Category: News in Brief

Maldives has seen nothing like Addu’s SAARC Summit: BBC

The Maldives has seen nothing before like the SAARC Summit in Addu, writes Charlie Haviland for BBC News.

“Every so often ordinary vehicles, including the buses that ferry the journalists around, have to pull into the tiny country lanes and wait while fleets of black Maldivian limousines carrying VVIPs pass by.

“They move back and forth along the road which, at 14km, is the longest in the entire Maldives archipelago, spanning four southerly islands via causeways.

A stringent security regime has been set up to protect the top officials.

“Appropriately, the tiny host nation has chosen “Building Bridges” as the theme for this 17th conference of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which was founded in 1985 grouping Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and admitted Afghanistan in 2005.

The chosen theme reflects a desire that the boundaries so evident in the region should start to dissolve and that transport, communication and trade linkages should thrive.

The historically tense relationship between India and Pakistan has been the focus of strong interest here.

Their two prime ministers, Manmohan Singh and Yusuf Raza Gilani, had warm words for each other after their bilateral talks on the summit’s sidelines at a luxury island resort, which took place in a luxury thatched hut above a white sandy shore.

The building of confidence is the theme of the moment, three years after the relationship plunged to rock-bottom after the Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.

The Indian foreign secretary said the two neighbouring, nuclear-armed rivals would be moving to implement easier trade and travel measures, agreed in July.

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India and Pakistan steal show at SAARC: The Nation

Addu city’s resorts have probably never seen so many suits in its equatorial climate before – and probably never will, unless a convention of undertakers comes to town, writes Rameeza Majid Nizami for The Nation.

“As harried delegations tried to squeeze in hurried meeting after meeting to obtain maximum benefit from the event, the feeling remained that all eyes on SAARC were in fact on the two most powerful countries there, India and Pakistan. This time around, I got an opportunity to observe the difference between the work ethic and style of the two regional powers, which I will attempt to describe here. After all, Pakistanis are masters of reverse engineering – when we see something that works well we believe in paying the compliment of ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’. And there is no doubt the Indian side at SAARC were the perfect example of doing something simple, well.

“The Indian approach to their work is meticulous. From the diplomats, to the journalists, planning, setting modest, achievable goals and securing equally modest wins through burning good old-fashioned foot leather is the strategy of their success. The speech of the Prime Minister appeared to have been written to portray an image of a humble billionaire and benevolent sugar-daddy.

“Pakistan, by comparison, was to put it in an analogy, the prettiest girl at the party in the dowdy dress and unflattering accent. Exhibiting tremendous potential and receiving the kind of attention reserved for someone genuinely important, whose relevance is expected to continue to increase, Pakistan was observed with keen interest. Trying to deal with every subject under the sun, the Pakistani delivery at SAARC lacked focus, simply because, through the best of intentions, it tried to deal with too much.”

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Scheduled flights commence to Fuvahmulah airport

Scheduled flights commenced to the newly-built Fuvahmulah airport today after the airport operating license was granted.

According to state broadcaster MNBC One, scheduled flights from Island Aviation will travel to the atoll island four days a week. A return ticket from Male’ to Fuvahmulah costs Rf3,194 with the fuel surcharge.

An Island Aviation test flight landed in the 1,200-meter runway on October 31.

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MJA condemns arrest of journalists in airport

The Maldives Journalist Association (MJA) has strongly condemned the arrest of journalists that covered Wednesday night’s attempt by opposition parties to take down banners depicting Christian imagery at the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport.

In a press statement, MJA said the arrested reporters were carrying press passes but had their cameras and phones taken from them before being taken to the police detention island of Dhoonidhoo.

The press NGO said it considered the “unacceptable” arrest an attempt by police to “obstruct the work of journalists and intimidate them,” calling on the authorities to provide protection for reporters covering such incidents.

The statement however noted that the journalists were released shortly after being taken into custody after the association intervened and spoke to police.

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President and First Lady host state banquet for SAARC leaders

President Mohamed Nasheed and First Lady Laila Ali hosted a state banquet last night for visiting Heads of State and Government for the SAARC summit in the island of Hulhumeedhoo in Addu City.

The President meanwhile unveiled the Afghanistan SAARC monument before the ceremonial dinner.

The SAARC summit concluded today with a closing session at the Equatorial Convention Centre (ECC) in Hithadhoo.

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Dhoni capsizes en route to Makunudhoo

A dhoni (traditional boat) carrying gravel from Kulhudufushi in Haa Dhaal Atoll capsized en route to Makunudhoo around 3.45pm today, reports local daily Haveeru.

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) confirmed the accident. According to the newspaper, the boat was from Neykurendhoo and three crewmembers were onboard at the time.

All three survived unharmed and were reportedly travelling in a dinghy.

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MIRA collects Rf298 million in October

The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) collected a total of Rf298 million (US$19 million) in taxes, rent and fees for October.

With Rf66 million and Rf58 million respectively, tourism goods and services tax (T-GST) and tourism tax accounted for the largest revenue sources.

A total of Rf61 million was received as tourism lease rent or land rent while US$15 million was collected in dollar receipts.

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21 year-old killed in Addu City motorcycle accident

A 21 year-old was killed in a motorcycle accident in the link road of Addu City after midnight on Wednesday night.

According to islanders of Hithadhoo, Hussein Adham of Bluege in the island, collided with another motorbike as he turned in a bend off the link road. The victim sustained serious head injuries after his helmet was smashed.

A girl riding with Adham as well as the two men on the other motorbike was also severely injured.

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New7Wonders runs into controversy: Guardian

The four-year long competition to name the seven wonders of the natural world has run into controversy after governments accused the organisers of asking for millions of dollars in marketing costs, reports the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

The New7Wonders of Nature poll, its organisers claim, has attracted millions of voters choosing the final seven from a shortlist of 28 natural landscapes which include the Great Barrier Reef, the Amazonian rainforest and the Maldives.

After initially paying a registration fee of $199 (£125) to enter, each country was then asked to take part in a high-profile global marketing campaign that included a world tour.

In May, the Maldives government moved to withdraw from the competition after receiving a “surprise” demand for half a million dollars. They were followed in August by the Indonesian government, representing Komodo Island national park, who said the organisers wanted $10m dollars in licensing fees and $47m dollars to host the closing ceremony.

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