The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is considering installing a Salik gate on Emirates Road, Arabic daily Al Bayan reported on Monday.
The report said indicators of the general budget for Dubai for 2010 expect the RTA to increase Salik revenues by introducing a new Salik gate on Emirates Road…SOURCE
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Higher education institutions say they want to correct an “imbalance” in the types of courses students are being offered and make more humanities subjects available.
More science and liberal arts courses should be made available, officials said, as figures showed that more than 60 per cent of programmes at universities were in business, information technology and engineering.
A study by the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) found that business administration courses made up 25 per cent of the total offered by universities.
Information technology and computer engineering courses constituted 19 per cent, while engineering accounted for 18 per cent. Two hundred and seventy-six university courses were analysed…SOURCE
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More than a year ago, Dubai quietly launched a wide-ranging anti-corruption investigation to revitalise investor confidence in the emirate.
The results of the operation so far, revealed to The National, are staggering: 11 investigations or court cases are under way; 34 executives are either in court or on their way there; and Dh3.58 billion (US$950 million) has allegedly been stolen or used as bribe money, according to files from public prosecutors that give the first overview of the whole operation.
Since March 2008, investigators appointed by the Dubai Government have been looking into executives from some of Dubai’s leading real estate and financial firms, a move acknowledged by the Government for the first time a year ago this week. In an online question-and-answer session earlier this year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said the reason was simple: “No one in the Emirates is above the law and accountability.”…SOURCE
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The UAE economy may contract this year due to the global credit crisis, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy, said today.
“There could be some contraction,“ Mr al Mansouri Ck said in Dubai. “If the world economy goes on like this it will be contractive.”
He stressed, however, that the UAE would be less affected than many other countries, although the oil price was one of the key determinants of how the Emirates would fare.
Mr al Mansouri said the Government had not received any demands to help big companies with additional funds. “No big companies have requested extra liquidity until now,” he said. Many companies, particularly big developers, are said to have fallen behind on their payments as funds are hard to raise.
Mr al Mansouri added that it was “not an option right now” to liquidate either Tamweel or Amlak, the country’s two largest Islamic lenders. He said a merger remained “one of the good options”… SOURCE
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Yet another stupid decision. If the Etisalat and DU software isn’t powerful enough to detect the nude photos on Flickr, they should take the ban off completely.
Photographers can no longer share their photos with the country’s online community after telecommunications provider Du blocked the web site on Monday.
Etisalat has blocked the web site since 2006 because of nude images, but up until Monday, it could still be accessed through rival provider, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, popularly known as Du.
The move will mean that dozens of photographers who had used the site to display their work will be denied access altogether.
One photographer, Catalin Marin, said he had access to Flickr since he lived in Nakheel-owned properties which used Du as a service provider.
“I’ve been able to sell some of my work through Flickr to magazines around the world,” he said. “It’s a massive bummer that they chosen to do this.
“There are some images on the site which use nudity for art, but this shouldn’t mean that the whole site should be blocked.”
Guidelines for the censorship of the web are set by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). Content which promotes pornography, gambling and drugs, or those which defame religion, are blocked under guidelines set by the TRA… http://khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=/data/theuae/2009/March/theuae_March450.xml§ion=theuae
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There have been a number of rumors about this event. The most convincing one I heard was that the 
CID was actually involved in a heavy operation against and Afghani drug gang who offered resistance. If true, why not report it? Answer: they were armed and shot back. If true, this is a very uncommon thing in the UAE. However, if the CID are rooting out the heavy drugs… all I can say is go get them!
In the meantime, here is the purported story of what happened in Ajman:
Sphere: Related ContentAjman sealed off in hunt for illegal workers
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/02/26/10289591.html 02/27/2009 06:54 PM | By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter
Ajman: Security forces conducted a search for illegal workers on Thursday, closing off the industrial district of Ajman from the Sharjah border.
The roads were closed from 8am in and out of the Ajman Industrial Area. People who wanted to enter or leave the area were turned away, giving rise to various rumours.
Military forces and riot police with dogs were seen patrolling the area, and army helicopters circled overhead.
Brigadier Ali Abdullah Alwan, chief of Ajman Police, told Gulf News that they were scouring the area for illegal workers.
