Police have located missing 14 year old Ahmed Laizam Latheef on Hithadhoo in Addu Atoll, after his family reported him missing at 11:30pm on Wednesday night.
Laizam is from Kashmeeruge in Seenu Feydhoo Atoll but was living at Ma. Velagala in Male’. His family reported him missing after he left home to pray in the nearby mosque across the road but did not return.
A family member told Minivan News the boy was not used to going anywhere alone, ”and he only goes to the mosque by himself as it is very close to our house.”
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said Laizam had taken a boat to Addu Atoll where we was staying with relatives on Hithadhoo.
“Police confirmed he was there, but he was sleeping so we didn’t disturb him,” Shiyam said, adding that police are now investigating why he left home.
“At this time, we can’t say why he left home,” Shiyam said. “He went by himself – nobody told him to go.”
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was disposed last night by his party, with his deputy Julia Gillard being sworn in today as the country’s new leader, and first female prime minister.
Rudd, who is on good terms with President Mohamed Nasheed, was elected in a landslide win in 2007 as leader of the Labor Party, but fell victim to factions within the party after his opinion polls plummeted, in what Australian Associated Press described as “a cloak-and-dagger plot hatched by shadowy backroom operators.”
“I have given my absolute all,” Rudd said, struggling to retain his composure in his final speech two hours after he stood down.
“I was elected by the Australian people as the prime minister… to bring back a fair go for all Australians. I have given my absolute best to do that,” he said, adding that he was less proud of “blubbering”.
“Having said all that folks, we’ve gotta zip,” he concluded.
Gillard gave credit to Rudd “for leading the nation in such difficult times and keeping people in work,’’ but said the government “was losing its way.”
“I love this country and I was not going to sit idly by and watch an incoming opposition cut health, cut education and smash rights at work,” she said.
Australian commentators observed that Rudd’s popularity divebombed during a damaging fight with Australia’s monolithic mining industry over a proposed 40 percent tax on their profits.
However many acknowledged surprise at the sheer speed of Rudd’s eviction – none more than Rudd himself, who visibly struggled through his exit speech.
Gillard appeared slightly discontented at the shadowy nature of her arrival at the helm and accepted the role somewhat grudgingly, remarking that she would not move into the Prime Minister’s official residence until she was voted into power in the upcoming Australian election.
Two judges with mark sheets in hand made the rounds. Outside, three stations created for live cooking, were used each turn by three chefs from those who signed up for the live cooking demonstration.
Abdul Alim, who moments earlier had been manning the hotplate in the main restaurant, was sautéing a beef steak for his dish ‘sealed beef & roasted vegetable in paprika sauce.’
Meanwhile, a beaming Ali Abdul Rahman turns to a second batch for the live cooking demonstration.
“This is a rare chance for me – I’ve always wanted to participate in a culinary exhibition,” said the chef of 12 years of experience, 11 of which have been spent at Bandos Island Resort and Spa, the scene of the staff cooking competition held this week.
Rahman’s dish was ‘chicken with vegetable pad thai’, chosen as he wanted “a different taste, from a different country.”
Minutes later, Ali was all work, as he set about preparing a pad thai in 45 minutes. But later it would be chef Jayantha Amarasiri would walk away with the gold medal for his ‘beef fantasy’, a delicious prune and cheese-stuffed beef roulade, Cajun marinated beef steak with stir fried meatballs accompanied by mashed potato wrapped in spinach and a vegetable kebab.
Open to all staff at the resort, it was the second such annual exhibition held at Bandos. A range of categories including live cooking, dress the cake, authentic cuisine, vegetable and fruit carving gave the 27 participating chefs the chance to show off their skills.
“We want to motivate our chefs, and improve their culinary skills,” explained Ismail Shareef, Food and Beverage Director of Bandos Island Resort.
With special emphasis on encouraging the chefs to do well at competitions, Bandos recently participated in the Singapore Expo.
“This is also in preparation of Hotel Asia week that will be held later this year”, Ismail said.
The two judges presiding at the event were Chef Tyrell Wasalathathrie, executive chef at Water’s Edge in Colombo, and Chef Ishaq Salih, Executive Chef at the Royal Island Resort.
Name your cake
Inside the orchid room where all the pre-prepared items like the cold desserts and appetisers were laid out, ‘dressing the cake’ was in full swing.
Judge Tyrell wandered by and asked participant Wasantha Kumara – who was putting pink marzipan strips on his cake – what its name was.
“You should have a name for your cakes, by the time you finish them,” he said to the participants.
“It’s ‘pinkie bed’” piped in Abdulla Faiz – and sure enough, his cake was rectangular in size, with a pink drape over it, and even a pink head board. You couldn’t decide if it enticed you to eat it, or sleep in it.
Abdulla, an old hand on the exhibition circuit, had won a bronze in the Singapore Expo this year in a team event.
His work was fast and neat, and it was not much of a surprise when a couple of hours later, the first prize sign was displayed next to ‘pinkie bed’.
