Category: News in Brief

Bandos hosts liability claims conference

A two day conference aiming to bring together insurance and liability claims experts from across Asia and Africa in order to address industry challenges has kicked off today at Bandos Island Resort and Spa.

According to organisers, the Afro-Asian Claim Awareness Conference will bring together business leaders and other high-profile speakers including Maldivian Vice President, Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

Issues expected to be covered at the conference include addressing liability risks arising from resort-based tourism, online business and the provision of consumers goods.

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Police crack down on poker tournaments

Police are investigating complaints of the card game poker being played in Male’, after concerns were raised with a local restaurant manager that patrons were playing the game.

Haveeru reported that police were searching for expatriates who were witnessed playing the game.

“It starts as just having fun. A group of 3-4 people will start playing with a single deck of cards. One day a person lost and he had to pay a lot of money. There was an argument about it,” a restaurant owner told Haveeru.

Gambling is banned under Islamic Sharia law and punishable under Article 88 of the penal code, which defers to Sharia, Haveeru reported.

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Foreign minister spies mutual benefits from Sri Lanka tourism appeal

Rising international interest in the Sri Lankan  tourism market is expected to have mutual benefits for the Maldives travel industry, Ahmed Naseem, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister has claimed.

Haveeru reported Naseem as stating during a visit to Sri Lanka that the two tourism markets had the potential to complement each other well in their individual aims of trying to attract a wider number of visitors.

He added therefore that working to offer a greater number of joint travel packages between Sri Lanka and the Maldives was seen as a lucrative development that was currently under consideration by authorities.

Preliminary tourism statistics for the first three months of 2011 have suggested that arrival numbers were up by 12.3 percent over the same period the previous year, with 246,606 visitors coming to the country.

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Cabinet to ponders repopulating military island of Maafilaafushi

Cabinet will hold a discussion on Tuesday regarding a proposal to repopulate Maafilaafushi in Lhaviyani atoll.

Maafilaafushi is used by the military and has around 100 residents, reported Haveeru, adding that residents protested after President Nasheed visited yesterday to inaugurate two military schools on the island.

Islanders demanded to be relocated to Male’ or Hulhumale, because of the military exercises, Haveeru reported.

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Air India resumes flights as pilot strike halted

Air India has restored flights between Male’ and Trivandrum following a 10 day strike by the airline’s 700 pilots.

The pilots were demanding pay parity with colleagues flying international routes, and halted the strike promises by the government to look into the complaints.

The strike reportedly cost Air India US$3.35 million a day in lost revenues, as it was forced to cancel 70-80 percent of its domestic flights.

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Corpse discovered in Male’ home

Maldives police have reportedly discovered a man’s corpse within a rented room in Male’ today, though have not disclosed any further details regarding the details of his death.

Haveeru reported that the body, which was identified by the newspaper as 26 year old Ahmed Shahid, was found within a house in the Henveiru area of the city.

According to the report, the room in which the corpse was discovered had been locked from the inside. Police have said they will disclose more details on the case at a later date.

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Police prepare for major demonstrations after sixth night of protests

Protesters in the capital city of Male’ gathered in the Artificial Beach area last night for a sixth night of protests, ahead of a major demonstration planned for today after Friday prayers.

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) maintains the protests are ‘youth led’ demonstrations against rising commodity prices, brought on by the government’s decision to implement a managed float of the rufiya.

Haveeru reported that despite warning demonstrators to remain in the open artifical beach area, police treatment of demonstrators was relaxed compared to previous evenings.

Groups of protesters split from the main group and attempted to gather in the intersection used as the focus of the protesters this week, but were dispersed by police.

Meanwhile, a senior government source claimed the Sri Lankan High Commission had called every hospital in Colombo in an attempt to locate local football star Assad ‘Adubarey’ Ali, who was flown to Sri Lanka for medical treatment after suffering injuries during the fifth night of protests in Male’.”
“He wasn’t admitted to any hospital in Colombo. He was however spotted in a Colombo nightclub,” the source alleged.
Haveeru reported yesterday that Assad had suffered “soft tissue injury” from force applied by a riot shield.

Dismissed deputy DRP leader Umar Naseer and several DRP MPs, including Ali Arif and Ahmed Mahloof, were briefly detained by police, and protests dissipated around 1:30am.

This morning riot police and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) personnel could be seen gathering in Republican Square ahead of mass protests the opposition has scheduled for this afternoon.
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President grants clemency to two convicted criminals

President Mohamed Nasheed has granted clemency to two convicted criminals who were found guilty of drug related charges, reports SunFM.

SunFM reported that the two were identified as Ahmed Izhan Rasheed, Green Lily, Male’ and Ahmed Imsaah of Lhaviyani Atoll Naifaru.

The Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) told SunFM that both of them were released according to the Clemency Act and that if they committed any crime their sentence would be reinstated, in addition to any further sentences.

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317 protesters were arrested and 75 were injured in protests, claims MP Mahlouf

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)’s MP Ahmed Mahlouf has claimed that 317 protesters have been arrested over the past four days and 75 persons injured, according to daily newspaper Haveeru.

Haveeru reported that Mahlouf said among the persons arrested there were 203 persons whose whereabouts “are now unknown”.

The government has claimed that all but 14 of those arrested have been released, after the court extended their period of detention.

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