DUBAI // An inmate in solitary confinement who set fire to his pillow was today sentenced to an extra three months in jail.
AT, a 47-year-old Emirati, was also ordered by the Criminal Court to pay the police Dh100 to cover the cost of the damages he caused - including the Dh15 pillow.
He set fire to the pillow on April 23 this year hoping it would force guards to let him out of his solitary confinement cell.
In a previous hearing he denied starting the fire.
"Where is the pillow they claim I set fire to? I was beaten," he told the judge. However, when the judge asked who had beaten him, he replied "Ask the government," before demanding more time to prepare his defence and threatening to leave the courtroom.
When the judge announced a verdict would be issued on July 31, he said: "God curse your father - and the prosecution's."
The inmate was found guilty of setting fire to an inhabited place and posing a risk to the lives of others. In a separate case he was found guilty of similar charges relating to a different incident in which he set fire to an Dh85 blanket in his cell, for which he also received a three-month jail term.
His original offence and sentence were not disclosed.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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5pm Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige | Dh110,000 | 1,400m
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