Motorcyclist dies on Dubai highway

A motorcyclist was killed on a Dubai highway when a car knocked him down and another car ran over him. According to officials in Dubai Police, the accident occurred on 12:30pm on Monday on Mohammed Bin Zayed Road after Dubai Al Ain bridge towards Sharjah.
The Asian motorcyclist was on his lane when a vehicle rammed him from behind. He was thrown on the fourth lane in the highway before he was struck by another speeding car. Police patrols from Al Rashidiya Police station and ambulance went to the scene but the biker died due to his severe injuries.

Earlier on Sunday, another Dubai biker died after he lost control over his vehicle, hit the pavement and collided with a lamppost on Al Thowima Street in Al Barsha area. A third biker was seriously injured in a separate accident at 3.15am on Sunday on Emirates Road towards Abu Dhabi. Dubai police urged motorists to be careful while driving, follow speed limits, not being distracted while driving and keep a safe distance between vehicles.

Emirates to resume flights to Baghdad, Basra next month

Emirates airline will resume flights to Baghdad and Basra next month, apart from Nairobi, taking its passenger network to 67 destinations. Flights to Nairobi, Kenya, will begin on August 2, while the Iraq-bound flights will start on August 10. Flights between Nairobi and Dubai and Basra and Dubai will operate three times a week, while those between Baghdad and Dubai will operate four times a week. The flights will be operated using Boeing 777-300ER.
Last week, the Dubai-based carrier announced that it will cover its passengers for COVID-19-related medical expenses and quarantine costs when they travel on Emirates, to and from the UAE and around the world.

Emirates said travellers will only be accepted on flights if they comply with the eligibility and entry criteria requirements of their destination countries.

Dubai COVID-19 PCR test: Passengers from 29 countries to be tested twice starting August 1

Emirates airline has said that the on-arrival polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 at Dubai airports will be mandatory for passengers from certain specific countries from August 1. The airline has issued a list of 29 countries. Passengers flying from these countries should undergo mandatory COVID-19 PCR test upon arrival in Dubai from August 1, along with a negative COVID-19 test certificate from their country of origin.

Here’s the list of 29 countries:

Afghanistan
Armenia
Brazil
Bangladesh
Djibouti
Egypt
Eritrea
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Lebanon
Montenegro
Nigeria
Pakistan
Philippines
Russian Federation,
Serbia
Somalia
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Select airports in the United States

The US airports included in the list are Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Orlando (MCO) — including passengers originating from California, Florida and Texas and connecting to an Emirates flight from any of the airports worldwide to Dubai.

Dubai sees a car boom as number of registered vehicles crosses 1.83 million

Number of registered vehicles in Dubai has increased to 1.83 million this year, compared to 1.4 million in 2015 and 740,000 in 2006.
Also, the number of driver licences has increased to 2.5 million this year, compared to 1.8 million in Dubai.
Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai has introduced a number of new smart initiatives to facilitate customers in the wake of increasing number of vehicles and driver licences in the emirate.

Mattar Mohammad Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, endorsed a package of smart initiatives for improving and sustaining RTA’s services. Initiatives unveiled contribute to sustaining the use of RTA assets, such as roads and bridges, and improve driver and vehicle licensing services, which will improve the quality of customer services and enhance the training and qualification of drivers, and will translate into improved traffic safety levels, RTA said in a press release on Saturday.

In a meeting with the Directors of Licensing Agency, Al Tayer reviewed the performance indicators of the agency over the first five months of 2020. It was reported that the number of active driver licences in Dubai amounted to 2.5 million, while the number of registered vehicles reached 1.83 million. The Agency processed 2.447 million transactions comprising 1.6 million vehicle-licensing transactions, 760,000 driver-licensing transactions, and 4,300 no-objection transactions for commercial activities. The numbers reveal that in Dubai, effectively every second person now owns a car. The number of digital transactions processed increased from 59 per cent in December 2019 to 69 per cent in Improved Testing.

Brooker & Bozar

Brooker and Bozar are 2 young artists from Vienna who have been collecting six-figure clicks in no time with their Autotune anthems since May 2019.
Within 9 months, the two newcomers have already released 10 singles and, with their catchy harmonies, have already inspired tens of thousands of people with their music.
With a mixture of pop and rap, the two provide ear catch and entertainment factor in their tracks.

With their single “BB for President”, the two also criticized the political situation in Austria due to the beginning of the last National Council elections and caused a real uproar.


WHO ARE BROOKER & BOZAR ?

The musical streak of the two artists formed as a child.

Brooker (Ben) started playing guitar when he started elementary school and gave several guitar concerts to hundreds of people as a child. He founded a band with his current producer (Lukas) Basic Bitch at a young age, but it quickly disbanded.

Bozar (Fabian) was also drawn to the guitar at the age of 6 and learned the instrument. Within the next youth years he founded a band and was among other things in the Dominican choir. There he discovered his love for chanting and started writing his first rap lyrics early.

(Ben and Fabian) Brooker and Bozar met about 5 years ago in the Hietzinger area (1140 Vienna). What was known at that time over two corners should change drastically in the next few years.

Even as children, the two independently followed the hip-hop scene and fell in love with it. Through various parties, they became even closer friends and met soon every day, since the two lived in the same district (1140).

When they moved into a shared apartment, everything changed within a few years. They decided to record their own songs and to mix up the Austrian / German scene.

Their producer Basic Bitch (Lukas) and Ben (Brooker) have been friends since childhood, which is why a cooperation quickly came about and Brooker & Bozar recorded their first track “Para Brudi“. Since they received a good response and the decision was made to make music, they released 9 more songs within 9 months.

How can you describe our music style?

Basically, we hear hip hop in almost every language. Croatian, German, Mexican, Spanish, Italian, American or French. Therefore we would think that our music has an international influence. We also like to try out completely new things that have never existed before, such as Tech House + Rap.

We also like variety. Different beat variants. Once French, once American, and also tech house beat styles. It makes us more fun to work with.

What differentiates our music from what is currently available in German rap?

Basically we want to arouse positive feelings in people with our music. An unrestricted life in full freedom, wild parties and travel are our main topics.

We are not interested in writing about cocaine trafficking, gun ownership, or other ghetto issues because we are not that. We don’t do azzlack or street rap, but rather the opposite.
We write about Highlife + Good Vibes and record our most eventful moments and experiences on one beat.

We also do everything ourselves. We are independent artists and are not signed on any label. We try to release 1-2 new songs every month and put a lot of time and energy into our music in addition to our normal work.

What is your goal with your music?
Phew, good question. Basically, it is enough for us to realize ourselves and just be able to make our own music. It fills us with joy and gives us great pleasure in taking up our life and other topics and putting them on a beat. We experiment with word jokes, comparisons and word games every day until we think we have something in the box and then we go to the studio.

We do not decide what will happen to our music in the future, but the listeners outside. Of course it would be nice to be able to devote 100% of our everyday life to music, and to increase our output even more, but we love what we do, have a lot to do musically and do not put any pressure on us to achieve any specific goal in a certain time.

For example, next month we would like to release our 1st EP with several songs aimed at a chilled vibe.
An American-inspired EP with a special theme is also planned and we have also planned a few more singles.

What is your latest release?

Our latest release is called “Yin Yang”. In this song we chose a topic on a tech house beat that should describe our musical symbiosis. Bozar, for example, has very different musical strengths than Brooker, and vice versa. Bozar also likes to wear black outfits and Brooker prefers the color white. Basically, we wanted to create something completely new with this track that we have never seen before in the hip-hop scene. Tech-House + Rap / Pop and a few weeks of hard work have led to a result that we are quite happy with.

Man caught trying to smuggle 1.3kg of crystal meth at Dubai airport

An Asian passenger’s attempt to smuggle 1.3kg of narcotic crystal meth, worth around Dh40,000, into UAE was foiled by the Dubai Customs officials.

The contraband was concealed in the inner lining of the suitcase of the passenger at the Dubai International Airport, a top official said. Ibrahim Kamali, director of passenger operations department, said as the passenger looked confused, the officials suspected him. “The suitcase was thoroughly inspected and the narcotics recovered.” The smuggler was handed over to the General Directorate for Drug Control at Dubai Police, following the protocols of joint work and cooperation between Dubai Customs and Dubai Police.

“Dubai Customs uses the best inspectors and the latest technologies to thwart any smuggling attempt and protect the country against the hazards of illegal goods.” Dr Mohamed Hamed, a pharmacist, said that crystal meth is a form of methamphetamine. “It is a white crystalline drug that some people illegally consume by snorting, smoking or injecting it with a needle.” It is a powerful and extremely addictive man-made stimulant and its use can lead to severe physiological and psychological dependence, he added. “The clear crystal chunks, similar in appearance to actual ice or glass, are odorless and colourless.”

The effects of narcotic crystals include suppressed appetite, interference with sleeping behaviour, mood swings and unpredictability, tremors and convulsions, increased blood pressure and irregular heart rate, he elaborated.

Has Sharjah-Dubai traffic eased, commute time reduced?