“It is a hunt for illegal workers. There are many of them here. Many companies from other emirates are accommodating their workers here,” he said. Residents were in the dark about what was unfolding…
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This is so dangerous here in the UAE!
Sphere: Related ContentDubai Police fine 490 jaywalkers in more than one week
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/02/17/10286903.html 02/17/2009 06:33 PM | Staff Report
Dubai: Around 490 jaywalkers were fined since the launch of the pedestrian safety awareness
campaign last week after detecting a 13 per cent rise in accidents involving pedestrians.
According to Brigadier Mohammad Saif Al Zaffin, Director of the Dubai Police Traffic Department, statistics revealed that most pedestrian violations were found (302) on Oman-Hatta Road.
Al Murqabbat Road followed with around 164 fines issued to jaywalkers and Emirates Road with 24 fines.
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Of course no one has really answered the question why this is needed at all. How many forms of ID documentation should we actually need? If this was my own country, I would simply refuse to get one… Oh wait a minute, my country (the US) balked and threatened to tar and feather the government officials if they approved such a national ID system. And you know what, it’s a bad idea for the UAE as well.
Sphere: Related ContentExpatriate professionals now have until the end of next year to obtain their national ID card, according to the head of the programme.
“Calm down, don’t panic. Your deadline isn’t until the end of 2010,” Darwish al Zarouni, the director general of the Emirates Identity Authority (Eida), said on the sidelines of the Citizen ID Forum in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
While it was still recommended that non-national white-collar workers registered for an ID card before the Feb 28 deadline, Mr al Zarouni said they would not be denied access to government services if they did not.
He said the decision had been taken to “make life easier” for those who had not registered, and that it was up to the individual when they applied, as long as they had obtained a card by the end of 2010.
Expatriate professionals had earlier been warned they could face problems with services such as obtaining a driver’s licence, visiting a doctor or opening a bank account if they missed the deadline.
There have been chaotic scenes at registration centres with some residents queuing overnight to get an appointment, concerned about the consequences of not getting one in time.
On Eida’s website, there are no appointments available anywhere in the UAE until several months after the Feb 28 deadline…SOURCE
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| http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/02/12/10284769.html |
02/12/2009 03:04 PM | By Anupa Kurian, Readers Editor
Dubai: The world has not forgotten. Sammy the whale shark and his gilded captivity still matters. Organisations
have added momentum to Gulf News’ ‘Free Sammy’ campaign with an open letter appealing for the release of the animal.
Sammy has now been in captivity for over 160 days. The campaign was wound down on January 16 with a final call to “not let the whale shark be forgotten”.
Lisa Shrake Perry, programme manager for EWS-WWF (Emirates Wildlife Society in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature), said: “Since the beginning [September], we have given interviews and called for the whale shark to be released. But, our messages were never returned by Atlantis.
“So, we thought we would collectively write a letter signed by national and international organisations, so they understand that there is a lot of weight to it.”…
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Sphere: Related ContentThe Federal National Council yesterday endorsed a far-reaching proposal to restrict smoking across the Emirates and control how tobacco products are marketed.
It would mean major changes to the habits and social lives of smokers and was welcomed by health care professionals.
Smoking would be prohibited in most closed public spaces, in cars with passengers aged under 12 and anywhere in hospitals, mosques, educational institutions and sport facilities.
Many details were left out. For example, authorities would be allowed to allocate areas within some public premises for smoking, but the rules for smoking rooms were left to an appendix to be released after the law is approved.
The Supreme Council, which is made up of the rulers of the seven emirates, must approve the ban.
FNC members yesterday suggested several changes to the proposal. The Minister of Health, Humaid al Qattami, agreed to most of them, including a ban on growing tobacco for commercial purposes…SOURCE
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Sphere: Related ContentModerate rain expected to continue in UAE on Sunday and Monday
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/02/08/10283340.html 02/08/2009 10:15 PM | By Aftab Kazmi, Bureau Chief
Al Ain: Moderate rain is expected to hit many parts of the emirates on Sunday and Monday.
An unsettled weather system has developed over the country, giving overnight drizzle and light rain in Al Ain and some other parts of the country, including Dubai.“We expect partly cloudy weather in general to cloudy at times during early morning over some western and northern coastal areas with a chance of light rain [in the next 48 hours],” said a forecaster at the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology.
