Blog Posts by Samreen Hayat

Panic spread across the American University of Sharjah after the campus mosque's imam was injured in an incident.

The imam was stabbed outside his home by a man believed to be a former student, the university confirmed.

"In an unfortunate incident, the Imam of AUS was slightly injured in an altercation that occurred outside his residence on campus today," the university said in a statement on it's official twitter feed.

"The assailant was a visitor to the AUS campus and was in an agitated state at the time of the incident. AUS campus security and police responded at once and the perpetrator was apprehended."

Police confirmed the incident and said the attacker was in custody.

"Police pursued him and the whole situation is now under control," said Brig Al Dukhan, the deputy director of Sharjah Police, confirmed the incident to Abu Dhabi newspaper The National.

LOCKDOWN

Reports on social network sites twitter and facebook about a lockdown on campus spread quickly, with people claiming the

Dubai will build 17 new footbridges to aid pedestrians across the emirate by 2016, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced.

Under the initial phase, nine bridges will be completed by 2014 at a cost of AED 45 million. Currently there are 87 footbridges across Dubai, including 34 bridges connected to metro stations.

“The locations of the new bridges have been selected in light of traffic studies guided by a host of parameters that include the intensity of pedestrian movement on both roadsides, concentration of shopping and business activities, and the frequency of run-over accidents (black points) recorded in the area,” said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA.

"RTA will also construct a footbridge on Al Khail Road 1 (opposite the Dubai World Trade Centre – Conventions Centre), spanning 92 metres and fitted with two lifts at each side in order to handle the huge number of visitors to the centre,” Al Tayer said.

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Meet Omar Borkan Al Gala, a Dubai fashion photographer and actor, who might be one of three men 'too handsome' for Saudi Arabia.

Reports surfaced last week that three Emirati men were deported from the conservative kingdom for being too attractive and now the web is buzzing that Al Gala is one of the men.

Omar Borkan Al Gala. (Photo: www.facebook.com/OmarBorkanAlGala)

facebook.com/OmarBorkanAlGala

Al Gala also posted a message about last week's reports on his Facebook page.

Since the news, Al Gala's Facebook fan page has been flooded with comments from adoring fans following the news. You can see more photos of Al Gala here.

The three UAE nationals were taking part in a cultural festival in Riyadh when they were thrown out by Saudi’s religious cops.

Bikinis and tight trunks have not been banned on Ras Al Khaimah's beaches, the emirate's police clarified on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, The National reported police would fine those wearing revealing swimwear on public beaches in the emirate.

Police have since clarified that while revealing swimwear is not banned, residents are urged to dress modestly to respect the culture and community of the emirate.

Major Marwan Al Mansouri, the head of public relations and moral guidance for RAK Police, told 7Days there was no official ban and that officers would not arrest anyone wearing inappropriate swimwear.

“Beachgoers should respect the country’s traditions and culture by dressing modestly,” Al Mansouri told 7Days, adding that inappropriately dressed beachgoers will be asked to leave the sand and cover up.

Signs have been put up along the coast warning users to dress modestly, saying: "All coast goers should commit to public morality and modest clothing."

The campaign was launched in

Rumours of a 'strong earthquake' due to hit the region between April 25-30 have been strongly denied by the UAE's National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS).

According to reports, Arabic text messages and social network posts claiming a powerful earthquake would shake the Middle East in the last week of April were making the rounds last week.

However, the NCMS issued a statement saying: "This is just a rumour. Earthquakes cannot be predicted."

[Related slideshow: Dubai buildings evacuated after tremors]

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) - the supposed source of the rumour - also denied the claim  in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.

"USGS has absolutely denied issuing any report predicting that a powerful earthquake could hit the UAE and GCC countries between 25 to 30 April," WAM reported, adding that USGS official, Wendy Baldwin, assured the public that no technology to predict earthquakes is yet available.

Baldwin "regretted the panic created", and

The Emirates experienced light rain early on Sunday morning, with forecasters predicting more rain this week.

According to the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS), the weather will remain partly cloudy with chances of rain on Sunday.

Temperatures will hit a maximum of 44 C on Sunday, with a minimum of 19 in the mountainous areas at night.

[Get all the latest weather updates with Yahoo!'s new iPhone app]

"A slight fall in temperatures is expected over some areas," the NCMS forecast said.

Forecasters are expecting more rain over the next two days.

UAE residents took to social network twitter to talk about the rain:

Mobile phone users in the UAE have been warned to re-register their SIM cards or face cancellation.

Etisalat and du subscribers who have received an SMS instructing them to re-register their mobile. have until April 16 to do so or their lines will be disconnected, Gulf News reported.

However, once they submit their documents, the line will be reconnected.

‘MY NUMBER, MY IDENTITY’

The move falls under the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority's (TRA) ‘My Number, My Identity' campaign, which aims to clamp down on misuse of mobile phones by eradicating fraudulent numbers.

The campaign was announced in June 2012 and is being rolled out in six phases, lasting three months each. So far, 1.3 million Etisalat SIM cards have been disconnected.

Speaking about the campaign earlier, Majid Al Mesmar, Deputy Director General of TRA, said: “It is a regulation that should be abided by all subscribers who got an SMS from one of the UAE official operators to re-register their personal information during

It's official - Dubai Police has the coolest fleet in the world.

Just days after unveiling their uber-cool Chevrolet Camaro patrol cars, Dubai Police have us blown away with their latest addition: a stunning, too-gorgeous-for-words Lamborghini Aventador.

This is the newest addition to Dubai Police's force. (Dubai Police)

The gorgeous speedster has a 6.5 litre V12 engine with 690 hp.(Dubai Police)

And in true modern-day style, the socially savvy police force tweeted this picture of the stunning machine on their official twitter account. Just take a look at that:

@DubaiPoliceHQ tweeted this photo.

According to a Dubai Police spokesman, the Lamborghini is only being used in a test patrol at the prestigious Jumeirah Beach Residences (JBR) area as part of an experiment.

The images sparked somewhat of a social media frenzy soon enough, with several users sharing images of the racing beauty across Twitter and Facebook.

@SparkyRadio2 tweeted this photo.

I Love Dubai posted this collage on Facebook.

@Sam_Oreoraider shared this photo.

And for the skeptics out there, Twitter user and radio show host Mark 'Sparky' Pendergast, who tweets at @SparkyRadio2, also shared this brief video, saying: "Lambo police car only in Dubai."

As one twitter user put it: "There's no way