Dubai: The coronavirus has turned most of our lives upside down. However, for a large section of UAE residents, a part of their lives at least has turned for the better — the daily commute between Dubai and Sharjah. With schools out for the summer and many offices still closed or only partly open, the daily drive between the two emirates has been halved in some cases, down to 30 or 40 minutes. Offices and schools had closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, switching to Work From Home (WFH) and distance learning, respectively.

After a staggered start, Dubai government departments reopened with full staff capacity by mid-June, including some private companies. As a result, the morning rush hour from Sharjah to Dubai and the evening rush hour in the reverse direction has significantly shrunk from its earlier hour to two-hour spell. Before the lockdown, it used to take Yunus Shamsher around two hours from his Sharjah home in Al Khan to his Dubai office in Al Quoz, and vice versa. Now, it only takes about an hour. “I’ve definitely experienced less traffic. I think it’s because many offices are still doing WFH. Schools are also off for the summer. A lot of the traffic in the mornings was because of school buses and family cars on the school run,” said Shamsher, 64, a manager in a Dubai company.

DUBAI STARTUP HUB WOOS INDIAN TALENT WITH ITS FIRST-EVER DUBAI TECHNOLOGY TOUR

Indian entrepreneurs keen on joining the tour have time till August 5 to register their interest online. The virtual trade mission that provides 15 promising Indian fintech and healthcare startups an opportunity to pitch their innovative business concepts is slated for September second week. Dubai has been making meaningful efforts to attract strong interest and participation from startups in India since its strategic decision to transform itself into a knowledge-based innovation hub. The virtual trade mission slated for September second week aims to drive collaboration between the UAE and India in the areas of fintech and healthcare. Dubai Technology Tour organised in partnership with Startup India and Mumbai Fintech Hub, a press release issued by the Dubai Chamber said, will familiarise delegates with Dubai’s economy and business environment.

As part of this new initiative, 15 promising Indian financial and healthcare technology startups will get an opportunity. The Technology Tour, interestingly, follows Dubai Startup Hub’s Roadshow last year to New Delhi and Bangalore. The roadshow organised in 2019 in cooperation with Dubai Technology Enterpreneur Campus (Dtec), the largest hub of its kind in the region and wholly owned by Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), as part of a competition had selected two Indian startups and awarded them office space at Dtec.
Omar Khan, Director, International Offices at Dubai Chamber, says the idea is to pave ..

A total of 186 Indian workers in distress were able to fly home for free recently

A total of 186 Indian workers in distress were able to fly home for free recently, thanks to a businessman who sponsored their tickets on two charter flights from the UAE. Dr Dhananjay Datar, chairman and managing director of Al Adil Trading, told Gulf News that 98 workers were flown on an Emirates charter flight to Pune, while 88 were repatriated on a flydubai charter flight to Mumbai last week.

This is in addition to sponsoring tickets of more than 1,000 Indians in coordination with various bodies, said Dr Datar, who is also known as the ‘Masala King’ after the spices sold in his shops.

“We are arranging free charter flights mainly to repatriate low-income workers who have lost their jobs and they ran out of money,” Oberoi, 64, a Dubai-based industrialist from a small town in Punjab, told IANS here on Friday.
He said the stranded Indians include tourists who came out on a shoestring budget and the money is running out. “We are giving priority to pregnant women, old, sick and families,” he said.

The next scheduled chartered flight of SpiceJet, each carrying 177 passengers, is on July 13, 19 and 25. A flight costs Rs 40-42 lakh and is being paid by Oberoi-managed Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust. Oberoi, who came to Dubai in 1977 as a mechanic, is well known for charity work.

His trust saved more than 80 people convicted of various cases for crimes in the United Arab Emirates. It rescued a woman from Punjab who was sold as domestic help in Oman.

Emirates to operate repatriation flights from 4 more Indian cities to Dubai

The Dubai-based airline had on July 11 announced that it would be operating special repatriation flights from Bengaluru, Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between July 12 and July 26.

According to a statement issued by the airline, Ahmedabad-Dubai flight will leave Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) Airport at 4:25 am on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Along with Ahmedabad, Emirates has started their repatriation service from Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata as well.

“These flights will carry passengers only outbound from India, and cargo in the aircraft bellyhold in both directions, supporting repatriation of travellers as well as the transport of essential goods. Customers in India can book these flights on emirates.com or via travel agents,” read a statement issued from the Emirates.

As Dubai has been opened for business as well as tourism in the wake of Covid-19, the airline has issued an advisory stating that only those customers will be allowed to board the flight who comply with the eligibility and entry criteria requirements for international visitors to Dubai.

More than 10 lakh people have been infected and around 26,000 people have so far died due to coronavirus in India.