NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Etisalat manager accused of embezzling millions

DUBAI - SEP. 09: An Etisalat payroll manager has been accused of embezzling Dh27m (US$7.4m) from the company over more than two years.

The telecommunications firm yesterday confirmed it was investigating the case and Dubai Police said they were awaiting the results of that internal inquiry before making arrests.

It was not known whether more than one person was thought to be involved.

The woman, identified only as FM, was in charge of the payroll at one of Etisalat’s branches and is believed by the company to have orchestrated the transfer of money to several local bank accounts.

Etisalat and the police were alerted to the transfers by the banks, who noticed that, besides her salary, large amounts of money were being deposited. On occasions the amounts were more than Dh2m, although in other instances only a few thousand dirhams were being moved into accounts.

An Etisalat spokesman, Ahmed bin Ali, said all the money had been recovered. The woman was removed from her position and interviewed by a committee of senior Etisalat managers, who will give their findings to police.

Dubai Police said they would not comment officially because there were no criminal proceedings in the case.

However, one officer said they were alerted when banks began noticing large amounts. “Once they were at Dh2m, then the banks uncovered the problem. There were discrepancies before, but that amount being deposited without reason cannot be ignored.”

Etisalat would not expand on the case yesterday. Police sources last night confirmed the woman is a UAE national.

Dubai struggles with traffic

DUBAI - SEP. 09: Thousands of commuters have been stuck in almost endless traffic jams in the last few days as the combined effects of roadworks, Ramadan and the start of the school year brought chaos on the streets of Dubai.

In the Greens and Al Barsha areas of “new Dubai”, traffic has been backed up for several kilometres and the gridlock worsened yesterday as motorists tried in vain to find less congested routes through nearby neighbourhoods.

Some reported being stuck in underground car parks for 20 minutes before they could start their journey.

Twenty minutes into his journey to work yesterday, South African engineer Larry McGuinness had only moved a few hundred metres from his home in the Greens, a residential community swamped by hordes of commuters from the new end of Dubai.

“There were security guards out trying to direct the traffic, but they weren’t having much success,” Mr McGuinnesss said. “There are just far too many cars trying to go through there on to Sheikh Zayed Road. It took more than an hour to get to work in Bur Dubai, and most of that time was spent just trying to get out of the Greens.”

Traffic heading into Dubai is being forced into a single lane leaving the Greens, and with commuters from other areas joining in, the small streets cannot cope.

“I sat for 10 minutes just waiting to leave the underground car park on Sunday,” said Daniel Brown, an accountant who lives in the Greens.

“There was a solid line of cars on the street outside, and nobody would give way. Eventually a guy who was in front of me waiting to leave the car park had to go and ask one of the drivers to give us room to get out.”

A spokesman for Emaar, the developer which owns the Greens, the Springs, the Lakes and the Meadows, blamed a combination of construction work, changed working hours during Ramadan, and the start of the school year for the chaos.

“With construction work under way on the roads parallel to Sheikh Zayed Road, several drivers are using the road network within The Springs and The Greens communities to access Sheikh Zayed Road,” he said.

“Also, the change in office and school timings during Ramadan has also resulted in added traffic. Emaar is undertaking measures to ease traffic congestion by restricting the tendency of drivers to use the road network of the residential communities for accessing Sheikh Zayed Road. More security personnel have also been assigned to regulate the traffic flow and for guiding drivers.”

A spokeswoman for the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said additional traffic was normal at certain times during Ramadan, but she was unable to say when the construction work affecting the flow of cars would end.

Maj Faisal Essa, from the Dubai Police Traffic Department, said officers were on the lookout for bad driving by people frustrated with delays. “We know it can be frustrating, but that is no excuse to jump red lights or ignore other traffic laws,” he said. “We have started a campaign against this kind of behaviour, and I think people realise we are strict.”

As part of an effort to ease congestion right along Sheikh Zayed Road, RTA officials said two new toll gates near Al Safa, on Sheikh Zayed Road, and Al Maktoum Bridge would be activated from today.

