Al Ain football club were in action against Emirates.
Al Ain football club were in action against Emirates.
Al Ain football club were in action against Emirates.
Al Ain football club were in action against Emirates.

Garden city springs into life


  • English
  • Arabic

If you wanted to outdistance the golf-cricket Abu Dhabi combo of two weekends ago, you could always go for the karting-volleyball-football trifecta Al Ain offered on Friday.

Very few people have ever pulled off seeing a karting-volleyball-football trifecta, and it's important to gather distinctions in life.

As all manner of perspiration tumbled through the Garden City by day and evening, two competing friends chatted on a veranda near a victory podium. They are Atef Al Barwani and Hussain Umid Ali, both drivers in the Honda Challenge of the Al Ain Raceway International Karting Circuit, whose various age divisions just completed Round Six.

"We have known each other for a very, very long time," Al Barwani said, even as his friend tries to snare the title Al Barwani strains to defend.

After all the noise and grind of last season, Al Barwani held off everyone, even as Umid Ali stayed "right under my neck, you know", Al Barwani said. With the calibre of drivers rising in the UAE, and with a much-held notion that a young UAE talent might be out there somewhere ripe for launch, a guy like Al Barwani, 30, fights on.

"It's the best," he says. "I couldn't imagine doing anything else."

With "the Facebook thing", as he puts it, the drivers all "know what the other is doing at the moment", and Al Barwani is busy with two karting circuits (also SWS with Dubai Auto Club) while booked for world championships in Paris in May. For now, he also runs third in the Honda Challenge with Umid Ali in first, which matched their finishes on Friday, as Al Barwani's ever-supportive wife Amira and brother Adel looked on.

As the friends and rivals chatted, the wind did get almost what you might even call cold, so you could go down the road and indoors at the Al Ain Sport and Cultural Club gymnasium, where Al Ain played Al Ahli in volleyball, which became that sporting event in which you start inadvertently building the viewing experience around one player.

A marvellous athlete, the Emirati Abdullah Ali shone in the defending league champions Al Ain's 25-13, 25-16, 25-21 victory, given his combination of height and seamless coordination, plus his dynamic serves. Soon, the match did come to resemble certain basketball experiences.

In those, the brain quietly instructs a certain team to pass the ball to a certain player every time up the floor, because the player happens to be so hot that night that you sort of forget to care about even the scoreboard. Here, you would wish for teammates to set up Ali spikes, as if the brain starts mouthing the words: "OK, set it up, set it up."

One time late, he wasn't in the front-line picture, but when a second ball availed itself, he came roaring through the middle for a spike and stamped his effort with a fine - and habitual - guttural sound.

From there, still, you could go back outdoors and down the boulevards to the lights as the edge of the Oman border still brimmed with games. In the Etisalat Cup Group A match, Al Ain played Emirates in Tahnoon bin Mohammed Stadium, and the Al Ain fans made the soundtrack with their uninterrupted chants. You could see all the volleyball and still hear the fans' last crescendo after Yasser Al Qahtani banged in a goalkeeping error on 65 minutes.

Al Ain won 3-0 in a match with an Al Qahtani brace and a preparatory air. The Pro League front-runners prepared to get their offence going ahead of the bout with Al Wahda, and Emirates gave time to younger players ahead of their attempt to climb out of the drop zone from their position of 11th.

While Emirates rested their foreign players by managerial decision, the Al Ain manager Cosmin Olaroiu said he got a desired bridge that went from two shutout defeats of January and over the national-side gap in the schedule.

"It was a match for checking the level of players who just resumed there in the field from the national team and injuries," Olaroiu said. "So they can get self-confidence again, and they have the appetite for scoring."

Asked a question about repeated blunders passing, Olaroiu all but winked and said, "It was the manager's mistake."

He said this, of course, in Romanian, which gave the ears the rare Earth experience of hearing Arabic questions translated into Romanian, then hearing Romanian answers translated back into Arabic. Even in the multinational hub of the UAE, that's almost as unusual as the karting-volleyball-football trifecta although, really, little is as rare as that.

Labour dispute

The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.


- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law 

UAE central contracts

Full time contracts

Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid

Part time contracts

Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma

Disclaimer

Director: Alfonso Cuaron 

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville 

Rating: 4/5

Where to Find Me by Alba Arikha
Alma Books 

The specs: Hyundai Ionic Hybrid

Price, base: Dh117,000 (estimate)

Engine: 1.6L four-cylinder, with 1.56kWh battery

Transmission: Six-speed automatic

Power: 105hp (engine), plus 43.5hp (battery)

Torque: 147Nm (engine), plus 170Nm (battery)

Fuel economy, combined: 3.4L / 100km

Saturday's results

Brighton 1-1 Leicester City
Everton 1-0 Cardiff City
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Watford 0-3 Liverpool
West Ham United 0-4 Manchester City

Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
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How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars

Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.

Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.

After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.

Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.

It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.

 

Who has been sanctioned?

Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.

Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.

Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.

Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium

Date: Sunday, November 25

Tales of Yusuf Tadros

Adel Esmat (translated by Mandy McClure)

Hoopoe

Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

Price: From Dh98,800

Available: Now

West Indies v India - Third ODI

India 251-4 (50 overs)
Dhoni (78*), Rahane (72), Jadhav (40)
Cummins (2-56), Bishoo (1-38)
West Indies 158 (38.1 overs)
Mohammed (40), Powell (30), Hope (24)
Ashwin (3-28), Yadav (3-41), Pandya (2-32)

India won by 93 runs

The specs: 2018 Audi RS5

Price, base: Dh359,200

Engine: 2.9L twin-turbo V6

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Power: 450hp at 5,700rpm

Torque: 600Nm at 1,900rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km

The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

The%20specs
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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Spain drain

CONVICTED

Lionel Messi Found guilty in 2016 of of using companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying €4.1m in taxes on income earned from image rights. Sentenced to 21 months in jail and fined more than €2m. But prison sentence has since been replaced by another fine of €252,000.

Javier Mascherano Accepted one-year suspended sentence in January 2016 for tax fraud after found guilty of failing to pay €1.5m in taxes for 2011 and 2012. Unlike Messi he avoided trial by admitting to tax evasion.

Angel di Maria Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain star Angel di Maria was fined and given a 16-month prison sentence for tax fraud during his time at Real Madrid. But he is unlikely to go to prison as is normal in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying sentence of less than two years.

 

SUSPECTED

Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid's star striker, accused of evading €14.7m in taxes, appears in court on Monday. Portuguese star faces four charges of fraud through offshore companies.

Jose Mourinho Manchester United manager accused of evading €3.3m in tax in 2011 and 2012, during time in charge at Real Madrid. But Gestifute, which represents him, says he has already settled matter with Spanish tax authorities.

Samuel Eto'o In November 2016, Spanish prosecutors sought jail sentence of 10 years and fines totalling €18m for Cameroonian, accused of failing to pay €3.9m in taxes during time at Barcelona from 2004 to 2009.

Radamel Falcao Colombian striker Falcao suspected of failing to correctly declare €7.4m of income earned from image rights between 2012 and 2013 while at Atletico Madrid. He has since paid €8.2m to Spanish tax authorities, a sum that includes interest on the original amount.

Jorge Mendes Portuguese super-agent put under official investigation last month by Spanish court investigating alleged tax evasion by Falcao, a client of his. He defended himself, telling closed-door hearing he "never" advised players in tax matters.

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
SPECS

Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now

TOUR RESULTS AND FIXTURES

 

June 3: NZ Provincial Barbarians 7 Lions 13
June 7: Blues 22 Lions 16
June 10: Crusaders 3 Lions 12
June 13: Highlanders 23 Lions 22
June 17: Maori All Blacks 10 Lions 32
June 20: Chiefs 6 Lions 34
June 24: New Zealand 30 Lions 15
June 27: Hurricanes 31 Lions 31
July 1: New Zealand 21 Lions 24
July 8: New Zealand v Lions

The specs: 2018 Opel Mokka X

Price, as tested: Dh84,000

Engine: 1.4L, four-cylinder turbo

Transmission: Six-speed auto

Power: 142hp at 4,900rpm

Torque: 200Nm at 1,850rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L / 100km

Mountain%20Boy
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