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Expatriate professionals applying for the national identity card will not be able to book an appointment until after the Feb 28 deadline, as the system struggles to cope with the number of last-minute applicants.
A call centre representative for the Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) confirmed yesterday that there were no appointments available until Mar 19.
Emirates Marketing and Promotions (EMP), which was brought in to help process the hundreds of thousands of applications before the deadline, said a rush in December had created a backlog.
Extra staff have been put on to process applications made in post offices, which EMP said increased five-fold last month, with 85 full-time staff working to ease the problem.
Many of last month’s post office applications have still not been processed and people have voiced concern that they had been lost in the system.
The chief executive officer of EMP, Ahmed Tahlak, moved to reassure them: “If the application has not been processed, we will retrieve the file and make it a top priority.”
On-line applications have also been delayed…SOURCE
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Sphere: Related ContentThe home page of the Federal National Council website was defaced, sending visitors to another site on which a taunting message was displayed.
The message said the FNC site was breached by the “Delta Hacking Security Team”. It credited “all Iranian hackers” and listed their pseudonyms in the green, red and white colours of the Islamic republic’s flag.
The identity of the hacker was not known. A spokesman for the FNC said its web administrators would investigate.
Sometimes such sites can upload malicious software to the computers of unsuspecting visitors, but there is no indication that happened in this case.
Bulent Teksoz, a manager of systems engineering at the internet security firm Symantec Middle East in Dubai, said such pages should generally be avoided.
“If the hackers defaced the site then they probably did something else as well,” he said. “In general, people should be cautioned against visiting hacked websites.”
Word of the breach spread quickly through the Emirates’ IT community. It is not known when the page was hacked, although it seems the administrators of the FNC’s website did not discover the breach for several days, said one IT worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity…SOURCE
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Sphere: Related ContentThe financial crisis is forcing many parents who cannot afford increasingly high fees to pull their children out of schools and nurseries, teachers and parents say.
Some schools and nurseries say three or four children are dropping out each week. Staff are urging parents to contact them as soon as possible if they start having difficulty paying the fees, which can reach Dh58,000 (US$15,790) a year.
“Our schools are very sympathetic to their plight and we have a responsibility to support the parents who have supported us throughout the years, within the very sensible guidelines given by the department of students” at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, said Clive Pierrepont, the director of communications at Taaleem, which runs seven schools in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
“Our advice to parents is to inform their school of any worries as early as possible and keep communications open so the concerned school can deal with difficulties on a case-by-case basis, and work with parents towards a solution.”
Khadijah Yuseff, an English teacher, has two children attending the Taaleem-managed Dubai British School in Emirates Hills, where she pays an average of Dh40,000 for her 12-year-old son and Dh35,000 for her nine-year-old son.
“Both of my children are losing two to three of their friends on a weekly basis,” said Mrs Yuseff. “People in the community can’t afford the school fees, especially if one of their parents has lost their job.
“We have been to a few leaving parties and people are just heading back home where education is free for some people.”…SOURCE
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Abu Dhabi has become the world’s biggest market for Rolls-Royce cars, edging out Dubai and Beijing in sales last year.
Rolls-Royce’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai dealerships achieved the highest sales and second-highest sales respectively, said Frank Tiemann, Rolls-Royce’s communications manager for Europe and the Middle East.
This was ahead of Beijing and London, which tied for third place, and Beverly Hills in the US in fifth place.
“This is a very impressive development for Abu Dhabi,” Mr Tiemann said yesterday. “It has been top five for the past three years.”
Overall sales in the Middle East rose 48 per cent last year, up from 40 per cent in 2007, he said.
The most popular Rolls-Royce model for Emirates buyers last year was the Phantom, a four-door limousine whose base price was about US$400,000 (Dh1.46 million) before taxes and without any customised features, said Mr Tiemann.
Worldwide, Abu Dhabi and Dubai had the highest levels of requests for customisation, which can range from a personalised colour to specially positioned knobs and buttons, he said.
“In the UAE, every single car was a bespoke Phantom, which can easily double the cost,” he said.
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