Category: News in Brief

‘Puducherry Blue’ exhibition to be held in Maldives June 5-12

The Indian High Commission and the Maldives National Centre for the Arts are organising the ‘Puducherry Blue’ painting exhibition featuring 32 prominent artists from nine South Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Bhutan and Myanmar.

The exhibition will be opened tomorrow evening by Vice President of the Maldives Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan and Indian High Commissioner Dnyaneshwar Mulay.

The works will be available for viewing by the general public from 10:00-16:00 and 19:00-21:00 on weekdays June 5-12, in Museum building A (Medhuziyaaraiy Magu).

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Foreign Minister talks immigrants and tax-free trade in Dhaka

Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem has this week reportedly pledged that the Maldives will lift taxes on the import of products such as pharmaceuticals from Bangladesh as well as work to register tens of thousands of unauthorised workers from the country currently living within its shores.

According to a report for the online Bangladesh-based news service bdnews24.com, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in attempts to try and uphold the rights of Bangladeshi workers in the Maldives during a meeting in Dhaka on Sunday (May 29) between Naseem and his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni.

Talking to reporters, the two foreign ministers claimed that of some estimated 70,000 Bangladeshis working in the Maldives, only 12,000 were thought to be officially authorised to do so.  Both countries therefore committed to trying to register workers from Bangladesh in the Maldives.

As part of his visit to the country, Naseem also reportedly committed to reove taxes on imports of Bangladeshi product to the Maldives particularly for pharmaceuticals by the end of the year.

The report stated that Maldivian judicial and foreign ministry officials would be invited to undertake training in Bangladesh, while doctors and nurses will be bought to the Maldives for employment.

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Police arrest eight men with bottles of homemade alcohol

Police have arrested eight men with bottles of homemade alcohol on Gan in Laamu Atoll.

Police said the alcohol bottles and materials used to brew alcohol were discovered inside an abandoned house in the industrial area of the island.

Gan police station is now investigating the case.

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Expatriate arrested for molesting a mentally disabled minor

Police have arrested an expatriate working as a cook in Laamu Atoll Gan, who allegedly molested a 16 year-old mentally disabled boy on the island.

A news website based in Laamu Atoll, ‘laamuatoll’ reported that the Laamu Atoll Police station had confirmed the incident occurred but refused to comment further.

The site reported that the paper understood that the expatriate had offered an amount of money to the child.

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China-Maldives bilateral trade volume reaches US$64 million: People’s Daily

Bilateral trade between China and the Maldives reached US$64 million last year, on the back of a boom in Chinese tourist arrivals, up 56 percent on 2009, writes Liao Zhengjun for the Chinese newspaper The People’s Daily.

“China has actively encouraged successful domestic enterprises to participate in the Maldives’ infrastructure construction and other projects. With preferential loans from the Chinese government, a Chinese company is now busy constructing the 1,000 Housing Units Project in the Maldives, the largest economic and trade cooperation project since the two countries established diplomatic relations.

“The project is expected to greatly alleviate the overcrowding in Male, the capital of the Maldives. “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” and the two countries have stood by each other at all times and under all circumstances. China provided immediate assistance to the Maldives when it was hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, and the Maldives also offered a helping hand shortly after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.

As the cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have been steadily expanding in recent years, tourism has become an emerging area for the bilateral cooperation. More and more Chinese people see the Maldives as a favorable tourist destination. According to statistics from the Maldives government, the Maldives received nearly 120,000 Chinese tourists in 2010, marking that China has become its largest source country of foreign tourists.”

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Fire destroys staff accommodation at Maamigili airport

Villa International Airport’s staff accommodation blocks in Maamigili, South Ari Atoll, caught fire on Saturday morning cause Rf 2 million damage to the company.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the fire was controlled by the airport firefighters after an hour.

‘’We have not been able to confirm the cause of the fire, but they say there was an electric failure inside the block,’’ Shiyam said. ‘’We are still investigating the incident.’’

Local media reports that the accommodation block was built using tin and plywood. The three blocks burned to the ground leaving nothing behind, airport manager Mahmoodh Ali told Haveeru.

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Family blames doctor after mother dies during labour

A 34 year-old pregnant woman who was admitted to Laamu Atoll Regional Hospital died after undergoing a cesarean.

Family members claimed the doctor mistakenly cut some veins during the operation, reports Haveeru, despite receiving three pints of blood in an emergency transfusion.

The woman had requested to undergo a C-section as she felt the baby was large, however the doctor declined until the last minute, the family told Haveeru.

After the cesarean, the hospital advised the family to take her Male’ as soon as possible, but since the family was unable to catch a flight that night they waited for a Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) helicopter to arrive the following morning. The woman died that evening.

The hospital has declined to comment, only stating that it would provide information to the press after a staff meeting.

The baby survived the procedure and is in a stable condition.

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Top Chinese legislator visiting Maldives

China’s top legislator, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Wu Bangguo, is visiting the Maldives until May 31.

Wu is the most senior Chinese diplomat to ever visit the island nation, and Chinese and Maldivian flags have been set up along major streets of Male’.

Chinese news agency Xinhua interviewed Wu’s Maldivian counterpart Abdulla Shahid, who visited the chairman in China in January.

“It was a very fruitful meeting. The fact that the chairman is conducting a visit to Maldives so soon after my visit shows the importance that the chairman and China attach to Maldives,” Shahid told Xinhua.

“Next year we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Maldives and China. Maldives and China have outstanding relations based on mutual trust, respect and friendship which is a solid foundation for any strong relationship. There are now direct flights between Maldives and China, which has increased the number of tourists from China to Maldives.”

Chinese tourist arrivals last year topped the Maldives’ traditional European market. Both the foreign ministry and the national museum were built with Chinese aid.

Chairman Wu will meet journalists tomorrow at the Maldives’ parliament building.

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Maldivian ship crew on strike claiming two years of unpaid wages

The Maldivian crew of the cargo ship Gateway Prestige have gone on strike, claiming to be owed Rf 1 million (US$64,800) for two years of unpaid salaries.

Managing Director of Gateway Shipping, Mohamed Shareef, told newspaper Haveeru that he had informed police his vessel had been hijacked by his crew and requested an investigation.

“They don’t want to leave the ship, or set off, or allow anyone else on the ship. How can they work on the ship if they were not paid for two years? They wouldn’t have stayed,” Shareef told Haveeru.

The newspaper spoke to the vessel’s captain, Ibrahim Zahir, who said that as of April 2011 he was owed Rf522,000, the chief engineer Rf400,000 and the helmsman Rf100,000. He said they had been stranded twice in an Indian port without food, but had decided to finally go on strike after they were ordered to sea again after unloading in Male’.

“We stayed on the ship despite not getting paid for two years because those who left their jobs didn’t get paid a single penny. Every time the owner says due to the current situation we can’t be paid, but that they’ll pay us when things settle down,” he told the newspaper.

Police are conducting negotiations.

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