Salah al Marzouqi, Director of RTA Intelligent Traffic Systems Department, said the new toll gate on Al Maktoum Bridge will be free of charge while the Floating Bridge is closed from 10 pm to 6 am.

Website tackles breast health

ABU DHABI - SEP. 09: A website to give women advice and information on breast cancer and other related illnesses has been set up a by a leading surgeon in the field.

Dr Arati Shirali said ignorance, fear and embarrassment surrounding breast cancer in Middle Eastern cultures prompted her to start the resource, believed to be the first UAE-based website of its kind.

“I have had several unique experiences of breast diseases and cancer in young women, pregnant women and with women who have been traumatised by the social pressures of even discussing the disease,” Dr Shirali said. “Some women have been socially ostracised, some have had marriage proposals for their daughters turned down.

“Ignorance of the disease and cultural pressures make society conclude that the presentation of a breast disease implies the woman has breast cancer.”

The site, beautybeyondbreast.com, includes an e-mail system that women can use to ask questions they may be too embarrassed or afraid to ask their own doctors.

Dr Shirali has been a breast surgeon for 10 years and helped set up the breast unit at Al Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi.

She also wants to set up a support group to help teach women how to examine their breasts, and also provide advice for women who have breast cancer and other breast-related conditions.

She said one of the biggest problems in the UAE is a general lack of awareness about breast illnesses.

“As soon as someone notices or feels a change they immediately panic and think cancer,” Dr Shirali said. “I want women to be less afraid and to understand more.

“A lump in the breast does not always mean cancer. The more we talk about this, and the more information which is available means more women will know that if they look after themselves and their own health, a lot of the problems can be dealt with.”

According to the National Cancer Registry, based at Tawam Hospital in Al Ain, 22.8 per cent of diagnosed cancer cases among women in the UAE are breast cancer, making it the country’s most common cancer.

It is estimated that only 30 per cent of women in the UAE diagnosed with breast cancer are in early stages of the disease, when the chances of a cure are significantly higher and treatment much less invasive.

The average age of diagnosis among Emiratis is 40 to 45, 10 years younger than the European median and about 20 years below that in the US.

Brigitte Chemla, a general manager of a health insurance company in Dubai, was diagnosed with breast cancer last October. She said anything that raises awareness and gets people talking about breast cancer and its signs is a good thing.

“Awareness is the top subject,” she said.

“Being able to speak about it with our daughters, and speak about it with our friends and neighbours and work colleagues is very important.

“I think having a website based in the UAE which takes into account the culture is great. If it is culturally aware it is very good.”

The UAE is participating in an international campaign, the Global Initiative for Breast Cancer Awareness, established by the US-based Susan G Komen for the Cure foundation. Other participants include Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Ghana, India, Jordan, Ukraine and Mexico.

Experts including Dr Shirali say that one of the main reasons for the late diagnosis and lack of awareness is a cultural taboo.

“In the western world, 80 to 90 per cent of cases of cancer are detected by hand, but if people here do not like to self-examine and talk about this, the cancers may not be caught soon like they are elsewhere,” she said.

Dr Shirali, who is based at the Lifeline Hospital, has tried to make her website as user-friendly as possible, while covering sensitive topics such as lactation.

“I want women to take their health into their own hands. There is no one better to rely on to save a life than yourself,” she said.

“I want older and younger women to use the site as a resource to learn about how important it is to know their own bodies and not be afraid to seek advice or help.”

Crisis looms in Sharjah

Sharjah - Sep. 09: Sharjah is facing a looming waste-disposal crisis that can be averted only by increased emphasis on recycling schemes, educating consumers and the introduction of dumping fees, says the man charged with managing the emirate’s main landfill site.

Every day, as many as 900 lorries deliver between 8,500 and 10,000 tonnes of waste to the site, midway between Sharjah City and the inland town of Al Dhaid on the E88 highway. Occasionally, says Reinhard Goschl, general director of Emirates Environmental Technology, a company that manages the facility on behalf of Sharjah Municipality, the daily tonnage is as high as 14,000 tonnes.

