Seven women killed as family car hits truck in Saudi Arabia

Arab News
January 28, 2018

Jazan, Jan 28: Seven women were killed and five injured as the second family this month suffered multiple fatalities in a traffic accident at Sawarma Road in Jazan region.

Earlier, Sami bin Mohammed Ali Al-Nami lost his wife and six sons in an accident at Al-Kadmi Center in Sibia.

In the latest crash, the five injured include an elderly man, a woman and two children. Witnesses to the accident said family had been traveling to a wedding.

It was reported to Okaz newspaper that the car struck the rear of a truck which was been driven without taillights. The truck was being towed by another truck, near Madaya town, on a single-lane dark highway.

Locals have already petitioned for lighting for the 15km highway, which they say lacks basic safety measures, and is doubly treacherous due to the fact that camels stray on to the road.

A spokesman for Red Crescent in Jazan, Bishi Al-Sarkhi, said the operation room were informed of an accident involving a family car at 8:20 p.m. on Thursday. Four ambulances attended the scene. Six people were found dead, while the five injured were transferred to a nearby hospital.

Yahya Al-Qahtani, spokesman of the Civil Defense in Jazan, said its units attended the scene and pulled out the bodies and the injured from the wreckage. Six people were declared dead at the scene while the five injured were transferred in a Red Crescent ambulance to a nearby hospital. One woman died at the hospital, he added.

Jazan residents hit out at local traffic police after the accident, blaming the lack of year-long lighting on the highway, despite the fact that it is a route to many important cities. They said trucks were the common denominator in the tragedies that have occurred on this road.

They accuse truck drivers of failing to respect the designated schedules, lanes, safety and warning requirements. They said there was and thus led to the destruction of the road due to the excessive gross vehicle weights and overloading.

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News Network
April 29,2020

Dubai, Apr 29: Dubai on April 23 was a suicide, Dubai Police confirmed to Gulf News on Wednesday.

According to Dubai Police, he committed suicide by jumping from a building in Business Bay.

“We received a report about a man plunging to his death from the 14th floor of a friend's building on Thursday. The businessman committed suicide over financial problems,” Brigadier Abdullah Khadim Bin Sorour, director of Bur Dubai Police Station, told Gulf News.

Joy Arakkal receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

The police ruled out any criminal suspicion behind the suicide and said they are coordinating with the businessman’s family for the repatriation of his body.

A UAE Gold Card visa recipient, Arakkal was the managing director of Dubai-headquartered Innova Group of Companies which had diverse businesses, with major focus in the oil sector. He is survived by his wife Celine and children, Arun and Ashly, who live in Jumeirah.

Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul confirmed to Gulf News that Arakkal’s family is set to fly home with his body after Indian authorities gives them special permission to travel in a chartered air ambulance.

“They have received the NOCs (No Objection Certificates) from India. We have taken it up with the UAE MoFAIC (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) for necessary permits from the UAE side,” Vipul said.

Once the approval is received, a chartered air ambulance will fly in from Bangalore to carry the family and the mortal remains of Arakkal.

Quiet embalming service

A few social workers and community leaders, who were coordinating with Arakkal’s family for the repatriation procedures, attended the embalming service was on Tuesday.

“Only the family members and a few of his employees were present apart from us,” said advocate Hashik T.K.

He said M.K. Raghavan, a member of Indian parliament from Kerala, and R. Harikumar of Elite Group in the UAE, offered great support for securing approvals from Indian authorities.

“We have been requesting the central and state governments to consider the emotional aspect of traditional funeral process in the case of expats who die abroad.”

He said almost two dozen bodies have been flown to India in the past few weeks on cargo flights. But, no family member was allowed to accompany the bodies so far.

Besides Arakkal’s family, the Indian government also issued immigration clearance for the family of a cancer patient from Nottingham, who is seeking treatment, to fly down to Calicut International Airport in Kerala.

Quarantine and funeral
On reaching Kerala, the family members would follow the quarantine procedures as per the government rules, Hashik said.

Arakkal’s’s funeral will be held in his hometown in Mananthavady in Wayanad district where he had built a 45,000sqfit mansion, one of the biggest houses in Kerala, last year.

“It is sad that he could stay in that house for a month or so only,” said a community member.

He said Arakkal had built houses for the poor and also funded the weddings of several young couples back home.

His companies include oil refineries, petrochemical trading, ISO tank cleaning services, shipping services and a telecom company working for infrastructure projects in the UAE.

He had received many awards including a lifetime achievement award from the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan during his visit to Dubai.

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Agencies
April 26,2020

Riyadh, Apr 26: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia has issued an order to partially lift the curfew in all regions of the Kingdom, to become from 9am to 5pm, starting Sunday through Wednesday May 13, while keeping a 24-hour curfew in the holy city of Makkah and in previously isolated neighbourhoods, state news agency (SPA) said early on Sunday.

The order also allowed the opening of some economic and commercial activities, which include wholesale and retail shops in addition to malls.

They can operate for two weeks, beginning on April 29 (Wednesday) until May 13 (Ramadan 6-20), however, certain shops within malls like beauty clinics, barber salons, gyms, cinemas, and restaurants will continue to be restricted from reopening.

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News Network
April 25,2020

Riyadh, Apr 25: Saudi Arabia announced nine deaths and 1,197 new cases of the COVID-19 virus on Saturday.

Of these cases, 120 were recorded in Madinah, 364 in Makkah, 271 in Jeddah, 170 in Riyadh and 43 in Dammam.

The number of people who had recovered from the coronavirus in the Kingdom increased to 2,214 after 165 patients were reported to have recovered.

A total of 136 people have died of the disease in the Kingdom so far.

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