Missing freediver Adel Abu Haliqa at the Armed Forces' Officers Club in Abu Dhabi.
Missing freediver Adel Abu Haliqa at the Armed Forces' Officers Club in Abu Dhabi.

Family waits for 'truth' over missing freediver



More than five months after the UAE freediving champion Adel Abu Haliqa disappeared in Greece, his family continues to search for answers.

Mr Abu Haliqa, 40, a father of three, went missing on June 7 during a dive off the Greek island of Santorini. Numerous searches have failed to provide any clues about what happened to him.

"We are waiting for evidence and we are hoping he will come back," said his brother, Hussain, 53. "We will keep on looking. We will wait until we see the truth either way. If it turns out to be the worst, we will accept it."

Mr Abu Haliqa had been training for September's AIDA Individual Depth World Championship 2011 in Greece, and was attempting a dive to 70 metres at the time of his disappearance. He was the UAE's sole representative in international freediving events, and had previously reached depths of 77 metres.

He and his brother used to jointly run the family business, Abu Haleeqa Stores, which sells traditional UAE clothing and accessories and has branches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.

Hussain travelled to Greece on June 9 and hired an Athens private company to conduct a comprehensive search using a submarine, as well as air surveillance by helicopter. Unsuccessful, he returned in August for a further two-week stint.

"Nothing was found, nothing at all," he said.

The cause of Adel's disappearance is a mystery. He was known in the freediving community as a level-headed man, not a risk-taker.

His older brother shares this view of him.

"I practically raised this guy. Adel is very careful, very accurate with things. He does not negotiate with things like safety," he said.

"As Muslims, we believe in destiny, things happen, but we don't believe you have to be pessimistic," he said. "We are still hopeful, we pray every day that he will come back safe or we see the truth."

For now, he said, "the truth is he is missing".

"Officially, the file is open but whether they [Greek police] are doing anything about it, I doubt it," he said.

The family is keeping in touch with contacts in Greece and also with journalists from a Greek TV station.

A programme is to be filmed this weekend in Santorini with the journalists investigating the accident. They will also ask viewers to come forward with information that could be helpful.

"It is a small effort but you never know," Hussain said.

He also spoke of how the family members' faith was helping them cope with the uncertainty.

"It is not easy, of course, but we always think we human beings are very small in what we can see, but we believe in a greater power, which can see everything. If a person is meant to survive, he will survive," he said.

"If you hand all of this to another power, you relax. Of course, every once in a while emotions will definitely have an effect, but we are holding, all of us," he said. "For us as Muslims, death is not the end: when you die, you move into another stage.

"Of course, we pray for him, that he will be well wherever he is and we try to do whatever we can."

Adel's wife, Nada, 35, lives in Abu Dhabi with their two sons, Mohammed and Ali, 10 and 4 respectively, and their daughter, Amna, 9.

'The Ice Road'

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Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm

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'Midnights'
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Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

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Company%20Profile
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Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm

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Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km

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Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

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Sector: Sustainability
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
THE BIO: Mohammed Ashiq Ali

Proudest achievement: “I came to a new country and started this shop”

Favourite TV programme: the news

Favourite place in Dubai: Al Fahidi. “They started the metro in 2009 and I didn’t take it yet.”

Family: six sons in Dubai and a daughter in Faisalabad

 

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

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Verona 1 (Verre 19' pen)

How to apply for a drone permit
  • Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
  • Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
  • Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
  • Submit their request
What are the regulations?
  • Fly it within visual line of sight
  • Never over populated areas
  • Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
  • Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
  • Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
  • Should have a live feed of the drone flight
  • Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
INDIA V SOUTH AFRICA

First Test: October 2-6, at Visakhapatnam

Second Test: October 10-14, at Maharashtra

Third Test: October 19-23, at Ranchi

Champions League Last 16

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Benfica (POR) v Ajax (NED) 

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Villarreal (ESP) v Juventus (ITA) 

Inter Milan (ITA) v Liverpool (ENG) 

Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid (ESP)  

Match info

Manchester City 3 (Jesus 22', 50', Sterling 69')
Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 65')

Pari

Produced by: Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma, Karnesh Sharma) & KriArj Entertainment

Director: Prosit Roy

Starring: Anushka Sharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Rajat Kapoor, Mansi Multani

Three stars

Company profile

Company: Verity

Date started: May 2021

Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif

Based: Dubai

Sector: FinTech

Size: four team members

Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000

Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors

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How the bonus system works

The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.

The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.

There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).

All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.

Netherlands v UAE, Twenty20 International series

Saturday, August 3 - First T20i, Amstelveen
Monday, August 5 – Second T20i, Amstelveen​​​​​​​
Tuesday, August 6 – Third T20i, Voorburg​​​​​​​
Thursday, August 8 – Fourth T20i, Vooryburg

THE SPECS

GMC Sierra Denali 1500

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

Price: Dh232,500

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Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk 

Stars:  Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun

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UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions