NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

 
Dubai scientists create first cloned camel and call her Injaz

Injaz was born on April 8. Courtesy The Central Veterinary Research Laboratory

DUBAI - APR 14:Scientists in Dubai have created the world’s first cloned camel, offering a way to preserve special strains for racing and milk production.

The female calf, named Injaz, was born at 4.30pm on April 8 and is healthy so far.

Injaz is the result of five years of work by scientists at the Camel Reproduction Centre and the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) in a project initiated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

“This is the first time scientists have cloned a camel calf,” said Dr Ulrich Wernery, the scientific director at CVRL.

“She is a healthy female.”

The surrogate mother, which carried the embryo for a gestation period of 378 days, was also in good shape, he said.

Dr Lulu Skidmore, the scientific director at the Camel Reproduction Centre, said: “We are all very excited at the birth of Injaz as she is the result of great skill and teamwork of everyone at the Camel Reproduction Centre.

“This significant breakthrough in our research programme gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk-producing camels in the future.”

The project began in 2003 at CVRL, where an Indian scientist, Dr Nisar Wani, under the supervision of Dr Ali Ridha, developed the techniques to produce a “reconstructed embryo” – an embryo carrying the DNA of a single donor animal. The embryo is created in the laboratory using eggs harvested from a female.

Scientists extract the DNA from the egg, replace it with the DNA of an adult animal, and then encourage the egg to develop into an embryo.

The embryo is then inserted into the uterus of a surrogate mother, which, if the procedure is successful, will carry the embryo to full term.

In 2007 Dr Wani moved to the Camel Reproduction Centre, where he worked with Dr Skidmore, an expert in embryo transfer, on implanting reconstructed embryos in surrogate mothers.

Injaz is the clone of a camel that was slaughtered for its meat in 2005, using DNA extracted from cells in the ovaries of that animal.

The DNA was placed in an egg taken from the surrogate mother to create a reconstructed embryo, and the embryo was then implanted in the surrogate mother’s uterus.

Injaz was the only live calf from seven induced pregnancies.

Dr Wernery said the low success rate was typical of cloning, since many of the impregnated animals miscarry.

“This is very typical for cloning, there are many attempts but only one will survive,” he said.

While Injaz was replicated from a camel chosen at random, in future scientists will look into cloning elite racing and milk camels – an idea supported by Sheikh Mohammed.

“We just wanted to establish the method,” Dr Wernery said. “In future we can most probably clone some special animals.”

Although proponents say cloning animals can help science create new, more effective drugs for humans, the practice has been opposed on ethical grounds.

Critics say the production of a clone involves subjecting animals to painful or risky procedures.

Mothers impregnated with reconstructed embryos often miscarry or give birth to abnormally large young.

Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned, was diagnosed with arthritis only five and a half years after her birth and died of a lung disease common to older animals a year later. Scientists are now trying to find out whether using the DNA of an older animal to create an embryo puts clones at risk of premature ageing.

Despite advances in the technique that now allow scientists to clone horses, cats and other animals, Dr Wernery believes cloning will remain in the domain of scientific research for a long time to come. “It has more to do with scientific curiosity,” he said. “It is not something for mass production.”

Young girl dies in balcony fall

SHARJAH - APR 14: A five-year-old girl has died after falling five floors from an apartment block in the Al Qassimi area.

Baseel Mohamed, a Jordanian national, was reportedly alone on Sunday when she tried to climb over her parents’ 16th-floor balcony, falling to another balcony on the 11th floor.

A family living on that floor told police they were awakened by a sound and found the young girl bleeding on their bedroom balcony.

She died four hours later at Al Qassimi hospital.

“We didn’t know if the girl was dead or not but we immediately called police,” the family said.

Sharjah police said they received a call at about 1pm and rushed to the scene.

“We found her still alive and did what we could to rush her to the hospital,” a police official said. Police are investigating the circumstances of the death.

Last July, a seven-year-old girl and a toddler died on the same day after falling from balconies in different locations in Sharjah.

 
Qatar to try policing the Abu Dhabi way

 
Abu Dhabi - APR 14: A few months from now, when a Qatari police officer wanders into a shop in Doha with a big smile on his face and asks the shopkeeper how he’s doing, he could be using a new code of behaviour that he has learned from the UAE.

