Tag Archives: opinion
Supervisors on all Dubai school buses from Sept
Supervisors on all Dubai school buses from Sept (Wam) / 5 July 2013 Emirates Transport has announced plans to supply safety supervisors on all public intermediate and secondary level school buses from September onwards. The move comes in order to meet new regulations covering student transport in the emirate. The Federal Transport Services Corporation is in the midst of a drive to recruit 300 school bus supervisors across the country, 200 of which will be deployed in Dubai. Jasim Mohammed Al Sha’er, Manager of the Emirates Transport School Services Centre, said the corporation will provide the new supervisors with full job training covering transport and safety issues, as well as child-handling skills. Al Sha’er said the latest recruitment drive aims to boost the student transport services provided by Emirates Transport to schools throughout the country. Continue reading
Five arrested in girl’s pesticide death in Sharjah
Five arrested in girl’s pesticide death in Sharjah Afkar Abdullah / 4 July 2013 The Sharjah Police have arrested five persons in connection with the death of an 11-year-old Iraqi girl and hospitalisation of her mother and brother and another family in the latest pesticide poisoning case. Medical reports said that the medical tests of the patients and the proof gathered from the apartments in a building where these families live reveal that the cause was the inhalation of an illegal aluminium phosphide brand called Phostoxin. While the girl’s mother is still in the hospital, an Emirati family living on the 12 th floor of the same building is currently under medical observation. The police have not given details of the arrested suspects though they confirmed that the watchman of the building had arranged the pesticide tablets from his acquaintances for a tenant who placed them in different corners of his flat on the 12 th floor of the building on June 27 evening. On June 29 evening, a woman and her 11-year-old daughter, Farah Ebrahim, were admitted in the ICU of Al Qasimi Hospital in a critical condition. Doctors first suspected that it was a case of food poisoning but upon medical examination, the cases were diagnosed as toxic chemical poisoning. The Sharjah Police received a phone call the next day, reporting that a family was brought to the hospital suffering from acute symptoms of poisoning. Farah died on Monday morning due to heart failure. Dr Saqer Al Mualla, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Plastic Surgery, Al Qasimi Hospital, said the mother and her daughter were first hospitalised with symptoms such as stomach pain on June 28. The mother was released on her own will but she returned with her family members to the hospital the very next day in a worsened health condition. “In case of a pesticide poisoning, the situation is unpredictable and it could result in heart failure as the muscle cells die and cause weakening of heart functioning, and kidneys and lungs could be the last organs affected. The girl died due to heart failure on Monday morning. The woman is still in coma while all other family members are well but under continuous observation,” said Dr Al Mualla. “This pesticide is usually imported from Asian countries like India, Pakistan and China. They are in the form of tablets and are used to eradicate insects.” Based on what was mentioned by the hospital, the police launched an investigation into the circumstances leading to the incident. Management’s fault A team of senior police officers, forensic experts and general health inspector Yaser Bakhet of the Sharjah Municipality went to the family’s flat. The team smelt a strong odour emanating from the apartment. Colonel Dr Sami Al Halyan of the Forensic Department suspected a chemical used illegally as a pesticide behind the odour. This was confirmed by the findings of Dr Moutisim Ibrahim Suleyman Al Qasim, poison and toxic expert with the Sharjah Police. After inspecting the scene and questioning the watchman and management officials of the building, and a number of government officials from departments responsible for residential affairs, the police found out that the pesticide was sprayed not on the 11 th floor where the family lived but on the 12 th floor. Watchman supplies tablets The Indian tenant of an apartment on the 12 th floor said his family had been fighting insects for a long time. Both he and the building’s watchman told the police that the building’s management was contacted and the tenant was advised to deal with the pests himself despite the fact that the management of each building is supposed to have arrangements with an authorised pest control company to protect tenants. The tenant enquired with the watchman about the possible ways for purchasing pesticides. Finally, the watchman offered to get him the required pesticide, which he bought from acquaintances. The sellers, with full knowledge of the extent of the pesticide’s toxicity, sold it to the watchman for Dh75 and the watchman sold the same to the tenant for Dh200. How it happened Findings of Lieutenant Ahmed Al Hamadi, Head of the Print and Publishing Department at the Sharjah Police, and Dr Moutisim Al Qasim, said the inexperienced tenant treated his apartment with the pesticides on June 27, placing two tablets in each room to get rid of the insects. However, the police and forensic team found 18 to 20 tablets of the banned aluminium phosphide brand in the flat. The poison from the tablets reached the apartment of the Iraqi family on the 11 th floor in the form of gas — as aluminium phosphide turns into phosphane gas when it comes in contact with humidity in four hours — through the ventilation pipes and an exhaust hole located in the kitchen. Phosphane is a colourless, flammable and toxic gas. Lieutenant Al Hamadi said: “This toxic pesticide has approximately six to