RAS AL KHAIMAH // More than 20,000 people travelled out to the desert to watch as scores of supercharged 4x4s attempted to power their way to the top of steep sand dunes at the annual Al Awafi festival.
The brave drivers roared their modified vehicles up the 70 metre-high dunes at the weekend in the hope of winning prizes worth up to Dh200,000, as well as cups and trophies – not to mention the respect and admiration of fellow drivers.
Forty four competitors from Oman, Kuwait and the UAE took part, with Emirati Khalid Al Bloushi taking first place in the V8 category, scaling the dune in 4.361 seconds. He also won the V6 automatic transmission category with a time of 4.703 seconds.
Second place in the V8 category went to Yousef Al Ali, with a time of 4.496 seconds. In the V6 manual transmission with turbo section, Obeid Al Rayihi won first place, while second place went to Khalid Bin Turki.
Extra measures were taken by the organisers this year to ensure vehicles did not become stuck in the sand and also to limit the amount of damage caused to the 4x4s during the tournament, said Ahmad Altenaiji, general supervisor.
The huge number of attendees caused a long traffic jam on roads near the tournament. Al Awafi festival, which also features traditional Emirati events, will be held until Saturday.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
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Name: buybackbazaar.com
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$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
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