Since the site was opened in 1991, the daily consignments of demolition rubble, household rubbish, old tyres and chemicals have been heaped into what has become a minor mountain of waste.

Sharjah’s problem is a microcosm of the crisis facing the entire UAE as the nation’s rapid expansion continues. In July, Abu Dhabi announced it was planning to clean up six sprawling landfill sites on the edge of the city, where years of uncontrolled dumping were threatening to lead to widespread pollution.

Emirates Environmental Technology took over the running of the Sharjah site in June 2006, days after hundreds of thousands of tyres at the site caught fire. In May it opened the first of what will be a series of “cell” storage units; it is 12 metres deep and has a capacity of 3.1 million cubic metres – equivalent to 1,240 Olympic-size swimming pools. Such is the volume of material, however, that the first cell will soon be full.

“We are now standing on four or five metres of waste,” said Klaus Leirer, the company’s project manager, stepping out of his vehicle in the middle of the cell. Once the cell has been filled to “point zero” – ground level – the rubbish hill will be allowed to grow to between 20 and 30 metres high before the cell is closed.

“This should be enough for the next 18 months; the amount of waste we receive is very high,” said Mr Leirer.

Not counting construction waste, which accounts for 60 per cent of all rubbish received at the site, if the amount of household and industrial waste going into the landfill is divided by the number of people the facility serves, each person is responsible for three kilograms a day.

In Austria, Mr Goschl’s and Mr Leirer’s homeland, per capita waste generation is less than one kilogram per day.

Mr Goschl believes one way to reduce the volume of waste in the emirate is to introduce tipping fees for the commercial generators of waste. At the moment, charges are made only for hazardous waste and that generated in the emirate’s free zones, while all others dumping rubbish face only the cost of transportation.

“Two or three years after a fee is introduced, the attitude towards waste will change completely,” he said. “Now, the Government is subsidising everybody.”

The question of fees has been discussed by decision-makers in Sharjah and the rest of the country, but no action has been taken. Yet in addition to encouraging waste generators to take measures to reduce the amount of rubbish they produce, said Mr Goschl, fees would also generate funds for recycling facilities, which in turn would reduce the amount of waste heading for landfill.

Humaid al Mualla, project engineer at Sharjah Municipality, blames the large amount of waste on a lack of awareness among residents. “To educate people here, it will take a long time,” he said.

Some recycling initiatives are under way. Since November 2007, Emirates Environmental Technology has been operating a Dh40 million plant recycling construction waste. In one nine-hour shift it can process 9,000 tonnes of waste – a figure set to double next month when another shift is to be introduced – and produces aggregate that can be used to build roads and make cement and bricks.

Sharjah Municipality also operates a tyre-recycling plant, but its capacity is smaller than the volume of tyres arriving at the landfill.

Another material with good potential for salvage is timber, 200 tonnes of which arrive at the site every day. It accounts for only 2.2 per cent of all the waste received at the landfill, but currently some 500,000 cubic metres of wood are stored there. According to Mr Goschl, two private companies have expressed interest in re-using the timber – one wanted to make boards for the construction industry, the other was interested in developing lightweight “bricks”. A decision on how to use the wood is expected within six months.

Another urgent issue facing the municipality is the safety of its waste mountain. The landfill’s new cell, lined to prevent toxic waste leaching into the surrounding soil and groundwater, complies with modern health and safety standards. But the eight million cubic metres of existing waste does not.

Improvements could also be made to the way hazardous waste is managed, admits Mr Leirer. In one small area of the landfill, the management keeps a load of barrels filled with chemicals. Many were found discarded in the desert and brought to the landfill by municipal workers. A guard has been mounted over the barrels, but the hot desert climate is a far from ideal environment for potentially combustible materials.

The majority of the site’s hazardous waste consists of sludge from the oil industry, contaminated soil and residue from the perfume industry. In July alone, the landfill received almost 1,000 tonnes of this cocktail, said Mr Goschl.

