Abu Dhabi:The Emirates Falconers’ Club has announced the launch of the Abu Dhabi Falconry Competition to be held on December 1, 2012. The competition will be held under the patronage of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The competition, to be organised in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Sports Council, will coincide with UAE’s 41st National Day celebrations. The announcement was made at a press conference held in the presence of Mohammad Khalaf Al Mazroui, Advisor for Culture and Heritage in the Court of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Mohammad Ebrahim Al Mahmoud, Secretary General of the Abu...
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Falconry competition announced
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Rusayl fibre optic factory gutted
Muscat: A massive fire gutted Oman Fibre Optic’s (OFO) production plant at the Rusayl Industrial Estate in Muscat on Friday. Fire fighting units from all over Muscat was rushed to contain the fire but due to nature of the material at the factor the fire raged on for hours. Eventually, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) helicopters were used to spray chemicals to put out the fire. The Civil Defence teams were able to limit the damage to the Muscat Security Market-listed Oman Fibre Optic company. Only a small wadi separates OFO from a battery manufacturing unit but fire fighting teams kept the raging fire in check with relentless efforts. Mohammad Harith Al Brashdi, the CEO confirmed that there...
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Fire destroys fibre optics factory in Muscat
Muscat: A massive fire gutted Oman Fibre Optic’s (OFO) production plant at the Rusayl Industrial Estate in Muscat on Friday. Fire fighting units from all over Muscat was rushed to contain the fire but due to nature of the material at the factor the fire raged on for hours. Eventually, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) helicopters were used to spray chemicals to put out the fire. The Civil Defence teams were able to limit the damage to the Muscat Security Market-listed Oman Fibre Optic company. Only a small wadi separates OFO from a battery manufacturing unit but fire fighting teams kept the raging fire in check with relentless efforts. Mohammad Harith Al Brashdi, the CEO confirmed that there were...
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Lebanon PM links car bomb to crisis in Syria
Beirut: Lebanon’s prime minister linked the massive car bomb that tore through Beirut to the civil war in neighbouring Syria on Saturday, the latest signal that the crisis is enflaming an already tense region. The blast Friday in the heart of Beirut’s Christian area killed eight people, including the country’s intelligence chief, Brigadier General Wissam Al Hassan. The government declared a national day of mourning for the victims on Saturday, but protesters took to the streets, burning tyres and setting up roadblocks around the country in a sign of the boiling anger over the bomb. The highway linking central Beirut with the city’s international airport was closed, as...
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Qaboos fires 10 ministers
MUSCAT - A third of Oman's cabinet was replaced by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said on Monday to contain escalating dissent among citizens demanding reforms and better living conditions. Ten ministers were given the marching orders and new faces brought in their places in the biggest single reshuffle of the Council of Ministers in the past 40 years. This is on top of another restructuring on Saturday in which two senior ministers were substituted by new faces. The sultanate has a 30-member cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers Sayyid Fahad bin Mahmood Al...
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Mayawati starts poll drive with attack on Congress
Sitapur: Launching her Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) election campaign yesterday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati attacked the Congress, blaming it for anything that she could not deliver to the people during her five-year rule. Even as she did not spare the Samajwadi Party or the Bharatiya Janata Party from her attacks, it was the Congress that remained her key target throughout the 50-minute-long speech that she read out from a printed text before a large crowd in Sitapur. With Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi having campaigned in the area on Tuesday, Mayawati did not miss the opportunity to run him down. Claiming that her rally drew at least five times the crowd that was...
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One woman, three activists get elected in Oman's Shura council
Muscat: Only one woman succeeded in getting a seat in the 84-member Majlis Asshura even as three protesters were given thumbs up by the voters in Oman during Saturday’s election for the seventh term of the country’s advisory council. Nu'amah Bint Jamayel Al Busaidi was the lone woman winner among 77 candidates across the country, voting for which was reportedly very good although no official statistics stating the percentage of the polling were released. Three protesters were elected, including one from Batinah region, which saw the most intense protests from end of last February. One each was elected from Dhofar and Dhakliya region respectively. Article continues below Taleb Al...
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US envoy arrives in Islamabad for talks with officials
ISLAMABAD: US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman arrived in Islamabad on Saturday for talks with political and military leaders on “issues of bilateral and mutual concern”, officials said. Pakistani and US officials were tight-lipped about the discussions that Grossman will have with officials, but the visit takes place amid growing opposition in the country to continued US drone strikes. “It is a bilateral visit. Mr Grossman will hold talks with political and military leaders and discuss all matters of mutual interests,” US embassy spokeswoman Rian Harris told AFP, without giving further details. Foreign ministry spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan had...
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Dubai to have 105 footbridges by 2016
Dubai: By 2016, Dubai is to have at least 105 pedestrian bridges, up from the 74 footbridges in place now, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has said. The move, officials hope, will help bring down road fatalities, as almost one-third of those who died in road accidents last year were pedestrians - out of 134 deaths, 41 were pedestrians. Of the 31 new footbridges planned over the next five years, the construction of 13 bridges is already underway, Engineer Maitha Bin Udai, Executive Director of the Traffic and Roads Agency at RTA said. “Pedestrian bridges currently being constructed by RTA are spread across various districts of Dubai, including two bridges on Emirates Road, one near...
