SHARJAH // Police in the emirate have arrested two men on charges of participating in illegal gambling.
One man was arrested for allegedly organising and participating in poker games and another for running a betting game that involves a screwdriver and a belt. Both men are from Bangladesh.
The first suspect, S A, was arrested while playing poker. During questioning by Sharjah Police he confessed to playing the game and mainly targeting labourers to yield profit.
The second suspect, M J, was arrested after being spotted during a routine police patrol. He was involved in a game popularly referred to as ‘screw belt’, which involves spinning a screwdriver and placing bets as to where it will land.
A police source said: “M J resisted arrest and tried to escape from the police but he was eventually caught with the tools he was using for gambling.”
In a game of screw belt, punters bet on where a spinning screwdriver will land. A belt or piece of fabric is wound around the handle of the screwdriver, then quickly loosed to mimic the effect of a spinning top.
In 2011, Dubai prosecutors tried 11 cases involving screw belt charges.
The two suspects are currently in prison and will be referred to public prosecution.
Sharjah Police urged members of the public to report those involved in gambling.
[ ykakande@thenational.ae ]
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An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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