Tag Archives: entertainment
Dubai resident kills deadly snake at home
Dubai resident kills deadly snake at home Amanda Fisher / 19 June 2013 In the last month, Adnan Farhat has faced a house fire, an excess load of unwanted whiteware deliveries and he has now had to kill a deadly snake. Khaleej Times wrote about the Al Warqa resident last week after he was inundated by deliveries for unsolicited goods. While those have now stopped, the drama has continued, when about 7pm on Monday evening, as he was in the garden with his family, he noticed a snake slithering up the stairs into his house. Farhat said he grabbed two brooms and cornered the snake, identified by Dubai Municipality Wildlife and Zoo specialist Dr Reza Khan as a saw-scaled viper — the most deadly in the country. Khan said it was “very rare” to find one of these snakes in human dwellings, with the non-venomous hissing sand snake a much more common discovery. “I held it (with a broom) and used the other one to hit it, but no matter how hard I was hitting, it was still trying to attack me…it was jumping, but it was killed eventually,” Farhat said, estimating the whole episode lasted about five minutes. Farhat, who said the snake was only about 45 centimetres long but very aggressive, said he had been scared to tackle the snake but he did not have any other option. “I didn’t lose my nerve. My kids and wife were around and they were all scared. I was the only one who could handle it, if I let it go, then it could go into the garden and become a bigger threat for us as well as our neighbours.” Farhat’s wife and four children, aged between eight and 17, were worried overnight as they had read online that other snakes would use their strong sense of smell and go to the location of a dead or wounded snake. “We did not know what to do after we killed it — if there’s one there maybe more around it, you never know.” When he spoke with the municipality officials on Monday evening, they had told him they would come to the house to inspect it and spray the area with a deterrent. By Tuesday evening no one had appeared and if they did not, he said he would contract a private company in an effort to keep any future stray snake from wandering in. “Some relatives, when I was moving to this area, warned me there could be snakes but I didn’t believe them…but now I believe it.” Farhat said for now he and his family were hoping the next drama to hit would be a positive one. Khan said while it was rare to hear of a snake being found in a house, those who lived in areas such as Al Khawaneej, Mirdif, Mushrif, Al Awir and areas beyond Jumeirah and the Mall of the Emirates “could expect a snake or two once in a while,” as these areas were built in their former habitat. “These (areas) were snake country during the 1990s.” There was also a seasonal pattern, with snakes moving from the sparse vegetation of the desert to human habitations in semi-desert areas with the advent of summer. However, there had not been a noticeable number of snake finds recently and sightings appeared to be becoming less frequent, he said. “In general, snake numbers are going down because human habitations or urbanisation takes over the land once occupied by snakes.” How to handle a snake Dubai Municipality Wildlife and Zoo specialist Dr Reza Khan advised anyone who found a snake in or near their homes to attempt to kill it with a strong stick. However, he underscored no one should kill snakes that are found in the desert, which is their natural habitat. Khan also requested people to take photos of the snakes and send them over to him through the municipality at info@dm.gov.ae , so he can identify the snakes. news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Shaikh Mohammed takes trophy at Royal Ascot
Shaikh Mohammed takes trophy at Royal Ascot (Wam) / 19 June 2013 His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai was crowned winner of the mile G1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, Britain on Tuesday. Trained by Jim Bolger, Kevin Manning led Godolphin’s Dawn Approach to win the 350 thousand- dramatic race by a short-head. Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai; Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE minister of Finance; Princess Haya Bint Hussein, wife of Shaikh Mohammed; Queen Elizabeth of Britain, and other members of the British Royal family were also present. Continue reading
G8 calls for urgent Syria peace talks despite Russia split
G8 calls for urgent Syria peace talks despite Russia split (AFP) / 19 June 2013 G8 leaders called for a peace conference on Syria to be held as soon as possible but deep divisions remained as Russia stood by its embattled Middle East ally. At the end of two days of tough talks in Northern Ireland, the leaders agreed to push for a transitional government in Syria that could include members of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime who switched sides. The Syria crisis overshadowed a deal by the world’s leading industrialised nations gathered on the picturesque banks of Lough Erne to crack down on tax evasion and share more cross-border financial information. British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted the leaders had forged a strong agreement on Syria despite a split with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but their closing statement was short on concrete steps. Cameron, the summit host, said Assad could not join a transitional administration after the deaths of 93,000 people and what Western nations say is the use of chemical weapons. The G8 communique pointedly made no reference to him however in an apparent concession to Moscow, Assad’s chief arms supplier. The statement said only that the transitional body should be “formed by mutual consent”. The G8 harked back to the chaos after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, saying that Syrian military and security services “must be preserved and restored” in a future set-up. The leaders did not suggest a date for the proposed Syria peace talks, which were supposed to take place this month in Geneva to follow up on a similar meeting last year but have already been delayed. They did however urge Syria to admit chemical weapons investigators and say they were “deeply concerned” by the threat of extremism among the rebels. The Syria conflict has sparked fears of a new cold war with Washington saying last week that it would start arming the rebels against the Russian-backed Syrian regime. Putin, who had an icy confrontation with US President Barack Obama on Monday, was in defiant mood after the summit, saying that Russia would not rule out new arms supplies. He denied however that he had felt frozen out of the summit by the G8, to which Russia was only admitted in 1998 and said that “not a single time did it happen that Russia was left alone in defending its approach to the solution of the Syrian problem”. British officials pointed to Cameron’s efforts to win over Putin in the run-up to the summit, including travelling for talks with the Russian president in Sochi in May. The Black Sea resort will host the next G8 summit on June 4-5, 2014. The G8 nations pledged almost $1.5 billion (1.1 billion euros) in humanitarian aid for refugees inside and outside Syria, including $300 million from the United States and 200 million euros from Germany. French President Francois Hollande meanwhile said that Iranian president-elect Hassan Rohani would be welcome at the Syria peace talks “if he can be useful.” The G8 leaders were more united on tax, vowing concrete steps to target not only illegal tax evasion but also tax avoidance by multinational companies that costs taxpayers billions in lost revenues. And they agreed to stamp out the payment of ransoms for hostages kidnapped by “terrorists”, and called on companies to follow their lead in refusing to pay for the release of their employees. On tax, Cameron heralded a commitment in the declaration to fight the “scourge” of tax evasion and to promote corporate transparency. But activists said the deal came up short. Alex Wilks, campaign director at global civic organisation Avaaz said opposition from Canada and Germany “blocked the strong deal the world demanded.” Hollande said the deal was a “big step forward” but admitted: “We wanted to go even further.” The summit also saw the launch of formal negotiations on a vast trade pact between the United States and the European Union. The meeting was guarded by 8,000 police officers in the biggest security operation ever mounted in Northern Ireland’s troubled history, but protesters were thin on the ground. The G8 brings together Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Continue reading
