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Minivan News launches Dhivehi edition

Minivan News yesterday launched a Dhivehi version of its highly-regarded independent English language news website for the Maldives.

The Dhivehi edition will regularly feature stories, letters and opinion pieces selected from the English site for their interest to our Dhivehi readers. Dhivehi fonts can be downloaded here.

The Dhivehi edition is the latest in a series of expansions to the Minivan News website, which have included a well-received comments section and greater capacity for photos and images.

To alternate between the Dhivehi site and the English edition, click the link at the top left of the page.

As part of our rapid expansion we have also launched a journalist recruitment program, and are keen to hear from both Dhivehi speakers with experience in journalism and potential trainees who would like to pursue a career in reporting. Click here for further information

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Maldives will receive Guantanamo prisoners, says President

President Mohamed Nasheed has said the Maldives will take prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay, the controversial American prison in Cuba that houses terror suspects.

In his weekly radio address on Friday, the president said the Obama administration came into power pledging to close down the prison and release a number of detainees.

“If a Muslim does not have a place to live in freedom, we will help in whatever way we can. We don’t want anyone to suffer any harm. We know that the Maldives, in helping just three people from Guantanamo Bay, does not mean that either the Maldives or the world would be free of inhumane treatment,” he said. “However this jail, Guantanamo jail, is very symbolic.”

He added the alleged torture that occurred in the offshore American jail made it notable in the same way as controversial Maldivian jails like Dhoonidhoo and Gaamaadho, believed to have tortured inmates.


“When the Americans bombed Afghanistan some time ago, a lot of Muslims were taken and jailed at Guantanamo Bay,” he said. “It is a promise of the new government to close the jail in one year. We have noted that the American president is doing a lot to fulfil that promise. However, the jail has still not been closed.”

The president said investigations have cleared most of the detainees of any involvement in terrorist activities, while the others will be taken to trial.

He said most of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were innocent people caught up in the war in Afghanistan, and that offering assistance to other nations in whatever capacity was “a national duty.”

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Letter on Copenhagen summit

Dear Editor,

A political agreement to prevent dangerous climate change is critical and achievable.

The world is five days into one of the most important global conferences of our time: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen (COP15). Negotiators currently getting down to work are tasked with coming up with a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol that will prevent the nightmare scenarios that many climate scientists have predicted becoming a reality. A formidable challenge.

Overwhelming scientific evidence – endorsed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – shows that human activity is the primary force driving climate change. The UK recognises that the developed world has historic responsibility for climate change and must make ambitious commitments to tackle its effects, including through making funds available to developing countries.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed, at last month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the establishment of an annual fund which would make available $10bn to assist developing countries in tacking climate climate immediately after an ambitious agreement at Copenhagen.

COP15 is a crucial engagement in the battle against dangerous climate change and the UK has taken an increasingly proactive position on pressing for an ambitious political agreement at Copenhagen. This year we became the world’s first country to have a legally binding long-term framework to cut emissions, adapt to climate change and commit to a low carbon economy: the UK Climate Change Act. And we have played a leading role in the European Union and the Commonwealth to encourage commitment to higher emission cuts and greater availability of resources to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Collectively we need to agree an ambitious deal at Copenhagen to rise to this challenge. The UK believes that this should include:

  • A global recognition to reduce carbon emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050
  • Global temperature rise limited to 2 Degrees above pre-industrial levels.
  • Developed Country reduction targets that add up to least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020
  • Developing country actions that add up to at least 15% below business as usual for 2020.
  • Low carbon growth plans to prepare for transition to a global low carbon economy.

The above ambitions are a reflection of the importance the UK gives to recognising the developed world’s historic responsibility for global CO2 emissions, and the priority we have given to limiting the impact of dangerous climate change.

The UK has worked with Sri Lanka and Maldives as partners in tackling this critical global issue, over the past the year. In Sri Lanka, we funded a conference bringing together local environmental NGOs and the government to discuss critical issues that would be on the negotiating table in Copenhagen. In Maldives, we regularly discuss climate issues with the government and have welcomed their immense efforts to highlight the importance of acting against climate change. In particular, President Nasheed’s announcement to go carbon neutral by 2020 and the way Maldivian civil society have taken the initiative to support global climate change campaigns such as 350.org’s international day of action on 24 October 2009 have helped Maldives to lead the way in international debates on climate change.

Developing country commitments and actions have shifted the terms of negotiation in the path to Copenhagen but to achieve our global ambitions against climate change a sustained effort is needed. We look forward to continuing to work with Sri Lanka and Maldives to keep up the pressure through COP15 and beyond so that we do not leave climate change as a problem for the next generation.

Dr Peter Hayes is the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka/Maldives

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Maldives to host international seafood day

The government will hold an international seafood day next year to highlight the Maldivian fisheries sector, President Mohamed Nasheed announced on Fisherman’s Day last week.

Speaking at a function on the island of Ihavandhoo in Thiladhunmathi atoll, the president also announced the sector would be opened up to private investment, particularly aquaculture.

The sector had been badly affected by the ailing economy, rising fuel prices and declining catches during the past year, Nasheed said.

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“Maldives not a nation of beggars”: Aslam

The Maldives must not become a nation of beggars, Minister for Housing, Transport and Environment Mohamed Aslam told reporters at the COP15 in Copenhagen.

Aslam said developed countries needed to take responsibility for climate change, but other nations should also contribute.

He said the answer lay in less developed nations finding different paths of development to those of alrerady developed countries, and claimed the Maldives’ decision to become carbon neutral in 10 years was one such example.

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Accident leaves two critically injured

A collision involving two motorcycles in Gaaf Alif atoll Gemanafushi on Friday left four people injured, two of them in a critical condition, Miadhu reports.

Abdullah Muhthaar, 22, and Ali Ahthar, 18, both from Gemanafushi, were taken to the regional hospital yesterday, but Ahthar was brought to Male’ after doctors discovered he had a brain haemorrage.

The accident is under investigation by the Maldives Police Service.

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President ranked 14th ‘hottest’ leader

President Mohamed Nasheed has been ranked as the 14th hottest leader in the world out of 172 on the list, Miadhu reports.

The president came before US President Barack Obama who followed in 15th place.

The number one slot was given to Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukranian prime minister followed by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is the least ‘hot’.

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VP to attend SAFF final

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed departed for Bangladesh yesterday to attend the final match of the SAFF championship.

Defending champions, the Maldives, will play India tomorrow evening in the capital Dhaka after they beat Sri Lanka 5-1 yesterday.

Before his departure, Waheed said he was going to the final to offer the Maldivian football team support on behalf of the president, the government and the people of the Maldives.

Accompanying the vice president, will be Hassan Afeef, presidential political advisor, and Mohamed Hunaif, the minister of state for home affairs.

Speaking to press, Afeef said the president requested all government employees and staff of state-owned companies, except those who wear uniforms, to dress in red – the colour of the national football team.

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