seven commercial names. In this case, we identified it through its typical chemical formula that defines it as a toxic pesticide. This pesticide, once turns into the gaseous form, is uncontrollable. For example, the use of two-three tablets is enough to eradicate all insects and five tonnes of grains.” An Emirati family living on the 12 th floor was also affected and they are currently under medical observation. Al Hamadi stated: “Pesticide companies is controlled by the municipality under strict regulations. Toxic pesticides which are not legal are not supposed to be used by these companies. “Our investigations are currently focusing on the ventilation system in the building to ascertain whether it is possible to evacuate people through the units if needed.” Open doors, go out The Sharjah Police have called on residents to immediately open doors in case of such an incident, come out to an open area rich in oxygen and call the paramedics and police immediately on 999. Additionally, providing the police with any information which would save people, especially children who are prone to being affected the most, will be greatly appreciated. afkarali@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Army ousts, detains Mursi
Army ousts, detains Mursi (AFP) / 4 July 2013 Egypt’s army ousted and detained the president Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday after a week of deadly clashes and mass protests calling for him to go after a year in office. His defence minister, armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, announced Mursi’s overthrow on state television, even as police began rounding up key Mursi aides and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Warrants have been issued for the arrest of a total of 300 Brotherhood officials, state media reported. The news that Mursi had been forced out drew a rapturous reception from thousands of protesters camped out on the streets of Cairo for days, some of whom celebrated with fireworks. But at least seven of Mursi’s supporters were killed in clashes with security forces in Alexandria and the eastern city of Marsa Matrouh, security officials said. Mursi and his senior aides were placed “under house arrest” in a military facility, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member said. The ousted president was later taken to the defence ministry, Gehad El Haddad added. His father, Essam El Haddad, a senior Mursi aide, is one of those detained. Mursi issued a defiant call for his supporters to defend his elected “legitimacy” in a prerecorded speech that appeared online after Sisi’s statement. Thousands of his supporters remained camped out in northern Cairo, but Egyptian television stations stopped broadcasting live feeds of the pro-Mursi rally after the military announced his overthrow. US President Barak Obama said he was “deeply concerned” over Mursi’s ouster and called on the army to refrain to “arbitrary arrests” of Mursi and his supporters. In May, Washington approved $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt. That was now under review, said Obama, as he called for a swift return to democratic rule. Police also began arresting leaders of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, an interior ministry general told AFP. Saad Al Katatni, head of Mursi’s Freedom and Justice Party was already in custody , he added. In his speech, Sisi laid out details of the roadmap for a political transition. The armed forces, which had deployed troops and armour across the country, would “remain far away from politics,” he stressed. In the streets of Cairo, the response was immediate. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital to celebrate, cheering, whistling, letting off firecrackers and honking car horns in several hours of celebrations. “It’s a new historical moment. We got rid of Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood,” said one celebrator, Omar Sherif. In an amateur video posted online, Mursi declared: “I am the elected president of Egypt” and urged people to “defend this legitimacy”. Earlier, Mursi’s national security adviser Essam Al Haddad, said on Facebook: “For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let’s call what is happening by its real name: military coup.” But the opposition Congress Party of Amr Mussa insisted “this is not a coup”. Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, came under massive pressure in the run-up to Sunday’s anniversary of his maiden year in office. His opponents accused him of failing the 2011 revolution by concentrating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood. His year in power was marked by a spiralling economic crisis, shortages in fuel and often deadly opposition protests. The embattled 61-year-old had proposed a “consensus government” as a way out of the crisis, the worst since the 2011 uprising that ended three decades of authoritarian rule by Hosni Mubarak. But it failed to satisfy his critics and the army stepped in. Its commander named the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Al Mansour, as interim leader of the Arab world’s most populous country. Mansour, a previously little known judge, is expected to be sworn in on Thursday. Opposition leader Mohamed El Baradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, sat beside army chief Sisi as he announced on state television that Mursi’s rule was over. So too did the heads of the Coptic Church and Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning. The choreography was designed to show broad civilian support for the military’s move against Mursi. It was a heavy blow to Mursi’s supporters, who a year ago saw his election as president one of the key achievements of the 2011 revolution. Already, the security forces had shut down broadcasts from a Muslim Brotherhood television channel, a Mursi aide told AFP. Continue reading