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UAE, Oman vow to further boost cooperation
Abu Dhabi President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed of Oman yesterday held talks in Al Ain on relations between the UAE and Oman and ways to promote them in various spheres. They exchanged views on the latest regional developments and the march of the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf to realise the aspirations and ambitions of the peoples of member states and to serve matters of common concern. The talks were held in presence of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Shaikh Khalifa hailed Sultan Qaboos' UAE visit to "his second home country as a...
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Mob assaults French reporter in Tahrir Square
Cairo: A French female television reporter was sexually assaulted during a protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, she told AFP on Saturday, the latest in a series of such attacks on women covering unrest in Egypt. Sonia Dridi, a correspondent for France 24, said a mob of mostly young men surrounded her on Friday while she was on the air and then began to grope her. The attack lasted several minutes before a male friend managed to pull her out. “I was groped everywhere. I realised [later], when someone closed my shirt, that it was opened, but not torn off. I avoided the worst because I have a good belt” and a friend helped her out, she said. Dridi said she was filing a police...
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Eid holidays in Oman from Nov 15 to 18
MUSCAT - All private and public sector establishments in Oman will remain closed from November 15 to November...
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Qatar conference to defend Jerusalem status
Manama: Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani will open the International Conference for the Defence of occupied Jerusalem, to be held in Doha next week. The conference will include speeches by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Arab League Secretary-General Nabeel Arabi, Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekme Al Deen Ihsanoglu, and United Nations Coordinator for the peace process in the Middle East Robert Serry. Some 350 figures concerned with the Jerusalem question from Arab, Islamic and foreign countries are expected to attend the conference decided by Resolution 503 issued by the Supreme Council of the Arab League in Sirte, Libya,...
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Oman's Port Sultan Qaboos to be developed as tourist hub
MUSCAT ' In a new boost to Oman's fast-expanding tourism sector, whose contribution to GDP is slated to reach 2.4 per cent in the next nine years, Port Sultan Qaboos, the country's main harbour for import and export of cargo, will be transformed into an exclusive tourist hub. All commercial import, export and container activities will be moved to the Sohar Industrial Port in the Batinah region. The ministries of transport...
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Qaboos receives Iranian Vice-President
Muscat: Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed gave an audience to Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi Monday evening at the Hisn Al Shumoukh in Manah, located about 500km north-west off Muscat. During the audience, a number of aspects of the existing cooperation in various fields between the two countries were discussed. They also talked about joint interests of the Omani and Iranian peoples, as well as means of enhancing existing relations and bonds between the two countries. In addition, they also conferred on a number of issues of common concern in light of the current developments at the regional and international arenas. The audience was attended by Dr. Ahmad Bin Mohammad Al...
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Sultan Qaboos makes more Cabinet changes
Muscat: In a second reshuffle, Omani Ruler Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed has made two major changes to the Council of Ministers on Saturday. While announcing the appointments of new ministers through Royal Decrees, the Omani leader has dropped General Ali Bin Majid Al Maamari as the Royal Office Minister. The new Royal Office Minister is Lt.General Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Numani, who was until this new appointment Secretary General of the Royal Court Affairs. Nasr Bin Hamoud Bin Ahmed Al Kindi will now take over as the new Secretary General of the Royal Court Affairs with a rank of a minister. Article continues below The Sultan has also appointed Khalid Bin Hilal Bin Saud Al Busaidi as the new...
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Shorter working hours for public sector in Ramadan
MUSCAT' Ministries and all other government establishments in Oman will work shorter hours during the holy month of Ramadan. An announcement...
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British Home Secretary in Jordan for Abu Qatada deportation talks
London: British Home Secretary Theresa May was holding talks on Monday in Jordan aimed at overcoming a European ban on deporting a radical cleric to the Arab country. Britain wants to deport Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian preacher described in both Spanish and British courts as a leading Al Qaida figure in Europe and a threat to national security. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in January that Abu Qatada cannot be sent back to Jordan, because of a risk that evidence obtained through torture would be used against him if he is put on trial there. He has previously been convicted in his absence in Jordan of terrorist offences related to two alleged bomb plots in 1999 and...
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Row between tribes in south Oman gets violent
Muscat: A tribal dispute in a region to the south of Oman ended in a clash between two groups on Wednesday, according to a prominent blogger from Salalah who writes under the pseudonym Dhofari Gucci. The violent altercation left at least eight people injured, she said. In her latest post on Friday, she wrote: “In case you hadn’t heard, there were clashes between two tribes in the mountains above Taqah on Wednesday.” Dhofari Gucci, who has shown a knack for reporting sensitive issues without getting caught on the wrong side of the law, wrote that a friend of her happened to be present at the scene and reported the unfolding clash to her. “Groups of men from Al Mahri...
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Oman hands over murder suspect to Pakistan
Muscat: Oman police arrested a 19-year-old fugitive and handed him over to Pakistan recently, according to a Royal Oman Police (ROP) press release. Interpol had issued an alert on the murder suspect on behalf of the Pakistani authorities. ROP only identified the suspect with the initials of his name, while Interpol has put a full description and photograph of the Pakistani accused on its website. The suspect, Sajid Hussain, was hiding in Oman’s southern region of Dhofar after fleeing his hometown to avoid arrest. The Dhofar Criminal Investigation Department after being tipped off by the Interpol in Islamabad, Pakistan, used their local network in the region to arrest the alleged...
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