“We have it under control but we know it is not the best way,” he said. He had submitted a proposal to the municipality for the construction of a treatment plant that could neutralise the waste, allowing it to be stored in a separate landfill. If approval was given, he said, it could be up and running within two years.

Singer received death threats

Dubai - Sep. 09: The Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim reported threats on her life to police in the UK months before she was found stabbed to death in Dubai, raising questions about whether more could have been done to protect her.

Tamim, 31, who lived in London for 18 months before she was murdered, reported the “threats to kill” to the Metropolitan Police as long as a year ago, a spokesman for the force confirmed yesterday.

She is said to have been routinely followed, harassed and subjected to telephone threats while living in London.

Tamim was found dead in the living room of her flat in Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach Residence on July 28 with multiple knife wounds to her face and body, just days after she had moved to the UAE from London.

When asked if more could have been done by the authorities to prevent her death, the Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force was satisfied it had “thoroughly investigated the matter brought to us”.

“The murder didn’t occur in London, it occurred abroad. No offences were discovered within our jurisdiction,” he added.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa, 48, a prominent figure in Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party and a member of the Shura Council, has been charged with paying US$2 million (Dh7.35m) to a hitman to have the singer murdered.

Mohsen al Sokari, a former Egyptian police officer who has been charged with the stabbing, is believed to have followed the singer from London to Dubai.

In an interview with London’s Sunday Times, Riyadh al Azzawi, an Iraqi kick-boxing champion who lived with Tamim in London and claims to have married her, said the police failed to act decisively when the couple reported the incidents.

“I was there to protect her, but was doing it all by myself,” he told the newspaper. “I didn’t get any help.”

Mr Azzawi said he believed the threats came from Moustafa, who is believed to have had an affair with the pop star. He said officers arranged for the couple to have a panic alarm installed, and told them to keep in regular touch, but they failed to warn off Moustafa.

“Suzan told me that he had phoned her and said that if she left me and went to marry him he would pay her $50 million. He then said that if she refused he would then kill her with $1 million,” Mr Azzawi said.

On another occasion Moustafa, who is also chairman of Egypt’s largest publicly traded real estate company, phoned the couple’s flat in London’s Knightsbridge district, Mr Azzawi told the newspaper.

“He said, ‘Forget about this girl. I’ll kill her and kill you if you don’t give me the girl’.”

Mr Azzawi provided police with recordings of several of the phone calls, the Sunday Times reported, including one from a man who claimed to be a hitman who had received instructions to kill him, but instead tipped him off when he had decided not to go through with the job.

The Metropolitan Police declined to discuss whether any action was taken to safeguard the star after the report was lodged.

“We never discuss matters of personal protection,” the spokesman said. “No complaints have been made to us about our handling of the matter.”

Sokari and Moustafa are currently awaiting trial in Egypt for the murder. Sokari was arrested by Egyptian police three days after the killing at the request of Dubai Police. He had flown from Dubai to Egypt within two hours of the killing.

The pair initially planned to commit the murder in London, according to recordings of five phone calls between them obtained by an Egyptian newspaper. In the tapes Sokari tells Moustafa he did not get a chance to “do it” in London and would kill Tamim in Dubai, the newspaper said.

Tamim rose to fame after winning a talent contest in Lebanon in 1996. She released several successful albums but her career was overshadowed by stories about her private life.

Although at the time of her death Tamim was still officially married to her estranged husband, Adel Maatouk, her former Lebanese producer, Mr Azzawi said after the killing he was also married to her.

In 2005, she was questioned by Interpol in Egypt over claims that she stole US$350,000 (Dh1.29m) from Mr Maatouk. She later faced allegations in Egypt of being involved in a heroin smuggling ring with her father and was also accused of trying to murder Mr Maatouk after gunmen shot at his car in a Beirut suburb.

Earlier this year Moustafa tried to sue her for the return of millions of dollars worth of gifts he claimed to have given her.