The emirate’s success with community policing, in which officers interact more closely and informally with the public, has so impressed a delegation of Qatari officials that they plan to adopt the same model in their country.

“After we saw the results achieved in Abu Dhabi since community policing was introduced, which were supported by statistics, we were fully convinced that was a path we’d rather follow,” said Lt Col Hazzaa al Hajiri, a Qatari interior ministry official.

Lt Col al Hajiri and other members of the delegation visited several countries, including Singapore, to assess the effectiveness of community policing and how best to implement it.

He said Qatar would adopt the UAE model because of the cultural similarity between the two countries.

“The good thing in the Emirati experience is they’ve picked what works for their society from every pioneer country. Community policing is new in the Arab world and we need to ensure we introduce what suits our culture.”

Qatar planned to introduce community policing before the end of the year, he said.

“We’ve spoken to public and private institutions, as well as to citizens and expats, about the intention of introducing community policing and how it works. All parties showed interest and readiness to work together. Co-ordination, training and raising awareness are the main three pillars for the new agency.”

Brig Gen Rashid Shahin al Ateeq, the head of the Qatari delegation, said the visit to Abu Dhabi had convinced him of the importance of introducing community policing in Qatar and in the Gulf region at large.

“I’m seriously considering presenting the idea to higher authorities in Qatar and will present a report of the visit to the interior ministry,” he said.

The head of Bani Yas police, Col Said al Rashidi, who showed the visiting officials the system used to assign police patrols in residential areas, said: “We’re ready to co-operate in the field of policing, security and exchanging ideas and expertise for the welfare of both countries.”

Col al Rashidi said all GCC countries could benefit from introducing community policing because it is pre-emptive in nature.

“Continuous communication with the public would surely help reduce crime,” he said. “The key word here is partnership.”

Abu Dhabi set up its community police department in 2005 with the aim of resolving disputes without resorting to legal proceedings and to interact with the public on issues affecting them.

The department handled twice as many cases last year as it did the year before, which it said showed that people were increasingly turning to the community police.

Community police officers dealt with 2,894 traffic incidents in 2008, compared with 1,668 in 2007; 2,033 social disputes, up from 550 in 2007, and 6,958 minor crimes and disturbances, up from 3,626.

They also undertook 5,449 public service activities, including awareness campaigns and visits to schools and malls, compared with 2,532 in 2007.

Gen Muhammad bin al Awad al Manhali, the acting general director of police operations at Abu Dhabi Police, said the community police department had met expectations in developing effective relations with the public.

“It’s succeeded in a record time to enhance trust between police and society through establishing friendship and providing high quality police services to people,” he said.

In November last year, a UN delegation praised Abu Dhabi’s community police force as a role model for other countries.

The force has agreed to train Iraqi community police officers under the supervision of the UN.

Credit crunch takes steam out of Abu Dhabi rental market

ABU DHABI - APR 14: Home rents in Abu Dhabi dropped by up to a fifth in the first quarter of 2009, providing a reprieve after more than a year of rapid rise, according to data published yesterday.

Rents have fallen since the final quarter of last year despite a continuing shortage of flats and villas which has gripped the capital for several months as available accommodation struggles to match the city’s expansion.

Average rents have fallen most on mainland Abu Dhabi, which has seen drops of around 20 per cent with rates for properties on the island slipping by about 10 per cent, according to the report by Asteco, the UAE’s largest property services company. “The majority of villa rental rates have now stabilised to levels similar to mid-2008 across the emirate,” said Asteco’s managing director, Andrew Chambers.

The news will be a relief to tenants who have seen accommodation costs bite savagely into their salaries as rents more than doubled during 2007 and 2008. Asteco reported that Al Raha Gardens, where expatriates can own property, saw the largest decrease with the cost of a four-bedroom villa falling from Dh330,000 (US$90,000) at the end of 2008 to Dh250,000, a 24 per cent drop. Rents for one-bedroom flats in Khalidyah, Hamdan and Passport Road are about Dh170,000, Dh157,000 and Dh137,000 respectively.

Expatriate landlords have cut rents by 20 per cent while local owners have reduced them by around 10 per cent, according to the report. Analysts believe this is because expatriates rely on rental revenues more than local Emirati owners, who are more likely to have other incomes.

“The expat landlords are more cash-strapped and reliant on salaries and rental incomes, compared to local investors who don’t have the urgent need for money from their tenants,” said Mr Chambers.