Bread presented for judging at the Bandos event
Honing Maldivian talent
The judges took each dish to task after the live cooking demonstration.
“You had a lovely marination going on, but the meat is so over-cooked that that one can’t taste it anymore,” said Judge Ishaq after a quick taste of a beef slice.
Judge Tyrell cut marks for sloppy presentation on some dessert dishes.
“They had enough time to do this, so the visuals should be balanced and neater than this,” he said, pointing to a sauce that was slanting to one side of the dish, next to a strategically-placed slice of cheese cake.
Ali Didi, an 18 year veteran of the field, said tips from the judges were invaluable for improving.
Like others, Ali also has a passion for participating in culinary exhibitions. He has won a silver and bronze in hot cooking on two separate occasions at the Hotel Asia exhibition.
The management of Bandos has plans to give more opportunities for Ali and his colleagues to indulge in this passion.
“Next year we’d like to expand this to holding an inter-resort culinary exhibition,” says Ismail. He says he looks forward to a day when more Maldivians will participate in international culinary exhibitions.
That day seems not far off, suggests Bandos proprietor Mohamed Waheed Deen: “with the right support Maldivians can achieve great heights in the culinary field.”
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.
DhivehiRayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Dr Afrasheem Ali has proposed amendments to the religious unity act.
Presenting the bill, Dr Afrasheem said that social unity among Maldivians was weaker than it had been in the past.
”One reason for this [disruption] is issues of religion, particularly disputes over worship and (scholars) criticising each other,” Dr Afrasheem.
He proposed that the Shafi sect be enshrined as the basis of Islam in the Maldives.
”I selected the Shafi sect because it is the sect most friendly, most accepted and most widely followed sect in Islam,” he said.
People’s Alliance (PA) Party MP Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakuru said that the bill was necessary for the country.
”The Maldives used to be a country which was an example of social unity, but now we see cracks in that fort,” said Jamal.
Independent MP Ibrahim Muthalib also supported the bill.
”This is a very important bill,” said Muthalib, recommending several amendments to article 2(d) and article 2(e), after observing that the bill could potentially narrow the opportunity for foreign scholars to preach in the Maldives.
DRP MP Ahmed Mahloof also supported the bill.
”I recall during the last presidential elections, the Adhaalath party – which claimed to be promoting and protecting religion – tried to make (people believe) that former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was a Christian,” said Mahloof. ”This is the situation of our country today.”
He said that it was very important to resolve disputes among people.
Chairperson of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and MP Mariya Didi thanked Dr Afrasheem for presenting the bill to amend the Religious Unity Act, observing that “our forefathers have protected the religion for 800 years.”
In May the Islamic Ministry announced that it had completed the new religious unity act, and has sent it to the government’s gazette for publication.
However when the new regulations were completed many organisations expressed concern over the regulations and it was held by the president’s office for amendments.
The Secretary General of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Ahmed Shah has confirmed that Sheikh Nasrulla Mustafa has signed to join the party.
Shah said Sheikh Nasrulla was “a well educated and very capable person”, and that his decision to sign with MDP was a major progression for the party.
”He signed the application form last week and it has now been sent to Elections Commission (EC) for approval,” Shah said. ”Then he will officially be a member of MDP.”
Sheikh Nasrulla declined to comment on this story, instead recommending that Minivan News clarify his application with the EC.
”If I applied and if the EC approved [my application] then I will be a member of MDP,” said Sheikh Nasrulla, when asked to confirm his application.
Religious website Raajjeislam reported that Sheikh Nasrulla had recently declared that the purpose of forming political parties and NGOs was to create splits in a society, and these institutions were therefore against the principles of the as-salaf as-saliheen (the earliest converts to Islam).
The website also said that Sheikh Nasrulla has in his sermons claimed that voting was not allowed in Islam, and that it was an ‘enmity’.
Raajjeislam’s report claimed that the government was attempting to trying to displace the Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari and State Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed from their posts.
According to daily newspaper Haveeru, the Islamic Ministry has recently restricted Sheikh Nasrulla from using microphones inside mosques to deliver sermons, which Sheikh Nasrulla claimed was preventing him from preaching.
Haveeru reported that the restriction was put in place by the Islamic Ministry because of “numerous complaints” the Ministry had received.
Sheikh Nasrulla has reportedly disputed the lectures of other prominent Islamic scholars during his sermons, including Dr Zakir Naik, who recently visited the Maldives.
Vice President and Spokesman for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Ibrahim Shareef has said the DRP will not honour “shady deals made according to vested interests” if the party comes to power in 2013, referring to the government’s privatising of the country’s airports.
The government has shortlisted three parties to run Male’ International airport and will select one over the next 3-4 days.
The parties include Aéroports de Paris Management Company of France (ADP) and Turkish company TAV Airports Holding Company, Indian company GVK Airport Developers in partnership with Swiss Flughafen Zurich AG, and GMR-KLIA.
Shareef expressed concern that the government’s efforts to privatise state assets, such as the airport, were not occurring with parliament approval.
