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UN to inspect Syria gas attack site today
UN to inspect Syria gas attack site today (Reuters) / 26 August 2013 The United Nations said on Sunday its experts would start their probe of an alleged Syrian chemical weapons site on Monday after Syria agreed to allow the inspection even as a US official said it was already too late. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “has instructed the mission … currently in Damascus, to focus its attention on ascertaining the facts of the August 21 incident as its highest priority,” the UN said in a statement. “The mission is preparing to conduct on-site fact-finding activities, starting tomorrow, Monday, 26 August.” The UN announcement came shortly after Damascus gave the green light for the inspectors to carry out the probe into the alleged use of chemical weapons near the Syrian capital on Wednesday. “The Secretary-General would like to reiterate that all relevant parties equally share the responsibility of cooperating in urgently generating a safe environment for the mission to do its job efficiently and providing all necessary information.” Foreign powers have been searching for a response from the Syria regime since many hundreds of people were killed by poisonous gas on Wednesday in the suburbs of Damascus in what appears to have been the world’s worst chemical weapons attack in 25 years. There were increasing signs that the United States and its allies were considering taking action, a year after President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that would prompt serious consequences. A senior US official said there was very little doubt that the Syrian government had used a chemical weapon against civilians on Wednesday and that Washington was still weighing how to respond. The official also said any decision to grant access to the UN inspectors would be “too late to be credible” because evidence had been corrupted by government shelling and other actions. Syria’s information minister said any US military action would “create a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East”. He also said Damascus had evidence that chemical weapons were used by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Al Assad, not by his government. Western countries say they believe the rebels do not have access to poison gas. Opposition activists in Damascus said the army was using surface-to-surface missiles and artillery to strike eastern Damascus on Sunday, including neighbourhoods where the mass poisoning occurred. US President Barack Obama met his top military and national security advisers on Saturday to debate options. US naval forces have been repositioned in the Mediterranean to give Obama the option of an armed strike. “Based on the reported number of victims, reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, witness accounts, and other facts gathered by open sources, the US intelligence community, and international partners, there is very little doubt at this point that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in this incident,” the senior US official said. President Bashar Al Assad’s closest ally Iran, repeating Obama’s own previous rhetoric, said the United States should not cross a “red line” by attacking Syria. “America knows the limitation of the red line of the Syrian front and any crossing of Syria’s red line will have severe consequences for the White House,” said Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s military, Fars news agency reported. The Syrian opposition says between 500 and well over 1,000 civilians were killed this week by gas in munitions fired by pro-government forces. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said three hospitals near Damascus had reported 355 deaths in the space of three hours out of about 3,600 admissions with nerve gas-type symptoms. The head of the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front rebel group has pledged to target communities from Assad’s Alawi sect with rockets in revenge for Wednesday’s incident, according to an audio recording published on YouTube. “For every chemical rocket that had fallen on our people in Damascus, one of their villages will, by the will of God, pay for it,” Abu Mohammad Al Golani said in the recording. Continue reading
Fine, black points for throwing out cigarette butts
Fine, black points for throwing out cigarette butts Amira Agarib / 25 August 2013 The Director of Dubai’s General Department of Traffic says he has personally given out Dh500 fines and four black points to people he has caught throwing cigarette butts out of their cars. Newly announced federal laws on tobacco control which will come into force next February will include traffic violations for smokers inside cars — but Dubai Police are slapping any driver caught throwing cigarette butts out of their car windows with a Dh500 fine and four black points. One of the new laws, announced several days ago, includes a ban preventing anyone from smoking while driving a private car if a child under the age of 12 is present, as well as restrictions on advertising, labelling and importing. The Director of General Department of Traffic, Major-General Mohammed Saif Al Zafin, said there was “no doubt” the new laws would limit the growing phenomenon of smoking, especially amongst young people. Since the percentage of smokers among children under the age of 15 reached 28 per cent in Abu Dhabi, it had become necessary for everyone to review the impact of the bad habit and refrain from harming others, he said. Maj-Gen. Al Zafin said that in addition to the Dubai Municipality, which penalises anyone who throws objects out of car windows onto the road with a Dh500 fine, the Dubai Police are also issuing penalties. He said he has even personally issued black points and fines several times. Maj-Gen. Al Zafin said that since smoking had a serious impact on health everyone should work to reduce the exposure of smoke to children. However, there were still many parents who both smoked in enclosed homes or cars. He said some parents were badly affecting their children when they smoked in their cars, especially in the summer when the high heat forced people to close car windows, which then allowed for the spread of toxic gas. In worst possible cases, this could lead to suffocation, especially for children who suffered from asthma or breathing difficulties, he said. – news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Gang extorts money with footage of sexual scenes
Gang extorts money with footage of sexual scenes 25 August 2013 UAE victims are among those ensnared by an international gang of cyber criminals who lure people into sharing sexually explicit video clips, before putting them online and demanding money for their removal. The Abu Dhabi Police are warning residents to be careful online, after they received a number of complaints from victims who were hoodwinked by the criminals, who pose as beautiful woman. Criminal Investigation Department Director Colonel Dr Rashid Mohammad Burasheed said the gang, who targeted the Arabian Gulf, had recently begun threatening victims in the country, who were using social networking sites, with the revealing recordings. They were made in response to sexual images of the women they were supposedly talking to, though Burasheed said the footage was just duplicated scenes and the women were not connected to the criminals. He said the victims told police they were blackmailed by that gang which extorted money from them by promising to remove the compromising video clips from a free video-sharing website on the Internet. The money was then to be transferred to offshore bank accounts. “Blackmailers target the youth, particularly males, and chat with them through PC chatting applications over social networking sites like Skype,” he noted, adding the gang used nicknames for the supposed women, dubbed voices and showed videos of exposed parts of their bodies. Burasheed called on Internet users not to trust strangers who they meet over the Internet or e-mails sent from suspicious websites. “Since these criminals are working from outside the country, it is difficult for the Abu Dhabi Police to locate them, but it is not impossible as Abu Dhabi Police address and pass the information to the security bodies at countries where such kind of crimes are known, so to locate the criminals and arrest them,” he said. news@khaleejtimes.com Men and women being targeted, says Al Dhahiri The head of organised crime at CID, Lt. Colonel Tahir Al Dhahiri, warned the cyber blackmailers were targeting women as well as men. He said an Arab woman in her 40s said she was lured into porn scenes by one of the gang members who posed as a famous, powerful man, who hoped to recruit her into a private company. It transpired the perpetrator had hacked the woman’s e-mail account. In another case, the gang drained the savings of a Gulf man who paid Dh10,000 so the blackmailers would take out the video clip in which he appeared in sexual scenes. Al Dhahiri said an Arab architect also lodged a complaint that he was lured by a gang and involved in porn scenes. The victim said he was a father with teenage children, but had got involved in such illicit activities because he was living alone as his wife was back home. Continue reading