Rental rates in some of the city’s most sought-after locations such as Khalidyah and the Corniche have mostly remained unchanged while other districts such as Passport Road and Hamdan Street have fallen by 12 per cent and three per cent respectively.

“This is the first time we have seen a drop in rental levels since the start of the credit crunch and while the drops are not positive it was not as bad as we expected,” said Mr Chambers.

“It was inevitable that we were going to see some drops because rental levels were at an incredible high at the end of the previous quarter. It is important to recognise that the change in rental levels has been quite different in different parts of the city.

“Towards the end of last year we saw many people who work in Abu Dhabi simply unable to afford to rent here, so they relocated to Dubai and commuted every day. “Now with these reductions in rental levels, prices have come back within people’s budgets and are now much more affordable.”

He said the pressure on supply of properties was likely to remain until 2010 as only a limited number of homes were scheduled to come online during the year.

A few villas would become available this year in Al Raha Gardens, Golf Gardens, Al Reef and Khalifa City A, with a further 5,000 luxury flats due to arrive on the market early next year.

The Tourist Club Area and Passport Road had seen rents fall due to tenants leaving and firms relocating staff to Dubai, said Mr Chambers.

“There are a few new apartments expected to come online in 2009 so the pressure on supply is likely to remain at least until early 2010.”

“There is a steady turnover of tenants. Particularly in the Corniche, Hamdan Street, Passport Road and Muroor Roads, areas we have seen tenants leaving the country, but there are always new people arriving.”

Commercial property rents have also fallen, in some districts by more than 20 per cent.

The Muroor area and Defence Street saw rents fall by 27 per cent, Passport Road levels dropped by 25 per cent and the Tourist Club by 23 per cent.

High quality “A grade” office space remained most sought-after, rather than cheaper but less well equipped commercial property.

The report added that rental decreases have been felt most acutely by B and C grade offices, although no details were provided about how the gratings were compiled.

Property prices in Abu Dhabi, down 30 per cent since their peak, are forecast to fall further, by between 10 and 15 per cent, EFG-Hermes Holding said in a report last month.

Figures for rental trends in Dubai are due later in the week.

Police officer ‘tried to rape woman in car’

DUBAI - APR 14: An Emirati police corporal kidnapped and tried to rape a woman, punching her in the stomach, placing his hand over her mouth and removing her head cover against her will, the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance heard yesterday.

According to prosecution documents, the defendant, MA, 28, offered the alleged victim, HA, a ride last September, picking her up in the Mamzar area where she was waiting for a taxi.

In her written statement to prosecutors, HA said while she was in the defendant’s car he asked her to have sex with him and she refused, but gave him her mobile phone number instead.

HA said the defendant drove to an unfamiliar part of town and entered a dark area and she began feeling scared. She said she told him to ask police for directions if he did not know the way to her home but he told her he knew a short cut.

HA said that as she rolled down the window to call for police, he put his hand over her mouth and pushed her inside, then pulled the car over to the side of the road.

“He punched me with his fist in my stomach, pulled my hair, took off my head dress and abaya and tried to rape me. I opened the car door and got out,” HA said in her statement.

The woman said she then sought help from a passing vehicle driven by an Indian man, SY, 29. The defendant threw her handbag out of the car window and drove away, she said.

In his statement to prosecutors, SY said the victim approached him, wailing and crying and in distress. She asked him to stop, and called police. SY took down the licence plate number of the vehicle and gave it to police.

MA denies charges of kidnap and sexual assault. The case continues.

Arrests for alleged credit card fraud

SHARJAH - APR 14: Police have arrested eight alleged credit card fraudsters who they say stole almost Dh180,000 (US$49,000) from bank customers.

Brig Musa Yousuf al Naqbi, director of the criminal investigation department at Sharjah Police, said a bank employee had given the Pakistani gang confidential information on clients, which they then used to make credit card purchases. They bought Dh110,000 of jewellery and withdrew Dh68,000 in cash using this method, he said.

Having got a customer’s details, the gang would then phone the bank’s call centre, change their registered phone number to stop the victim being alerted by text message and report the card stolen. They would then use fake IDs to collect the replacement cards and start withdrawing the money in large sums and buying expensive items, said Brig al Naqbi.