“Parliament is in the process of amending a public finance bill that will stipulate the government has to put these decisions before parliament,” he said.
“If the governing party will not accept this, then the new [DRP] government will not honour this type of shady deal. We will not honour shady deals – only lawful deals according to parliament.”
Shareef said the airport was currently “making the government money”, and the asking price it had set “is so low. [The deal] is riddled with corruption,” he alleged. “If the government has nothing to hide, it has nothing to lose from asking parliament.”
Minister for Civil Aviation and Chairman of the Privatisation Committee Mahmoud Razee told Minivan News that “as far as I understand we are proceeding according to the public finance act which is currently in force. Parliament legislates but actual delivery is up to the executive.”
It is the opposition’s “prerogative to say what they wish, but the reason why experienced and reliable companies are involved in this bid is because they believe that this is a viable project.”
The Male’ airport privatisation deal would be for 25 years, extendable by another 10 years, and would require a minimum level of investment towards upgrading the airport in the first three years to meet a certain level of service.
“A certain percentage of the service charge will to go to the government, and in addition [the operator] will also prescribe a percentage of the revenue,” Razee said.
Within three years, the government would expect a new terminal on the eastern side of the airport islands, up to international standards, and the completion of aero bridges (passenger walkways), effectively doubling the annual capacity of the airport from 1.6 million passengers to 3 million passengers.
The intention was to enable fast growth of the country’s tourism market, he explained.
“It’s bound to grow – particularly the Chinese and Indian markets,” Razee said. “We’ve already received applications from Air Asia and several Chinese carriers.”
Meanwhile, the government yesterday signed an agreement with Dubai-based company Supreme Fuel Trading to manage Gan airport for 30 years, in an agreement intended to hasten development of the southern region of the Maldives by allowing 747 class aircraft to land.
“At the moment the largest aircraft that can land [in Gan] is the 767 and the Dash 100-200,” Razee said.
The government has also received a proposal from GMR to upgrade Hanimadhoo airport and increase tourist traffic to the northern atolls.
For a country dependent on international tourist arrivals, the airports are the ventricles of the Maldives economy. Addressing concerns that privatising them would loosen the government’s control over these critical assets, Razee observed that all the interested parties being considered “have experience running many international airports”.
“Security will continue to be overseen by the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), and the airport will be certified by civil aviation authorities irrespective of who is running the airport,” he explained.
Tourism in the Maldives is showing signs of steady growth, with an increase of 20 percent in the first five months of 2010 compared to last year.
Arrivals for first five months of this year were seven percent higher than for the same period during the boom year of 2008.
Meanwhile, the 91 resorts in country had a steady occupancy rate of 82.3 percent.
Police Sergeant Abdul Muhusin has said police are holding 25 castaways in police custody in Dhoonidhoo, while waiting for their respective countries to identify them and provide necessary documents.
Muhusin said that all the castaways would be repatriated when they are identified by their countries.
”The latest castaways (six Somalians) who were rescued on May 16 are currently being kept in Dhoonidhoo custodial,” Muhusin said. ”They were brought there after they were discharged from hospital.”
Muhusin said that many of the castaways carried no passport or identity cards, or any document clarifying who they were and where they were from.
”That’s why it’s taking some time to repatriate them,” Muhusin said.
Police said that the 25 castaways included seven people who were saved on December 1 last year, five people rescued on December 5, seven people saved on May 12 this year and the six men recently discovered in a dinghy near Makunudhoo.
”Police are investigating everyone,” Muhusin said. ”They have claimed that they were out for fishing.”
”They have not been arrested,” Muhusin emphasised.
State Home Minister Ahmed Adil said the investigation of the castaways was still ongoing and he had no idea when they could be repatriated.
State Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem said that the Somalian government and Maldivian government together were trying to identify all the men who claimed to be Somalians.
”We have sent the Somalian government pictures of the castaways,” Naseem said.
He said he had no information about the Iranian vessel which was found in Maldivian waters in May, referring Minivan News to the home ministry
However, Adil said he had no information about Iranian vessel.
In May the Maldives Coastguard rescued an Iranian fishing vessel in Maldivian territorial waters, discovering that the crew have been deprived of water and food for several days.
Another Somalian boat was found with a crew of six men on board drifting near the island of Makunudhoo in Haadhaalu Atoll.
Makunudhoo islanders who rescued the men said it appeared they had been drifting in the tiny 12-15 foot vessel for three months without food or water.
Bringing two former detainees from the Guantanamo Bay facility to Maldives is not a threat to the country’s national security, said President’s Office Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair in a statement to Miadhu Daily.
The Maldives security forces are well equipped to manage the detainees, according to Zuhair who also said there is no date set for the arrival of the detainees.
The cost of hosting the detainees in the Maldives would be borne by the US government, Zuhair told Miadhu, and the US government would confirm the detainees are innocent and provide travel documents.
While staying in the Maldives they would obtain legal visas, he said.
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