Tag Archives: dubai
Pedestrians have rights on roads
Pedestrians have rights on roads Amira Agarib / 4 May 2013 Drivers who are caught not stopping for pedestrians in designated areas and zebra crossings will face a Dh500 fine and six black points, with the number of drivers ticketed for ignoring pedestrians almost doubling. The General Department of Traffic and Criminal Investigation Department on Thursday launched a pedestrian safety campaign to spread awareness among drivers on the rights of pedestrians. Statistics showed that violations where drivers were given priority to pedestrians has reached 680 during the first quarter of the current year, against 365 last year. General Department of Traffic director Major-General Mohammed Saif Al Zafin said the one-month campaign, launched around the Naif area, targeted motorists in a bid to reduce car accidents involving pedestrians and to ensure the safety and control of road movement. He said he also hoped the campaign would spread awareness about the rights of the pedestrian to cross the road from designated areas, while also educating pedestrians on the importance of crossing roads using zebra crossings. During a press conference, attended by directors of Dubai police stations, Al Zafin said accidents in which pedestrians were hit represented up to 30 per cent of total accidents, with 36 people killed in such accidents out of a total 127 road deaths. He attributed the accidents to a lack of traffic awareness among certain Asian workers, who crossed roads from non-designated areas. The campaign urges pedestrians to take extra caution at zebra crossings that did not have traffic signals, as it was still their right of way to cross the road. Naif Police station director Colonel Abdulla Khadem bin Sorroor said the Naif area was a busy area which was visited by a large number of shoppers. However, he said only three pedestrians had been killed in car accidents during the past two years. He attributed the low toll to police efforts in spreading awareness and educating through various campaigns. The General Department of Traffic had issued 41,000 traffic fines to pedestrians who crossed roads from non-designated areas. While drivers would be fined for not stopping for pedestrians, Al Zafin warned pedestrians would also be fined Dh200 for crossing roads at undesignated points. Traffic laws banned pedestrians from crossing roads where the speed limit was more than 80 kilometres an hour, he said. news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Partly cloudy today, says NCMS
Partly cloudy today, says NCMS (Wam) / 4 May 2013 Partly cloudy weather at times is expected today as the amount of clouds will increase at times over some southern & eastern areas, with light to moderate winds that may freshen at times, national forecasters said. Relative humidity will increase during the early morning over some inland areas, with a chance of mist, according to a statement from the National Centre of Meteorology & Seismology (NCMS). East and southeastern winds blowing at 12–22km/hr in the morning and at night are expected to become northwestern and northeastern at 14–8km/hr in the afternoon and evening, it said. The maximum and minimum temperatures expected today are, 36 and 25 degrees Celsius in Abu Dhabi and 37 and 27 degrees Celsius in Dubai. Slight to moderate sea conditions are expected to prevail with waves between 1-2 feet high onshore and 2-4 feet high offshore. Continue reading
UAE blockbusters under one roof
UAE blockbusters under one roof Staff Reporter / 4 May 2013 The UAE’s burgeoning film collection has finally found a permanent home at the UAE National Film Library and Archive (UNFLA) at Zayed University’s state-of-the-art archive centre. The library at the Abu Dhabi campus, the first-of-its-kind in the region, will house all films produced, co-produced and funded by the UAE. The facility was inaugurated by Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, this week. They include Emirati films that have won a place at the Dubai International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Emirates Film Competition, Gulf Film Festival and Zayed University Middle East Film Festival. “So much of a nation’s history is wrapped in its films…Many countries have lost their films due to misplacement, accidents and wear and tear of time. This library, with the help of its supporters, guarantees that this will not be the fate of the UAE’s rapidly developing film history,” said project director and assistant professor at ZU Alia Yunis. Efforts to collect the films began just over a year ago, with a catalogue database developed by one of the principal investigators, festival programmer Ozge Calafato. The collection and preservation of the films also involved over 15 research assistants, mostly ZU undergraduate students. “It has been a wonderful experience for us to see how many Emirati filmmakers have been committed to supporting us, including Nawaf Al Janahi, the director of Sea Shadow, Khalid Al Mahmoud, the director of Sabeel and Mostafa Ali, the director of City of Life.” The current catalogue includes over 500 titles, both short and feature-length films. The library is also a repository for related materials such as scripts, production stills, posters and media coverage, as well as movies from the UAE’s major film festivals. The films will not be allowed out of the library nor will they be available for public screenings, except with the written permission of the rights holders. The library, which is open by appointment for researchers, is not a lending library. olivia@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
