residing in Madinat Khalifa in Abu Dhabi notified the police’s Operations Room after he saw the woman “fleeing” when he approached the scene. He had seen the woman take out something wrapped in a jacket from the car and burying it. “There were blood stains all over the place,” he told the police. The police rushed medical examiners from the Crime Scene Department, a Criminal Investigations Department (CID) team and a police patrol to the spot. They dug out a cat, which died after it was apparently run over. Colonel Dr Rashid Mohammad Borshid, Head of the CID at the Abu Dhabi Police GHQ, urged people to abstain from “suspicious or frightening behaviour” so that precious time of the security forces is not wasted. news@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Experts call for curbing absenteeism in schools
Experts call for curbing absenteeism in schools Afkar Abdullah / 16 March 2014 Skipping schools has become a ‘chronic behaviour’ among students, and experts are calling for a collaborative effort to curb the practice. Students of middle and high schools loitering in parks and malls; teenagers in school uniforms smoking around buildings and groceries in residential areas during school days. Sounds familiar? According to education experts, skipping classes has become a “chronic behaviour” among many students in government and private schools. Experts agreed that absenteeism among students has become a phenomenon that requires serious collaborative efforts between parents, schools, authorities concerned and the public. Mona Shuhail, Deputy Director of Sharjah Education Zone, said the phenomenon has been increasing every academic year. “This phenomenon will not only affect the student academically, but also the families and the whole society,” she said. “Here at the department, we receive a large number of complaints from the public and authorities such as the police and municipality about students who are seen roaming around outside schools during academic hours. We then contact the schools concerned and inform them about their students and instruct them to take serious steps to stop students from skipping classes.” Why students bunk schools Mostly male students skip classes. There could be many reasons for a student to skip classes, including family instability, negligence on the part of parents and bad company. “But most of the time students skip classes because they just want to, like maybe for the thrill of it,” Shuhail explained. “We brought (some) students here and questioned them…most of them skipped classes because they didn’t do their homework.” Mirgani Osman, a high school student, said he skipped school once because he wanted to eat ice cream with his friends instead of attending the last two classes of Art that he was not interested in. Wahbi Al Hamadi said his friends from different classes used to smoke cigarettes and convinced him to try it. However, after the Sharjah Municipality banned the sale of cigarettes in groceries, Al Hamadi and his friends decided to quit smoking and concentrate on studies. Measures adopted To resolve the problem, Shuhail said the department sent a circular to schools to check for absenteeism each year instead of at the beginning of the academic day. The department also instructed schools to conduct awareness classes about the consequences of skipping school. “The schools were instructed to contact the parents of students who skip school. But the problem is that in many cases, parents don’t answer calls and don’t show up when summoned by the school management.” She called for a collaborative effort from parents, schools, authorities concerned and the public. “The education department is planning to introduce a toll free number for the public to inform the authorities if they find students skipping classes.” Mohammed Al Jasim, spokesperson of the Sharjah Municipality, said the municipality received several complaints about students spending an academic day at parks. “The municipality (however) is not authorised to question students on skipping classes or even stop them from entering the park.” Mustafa Al Mosa, Director of Al Marriffa School, said they used to face this problem and several times the police brought students found loitering in malls to the school. “The practice stopped after we assigned security guards at all gates of the school and deployed a supervisor to search for students out of their classes. This, besides continuous instructions to students about such negative practices, has helped curb the phenomenon,” he said. Sultan Al Khayal, the spokesperson of the Sharjah Police, said the police deployed special patrols to curb the practice. The police also provide awareness lectures about the dangers of negative practices such as smoking, using drugs and skipping schools. When a police patrol spots students skipping schools, they summon the parents and make them sign an undertaking stating that they would not repeat the act. The schools concerned and the education department are also informed. Suggested measures Hibba Mohammed, a social researcher at the Sharjah Education Zone, said they are currently working on a study based on a survey conducted among parents, school management and authorities concerned to come up with an effective solution to curb the practice. Skipping school affects a student’s learning process and exposes them to danger. Two school directors demanded strict punitive action for skipping schools, while Yaqoub Al Hamadi, a social worker at Al Shahba High School, said the students concerned must only be questioned. “Tough punishment would complicate the issue,” he said. afkarali@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Malaysia says jet’s disappearance ‘deliberate’
