NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Tragedy of boy, 4, trapped in car boot
Osama al Najar who died after spending hours in the trunk of his mother’s BMW car. Courtesy al Majar family
AL AIN - APR 15: The mother and father of a four-year-old boy who died of asphyxiation after being trapped in the boot of his mother’s car have pleaded with other parents to keep their vehicles locked to protect their children.
Osama al Najar died after spending hours in the boot of his mother’s BMW in Al Ain on March 9. His death has since been ruled accidental and his parents said it was still unclear why he was inside the car in the first place.
His mother, Fatima, 41, who teaches Arabic at the Palestine School in Al Ain, had gone shopping after school. “I had stopped at the grocery store and arrived home at around 3pm,” said Mrs al Najar, who is originally from Palestine. “I gave the car keys to Musab, my 16-year-old son, to fetch the groceries from the car and unpacked them in the kitchen.
“The entire family had lunch together, I prayed and before taking a nap at 3.30pm, I saw Osama playing with the other children.
“When I woke up at about 4.30pm, I was surprised Osama was not in bed with me as he usually is when I take my afternoon nap. I looked around the house for him and couldn’t find him. The neighbours helped me look around the neighbourhood on foot but after 40 minutes we still couldn’t find Osama.”
Mrs al Najar, who was in tears as she recalled the details of that day, said: “I got in my car and drove around the area at 5.40pm but still couldn’t find Osama. That is when one of my neighbours suggested maybe he was in the boot of the car.
“When I checked, I found him there and he was not breathing. We had only discovered he was missing an hour earlier.
“My neighbours and I rushed him to Al Ain Hospital but he had already died. I don’t know how he got in the boot. I ask myself, did he get in there himself, did someone put him there? I just don’t know.”
The boy’s father, Hamed, 45, an agricultural worker from Gaza, said: “I received a call from my wife telling me Osama was in the hospital in grave condition. When I asked her if he was dead, she wouldn’t tell me.
“I rushed over to the hospital to find my son had died and my wife next to him crying. His hands and arms were bruised and he had an injury to his eye from his desperate attempts to get out of the boot.
“I cannot imagine the amount of suffering my little boy must have endured, locked in the boot for almost three hours in the dark, scared and thirsty. I would have preferred that he died instantly and not suffered the way that he did.”
Mr al Najar, who has three other boys and two girls, said: “Osama was big for his age, in fact he used to wrestle with his six-year-old brother, Abdullah, all the time and he would pin him down. Osama was a strong little boy, very strong for his age.”
“Over the past month when we eat at the table, the mood is very sombre because his place is empty.”
Mr al Najar added: “A mother should never go to sleep unless she knows all her children are safe.
“She should be the last to go to sleep and the first to wake up. I advise parents to always keep their car locked and to keep the keys out of reach of children and always be the last to leave the car, to be sure no child has been left behind in it.”
Google denies reports of plans to self-censor YouTube in UAE
ABU DHABI - APR. 15: Google has no plans to censor search results on its YouTube video-sharing website in the UAE, the company said yesterday, labelling reports of a censorship plan as “false”.
Senior management from the internet search engine, e-mail, social networking and video-sharing company met representatives of Dubai Police earlier this week. At the meeting, a list of search terms deemed inappropriate by police was presented to Google, along with concerns that the site is providing access to content deemed pornographic. A Google official in Dubai said the company is open to feedback and requests from government, business and community representatives, but insisted it has no plans to filter search results or censor content on YouTube.
“At Google we believe in engaging with users, businesses, non-profits, and governments in order to address whatever questions or concerns they may have about our products,” the company said. “It’s the best way for us to understand the local countries in which we operate, and for others to understand Google, YouTube, and the policies around our products.”
As part of this effort, Google said, it met Dubai Police along with several other entities spanning the Government, business and the public sector across the region. “Contrary to false reports no censorship plan was drawn up,” it said.
Dubai’s chief of police, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said content deemed inappropriate on the YouTube site was in the process of being filtered out by Etisalat, the national telecommunications company.
“Representatives from Google and YouTube came to meet with us, and were happy and responded positively to our requests,” he said. “We have had talks with Etisalat, who are working on implementation.”
Mr Tamim said the police asked Google to block search terms only for pornographic material and that, so far, only YouTube had been targeted. “We may look into other search engines in the future.”
Car flips out of control into oncoming traffic
A collision near the intersection of Muroor Rd and 15th Street in Abu Dhabi left the two occupants of one car needing hospital treatment. Mike Young / The National
ABU DHABI - APR. 15: Two men were taken to hospital after a car crash in last night in which a speeding vehicle rolled over a median strip and collided with an oncoming SUV.
The accident happened at about 8:30pm when a Mercedes Benz sedan making a right-hand turn from Muroor Rd on to 15th St lost control and hit the median strip, causing the vehicle to flip on to the other side of the road where it collided with the SUV.
“It landed in front of me, upside down,” said Arlinda Dacosta, 34, the driver of the SUV who was not hurt.
The sedan was destroyed, while the front of the SUV was damaged.
The driver of the Mercedes, a 20-year-old Palestinian, and his passenger, a Syrian, 25, were both taken to Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in what paramedics described as serious conditions.
However, workers in the hospital’s emergency department said both men refused treatment.
Police officer Ali al Shakeli described the accident as “very bad”.