The High Court has ruled in favour of the Criminal Court’s acquittal of a Maldivian who allegedly claimed that there was no God and Prophet Muhammad was not a Messenger.
The Criminal Court judge earlier said the man had made the comments while drunk and therefore could not be convicted. The man’s father had given evidence against him but the High Court ruled the father’s evidence inadmissible because it was motivated by a personal grudge.
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(0)The former capitals of Kaaf atoll and and Shaviyani atolls have been reinstated.
The government changed the capitals from Thulusdhoo to Maafushi (Kaafu atoll) and from Funadhoo to Milandhoo (Shaviyani atoll) on 26 October 2009.
That decision has now been reversed by the Majlis after a vote with 41 MPs for the reinstatement and 31 against.
The bill containing the reinstatement, originally presented by Funadhoo MP Ali Saleem, was passed with committee amendments.
(0)Dislikes(0)A taxi parked near Galolhu youth centre was damaged by fire last night, police reported.
Police said that the incident occurred at 2:30am. There was no one inside the vehicle and nobody was injured during the incident.
Police said they suspected that the vehicle was deliberate set on fire.
(0)Dislikes(0)A group of ‘geomorphologists’ are holding a five day meeting in the Maldives to discuss the impact of climate change on the country’s landmasses, and how the marine ecosystem may be affected.
Newspaper Haveeru reported that the scientists meeting on Paradise Island Resort would devise research policies for the next four years, covering both inhabited and uninhabited islands across the country.
Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam said the research would enable an understanding of how reefs are formed and help determine the impact of climate change on reef structures.
The Maldives is currently suffering from the worst coral bleaching since the 1998 El Nino event, with reports of up to 50 percent bleaching in some areas of North Male’ Atoll as water temperatures rise.
Marine biologists have expressed concern that reefs may be one of the first ecosystems to perish because of climate change.
(0)Dislikes(0)Maldives and India are much better places to live than other South Asian countries, according to the Failed States Index prepared by the Washington DC-based research organisation Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine.
Many countries bordering the Indian Ocean are in the top 37 ‘Alert’ category of Failed States, including Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kenya, Yemen, Burma, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Iran.
Maldives, ranked at 84 in the ‘Warning’ category is considered less ‘failed’ than India, ranked at 79, and Thailand, ranked at 81.
The Failed States Index is based on 12 social, economic and political indicators.
(0)Dislikes(0)A Maldivian woman in Male has stabbed her ex-husband to death, after a disagreement between the former couple, police confirmed to Miadhu Daily.
The name of the deceased man and the woman have not been released, although police confirmed the man was 34 and the woman was 21 years old. The stabbing occurred at Baikendige house on Hadheebee Magu in Henveiru ward late yesterday afternoon, say the police, and the man died while being treated at ADK Hospital, according to Miadhu Daily. Police confirmed the man was stabbed at his ex-wife’s residence and she called the police after the incident and confessed. According to onlookers, the man ran into a small nearby shop after the stabbing and asked the shopkeeper to contact police and medics. He was stabbed directly through his lungs and this lead to a heart failure, said doctors speaking to Miadhu Daily.
Haveeru Online treated the story as ‘breaking news’ and gave timed updates as it gathered more information about the incident. Miadhu Daily said the incident ‘brought surprise and shock to many Maldivians, as a woman stabbing a man to death is a very rare occurrence throughout the world.’
(0)Dislikes(0)The aim of the new school supervision program is to enable schools in Maldives to judge their educational levels and to promote high standards.
A workshop to train staff for this purpose will be held on 27 June in Male’. A total of 52 participants including principals and leading teachers from atoll schools will take part in the workshop.
‘Baraabaru Schools Indicators’ (Standards of Excellence School Indicators) have been introduced for the academic year 2010.
These indicators will be used to supervise the schools each year, instead of every five years as was done previously.
(0)Dislikes(0)The DRP has been given 13 days by the Civil Court to complete an examination of documentation and invoices from Island Aviation Services, which is claiming that debts of Rf500,000 are owed to the Maldives government airline by the opposition political party, reports Miadhu Daily.
The Court said this would be DRP’s last opportunity to respond to Court orders, according to Miadhu Daily, and the DRP would have to respond to Island Aviation Services regarding the case by IAS against the DRP for unpaid bills.
In the previous hearing held on the case, the DRP’s lawyer appealed for more time to examine the documentation and invoices presented by the national airline, reported Miadhu Daily, and the DRP also hinted that it desired to settle the case out of court, after the IAS went to court following lack of cooperation from DRP.
The DRP later said it needed more time and requested an extension.
During the latest hearing, the IAS lawyer said that the airline no longer wished to reach an “out of court settlement” with the DRP, according to Miadhu Daily, and the DRP had also failed to respond to IAS’s earlier calls for an out of the court settlement, the IAS lawyer added.
The IAS has said that DRP is trying to delay payment as long as it can, and the DRP’s lawyer did not dispute the fact that there was a pending payment, but he said some of the IAS invoices were repeated and disputed the exact figures claimed by the IAS, reported Miadhu Daily.
The DRP lawyer asked for 29 days to verify the IAS documentation, but was given 13 days.
The judge also declared at yesterday’s hearing that the DRP has failed, or does not wish, to settle the issue out of court as earlier proposed by the IAS.
(0)Dislikes(0)Import duties levied at the Northern and Southern Regional Ports of the Maldives are to be cut by 30% from 1 July 2010.
President Nasheed approved the 30% cut after recommendations by the Cabinet.
Cabinet made the recommendations mainly to lessen pressure on the Malé commercial port and to increase economic activity at regional ports.
The Cabinet also declared Kalhaidhoo island, Haddhunmathi (Laamu) atoll as an uninhabited island. Kalhaidhoo was judged unsafe, following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. Most Kalhaidhoo people have been relocated to Gan on the same atoll, and currently only 27 people remain in Kalhaidhoo. The French Red Cross has provided housing for Kalhaidhoo people at Gan.
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