Malaysia says jet’s disappearance ‘deliberate’ (AFP) / 16 March 2014 Najib’s announcement opened a whole new avenue of speculation including an attempted 9/11-style attack. A missing Malaysian airliner was apparently deliberately diverted and flown for hours after vanishing from radar, Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday, stopping short of confirming a hijack but taking the excruciating search for the jet into uncharted new territory. Najib said investigators believed “with a high degree of certainty” that systems relaying Malaysia Airlines flight 370’s location to air traffic control were manually switched off before the jet veered westward in a fashion “consistent with deliberate action”. But a grave-looking Najib told a press conference watched around the globe that he could not confirm whether the plane had been forcibly taken over. “Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear: we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path,” he said. He called it an “excruciating time for the families of those on board”. The new information appeared to cast aside a host of theories on the plane’s disappearance, which has transfixed the world and left frustrated families of the 239 passengers and crew baying for scarce information. Previous scenarios included a sudden mid-air explosion, catastrophic equipment or structural failure, or a crash into the South China Sea. But Najib’s announcement opened a whole new avenue of speculation including an attempted 9/11-style attack. The 9/11 hijackers had turned off the transponders of three of the four planes that were commandeered. Transponders transmit data on a plane’s location to air traffic controllers. MH370’s transponder was manually shut off, Najib said. The plane’s Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was also switched off, he added. Final satellite communication with the Boeing 777, scheduled to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, came more than six-and-a-half hours after it vanished from civilian radar at 1:30am on March 8, said Najib. That would equate with the time Malaysia Airlines has said the plane would have run out of fuel. Investigators had concluded the plane was diverted west from its original flight path, and thus a search in the South China Sea would end, Najib said, but would continue in the Indian Ocean. But the new search zone is now dauntingly large — Najib said the plane could be anywhere from Kazakhstan to the southern Indian Ocean. Earlier, a senior Malaysian military official had told AFP investigators believed the plane was commandeered by a “skilled, competent and current pilot” who knew how to avoid radar, stopping short of speculating whether a hijacker or crew member was suspected. An aviation expert told AFP that while it is easy to turn transponders off, a great deal of expertise is needed to disconnect ACARS. Dozens of ships and aircraft from 14 countries have been deployed across a huge search zone since MH370 went missing. As the search continues, investigators will focus on who would have diverted it and why. Malaysian security officials were earlier embarrassed by revelations that two Iranian men had managed to board the plane using stolen European passports. It could also bring new attention on Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and his First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. Malaysian reporters told AFP they witnessed police enter Zaharie’s house on Saturday, staying for two hours. Police declined comment to AFP. An Australian television station had days earlier broadcast an interview with a South African woman who alleged she and a friend were invited into the cockpit of a flight Fariq co-piloted in 2011 — a breach of post-9/11 security rules. The New York Times quoted American officials with knowledge of the investigation saying the plane saw wild fluctuations in altitude after it changed course. “Investigations should focus on criminal and terrorist motives,” said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. “It is likely that the aircraft was hijacked by a team knowledgeable about airport and aircraft security. It is likely they are supported by a competent team from the ground.” Anthony Brickhouse, a member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, said the evidence pointed at “human intervention”. “I’m sure they (investigators) are going over every single passenger on board that aircraft to try to see if they have anything in their background that would speak on what happened,” he said. But Gerry Soejatman, a Jakarta-based independent aviation analyst, told AFP Saturday’s revelations make a possible terror motive “extremely difficult to understand”. “If that was deliberate, we may be dealing with something beyond the mission planning for 9/11,” he said. Most of the plane’s passengers were Chinese and the Malaysian leader’s remarks did little to ease the nerves of anguished relatives gathered at a hotel in Beijing. “I feel (Malaysia Airlines) has been playing a role in the incident,” said Wen Wancheng, whose son was aboard, suspecting “a conspiracy”. He remained hopeful his son was alive. The airline defended its handling of the crisis, which it called “an unprecedented situation for Malaysia Airlines and for the entire aviation industry.” The plane has one of the best safety records of any jet, and the airline also has a solid record. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
