Three including two teenagers held for Ullal fisherman's murder

Dubai, Feb 11: An Indian national has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in the UAE, bringing the total number of confirmed infection cases to eight, the country's health ministry has said.

The death toll in China's coronavirus outbreak has gone up to 1,016 while the confirmed cases of infection have soared to 42,638, Chinese health officials said on Tuesday.

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said on Monday that the Indian national was infected after he interacted with a recently diagnosed person.

"The Ministry of Health and Prevention announced today the eighth confirmed case of new coronavirus in the UAE, which is an Indian national who had interacted with a recently diagnosed person," it said in a tweet.

On Sunday, the ministry said that the two new patients, a Chinese national and a Filipino, had been diagnosed with the disease and were receiving medical care as per the highest health standards available in the country.

It said that all health facilities will continue to report any new cases suspected to have coronavirus.

Last week, a family of four who arrived from Wuhan for a holiday in Dubai were diagnosed with coronavirus. A fifth patient, who also arrived from the Chinese city, was confirmed to have been infected with 
the virus, but is reportedly in a stable condition.

China and countries around the world are scrambling to contain the spread of coronavirus which fiirst surfaced in Wuhan city in the Central Hubei province of China. Apart from China, two deaths have occurred in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Besides Germany, Britain and Italy, other European nations with cases of the virus include France, Russia, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and Spain.

Mangaluru, Apr 7:  In the wake of COVID-19 lockdown in the country, a delegation from Highland Islamic Forum, Mangalore headed by Rizwan Pandeshwar, HIF Ration Kit Co-coordinator met Mangalore South Constituency MLA Mr. Vedavysa Kamath, Mayor Mr. Diwakar and MCC  Opposition Leader Mr. Abdul Ravoof on 6th April with an aim to join their hands with our local authorities in a bid to serve the daily wage earning families in and around Mangalore, during this emergency period. HIF delegation included Secretary Ausaf Hussain, Executive members Nazim SS, Adel Parvez, Nabeel Kudroli and Saleem Makkah.

HIF delegates handed over 300 COVID-19 Emergency relief ration kits to these local authorities, of which 100 each will be distributed to the poor in their respective areas among all faiths irrespective of caste or religion. The ration kits included grocery items and other essential commodities.

HIF Delegation said that Highland Islamic Forum is a prestigious charitable organization in Mangalore operating in the undevided D.K. District since last 8 years offering their hands to the poor and needy families of all faiths like food for the orphans, blood to the patients, water during the crisis time, relief supplies during floods, medicine to the patients, ration kits and homes to the homeless.

During the drinking water crisis in 2016, HIF supplied water facilities to more than 1000 families in Mangalore.  Two years back during the flood, HIF provided necessary commodities to the flood victims in Dakshina Kannada District. During the shortage of blood in Mangalore hospitals, HIF arranges blood donors camps and provide the blood to the patients.  HIF spends one day with orphans every month. HIF charitable activities have been well recognized by the kind hearted people in Dakshina Kannada District.

MLA Vedavysa Kamath, Mayor Diwakar and Mangalore City Corporation opposition leader Abdul Ravoof lauded the selfless efforts of HIF team in serving the poor and needy families in the society.

Dubai, Apr 11: An Indian expat in the UAE is facing police action for allegedly insulting Islam on social media in response to a Facebook post on the coronavirus, according to a media report.

Rakesh B Kitturmath, who worked as a team leader at Emrill Services, an integrated facilities management (FM) headquartered in Dubai, was sacked on Thursday after his post sparked outrage on social media, the Gulf News reported.

“Kitturmath’s employment stands terminated with immediate effect. He will be handed over to Dubai Police. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards such hate crimes,” said Stuart Harrison, CEO of Emrill Services.

"As an organisation, we have worked hard over the years to embrace diversity and create a culture of inclusion, where every nationality, religion and background is welcomed and celebrated. We have a strict social media policy for our employees to ensure they respect our values, both inside and outside of work," the newspaper quoted Harrison as saying.

Harrison said they are trying to find out if Kitturmath was still in the UAE, according to the report.

“We have over 8,500 employees so this may take a while. That said, we have fired him. If he’s still in the country, he will be handed over to Dubai Police,” he said.

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Originally from Ranebennuri, Karnataka, Kitturmath joins an ever-growing list of Indian ex-pats who have landed in trouble for alleged Islamophobic messages in recent days.

Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi resident Mitesh Udeshi was sacked for posting a cartoon mocking Islam on his Facebook page while a police complaint was filed against Sameer Bhandari of Future Vision Events & Weddings’ in Dubai after he asked a Muslim job seeker from India to go back to Pakistan.

The UAE outlaws all religious or racial discrimination under a legislation passed in 2015.

The anti-discrimination/anti-hatred law prohibits all acts “that stoke religious hatred and/or which insult religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or via online media.”