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Cannons ready in nine Sharjah locations
Cannons ready in nine Sharjah locations Afkar Abdullah (afkarali@khaleejtimes.com) / 8 July 2013 The Sharjah Police have placed cannons in nine locations in the city to be fired to announce the Iftar time during the holy month of Ramadan. The locations are: near Sharjah Cultural Palace, Al Juraina, near Al Sari Mosque, Al Nour Mosque at Sharjah Waterfront, Al Mirgab, Musallah Al Badee in Al Talla, Bukhari Mosque at Khorfakkan Corniche, Tarif Mosque in Kalbam and near Al Dhaid police station. Speaking to Khaleej Times, a top police officer said that firing cannons to announce the Iftar time was an old custom followed by Arab and Muslim countries. A large number of people, including non-Muslims of various nationalities, gather near the cannons to enjoy the proceedings. Police patrols provide free Iftar to the gathering watching the firing of cannons. He explained that the tradition of firing cannons dated back to the early days of Islam, when it was decided that a cannon should be installed at the highest points of every city so that all Muslims could hear the shot signalling the time to end fast each day. In the UAE, this custom started in Sharjah in 1803, during the rule of Sultan bin Saqr. The Imams were instructed by the Ruler not to call for Iftar until they heard the cannon shot. The timing was determined by the Ruler upon the recommendation from a group of religious scholars. The firing of the cannon became the responsibility of the Sharjah Police later, and has remained under their supervision until now. Historically, military cannons were used. These have now been replaced with sonic cannons. Today, there is no practical reason for firing a cannon, but it is still continued in an effort to preserve the tradition. The Ramadan cannon has become symbolic and an integral part of the UAE tradition. The cannon firing team consists of one sergeant, one traffic officer and three soldiers. They arrive about an hour before sunset. A soldier loads a blank charge into the cannon and sets the safety switch to prevent any mishaps. A few minutes before the cannon is fired, a huge crowd gathers around the cannon to witness the firing, before going to the mosque to break their fast and pray. They wave to the cameras and call their friends and family at home to watch them live on TV. The Sharjah Government also provides Iftar meals to people who come to witness the cannon firing. The officer urged the people coming together to watch the cannon firing not to park their vehicles in the middle of the road leading to traffic jams. Continue reading
Egypt’s new president asserts authority
Egypt’s new president asserts authority (AP) / 7 July 2013 Egypt’s new president moved to assert his authority and regain control of the streets Saturday even as his opponents declared his powers illegitimate and issued blood oaths to reinstate Mohammed Mursi, whose ouster by the military has led to duelling protests and deadly street battles between rival sides. But underscoring the sharp divisions facing the untested leader, Adly Mansour, his office said pro-reform leader Mohamed El Baradei had been named as interim prime minister but later backtracked on the decision saying consultations were continuing. Mansour’s administration, meanwhile, has begun trying to dismantle Mursi’s legacy. He replaced Mursi’s intelligence chief and the presidential palace’s chief of staff. Prosecutors, meanwhile, ordered four detained stalwarts of Mursi’s Brotherhood held for 15 days pending an investigation into the shooting deaths of eight protesters last week. No major violence was reported between supporters and opponents of Mursi as the two sides sought to regroup after a night of fierce clashes that turned downtown Cairo into a battlefield. Clashes were also fierce in the port city of Alexandria, where thousands from both sides fought each other with automatic rifles, firebombs and clubs. Friday’s violence left 36 dead, taking to at least 75 the number of people killed since the unrest began on June 30, when millions of protesters took to the streets on the anniversary of Mursi’s inauguration as Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Mursi, a U.S.-trained engineer who was widely accused by critics of monopolizing power for himself and the Brotherhood as well as his failure to implement democratic and economic reforms, remained under detention in an undisclosed location. “El-Sissi is a traitor,” declared an English language banner bearing an image of the army’s chief and hoisted by Mursi’s supporters. Setting up another showdown, the youth opposition group behind the series of mass protests that led to Mursi’s ouster called on Egyptians to take to the streets on Sunday to show support for the new order. Mansour, 67, the former chief justice of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court who was installed by the military as an interim leader, is little-known in international circles and the choice of El Baradei would have given his administration a prominent global face to make its case to Washington and other Western allies trying to reassess policies. But news of El Baradei’s appointment, which was reported by the state news agency MENA and others, proved divisive. The 71-year-old Nobel laureate was an inspiring figure to the youth groups behind the 2011 revolution that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak as well as the uprising against Mursi. His appointment as prime minister would cement Mansour’s support among the young anti-Mursi protesters. Mansour’s spokesman Ahmed el Musalamani denied that the appointment of the former U.N. nuclear negotiator was ever certain. However, reporters gathered at the presidential palace ahead of his news conference were told earlier that the president would arrive shortly to announce it. The dispute over El Baradei underlines the fragmentation of Egypt’s politics as the country continues to be roiled by bout after bout of unrest and violence since Mubarak’s ouster. The 2011 uprising opened the way for the political rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was long suppressed by Mubarak’s Western-backed regime, and Mursi was elected last year by a narrow margin. The fundamentalist movement swiftly rejected El Baradei’s appointment. The Brotherhood has vowed to boycott the political process, saying the military manoeuvre was a coup that overturned a democratically elected government. “Now it’s clear that the Mubarak regime has the upper hand,” Brotherhood spokesman Ahmed Aref alleged. “We cannot accept the strategy of arm twisting; we cannot accept the authority being snatched by force,” he told The AP. The group’s powerful deputy Khairat el-Shater, former leader Mahdi Akef, Rashad Bayoumi and Saad el-Ketatni have been accused of inciting violence against protesters in Cairo. The silver-haired new president, meanwhile, insisted national reconciliation was his top priority. Continue reading
Two dead, 181 hurt in San Francisco air crash
Two dead in Asiana air crash (Reuters) / 7 July 2013 An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 with 307 people on board crashed and burst into flames as it landed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight from Seoul, and initial reports said two people were killed and more than 130 sent to hospitals. After approaching the airport across San Francisco Bay, the plane appeared to strike the edge of the approach area of the runway. The tail came off and the aircraft left a trail of debris before coming to rest beside the runway. One survivor said the pilot seemed to be trying to gain height just before the aircraft struck the runway. There was no immediate indication of the cause of the crash and federal officials were traveling from Washington to investigate. Pictures taken by survivors immediately after the crash showed passengers emerging from the wrecked plane and hurrying away. TV footage later showed the fuselage of the Boeing 777 blackened by fire and the interior apparently gutted. Asiana Airlines said the flight, which had originated in Shanghai, had carried 291 passengers and 16 crew members. San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanna Hayes-White said two people were killed and 130 were taken to hospitals. A total of 69 people were still unaccounted for, as officials tracked down the passengers in the confusion after the crash. Rachael Kagan, a spokeswoman for San Francisco General Hospital, said 15 injured people were being treated there and 10 were in critical condition with burns, fractures and internal injuries. She said most of them spoke only Korean. Aircraft’s tail broke off Images on television station KTVU in San Francisco showed emergency chutes had been deployed from at least two of the aircraft’s exits. Survivor Benjamin Levy told local a local NBC station by phone that he believed the plane had been coming in too low. “I know the airport pretty well, so I realized the guy was a bit too low, too fast, and somehow he was not going to hit the runway on time, so he was too low … he put some gas and tried to go up again,” he said. “But it was too late, so we hit the runway pretty bad, and then we started going up in the air again, and then landed again, pretty hard,” Levy said. He said he opened an emergency door and ushered people out. “We got pretty much everyone in the back section of the plane out,” he said. “When we got out there was some smoke. There was no fire then, the fire came afterward.” Ying Kong, of Albany, New York, who was waiting at the airport for her brother-in-law, Fawen Yan, 47, from Richmond, California, said he telephoned her after surviving the crash to say it had been “really smoky and scary.” “He feels it difficult to breathe, but he’s okay,” she said. She added: “He said a lot of people had to run. He said some people got hurt.” Air traffic halted Air traffic at the airport was halted immediately after the crash, which took place under sunny skies with only a slight breeze, but flights resumed on two runways several hours later. The Asiana flight departed from Seoul at 5:04 p.m. Korean time and touched down in San Francisco at 11:28 a.m PDT, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flights. The flight lasted 10 hours and 24 minutes, it said. Asiana Airlines said the passengers included 141 Chinese, 77 South Koreans and 61 U.S. citizens. It did not give the nationality of the others. Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency was sending a team of investigators to San Francisco and that it is too early to determine the cause of the crash. “We will be looking at everything,” she told reporters. “Everything is on the table. We have to gather the facts before we reach any conclusions.” She was speaking at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington. The FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said her agency was also sending investigators. Boeing expressed concern for those on board the flight and added that it will provide technical assistance to the NTSB as it investigates the accident. Continue reading
