It was on the 11th night at sea, on a radarless, rickety fishing boat filled with desperate asylum-seeking families implausibly heading from India to Canada, that Priya saw the lights of what she thought was a rescue ship.
Drinking water had run out, the boat was damaged and the passengers had come to realise the crew were not trained sailors, but clueless amateurs. Their plan to make the 22,500km journey across two oceans, facing the steep waves of the world's most perilous waters in a tiny vessel, was coming to an end weeks earlier than intended.
The lights turned out to be a military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean.
Priya and her 88 fellow Tamils, including her father, were saved by a British naval ship, bringing an end to their journey. But it did not end their quest for asylum, which has now extended more than three years, involving a complicated legal battle, suicide attempts, sexual violence, squalid living conditions and, for Priya, being taken to Rwanda.
Diego Garcia is a hell island. We think that death is better than living like this
Asylum seeker
The 24-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, could never have imagined living in the central African nation, but for the past 18 months it has been her home.
Priya was transferred there for medical treatment, making her one of a handful of asylum seekers to be transferred to the country. It is an ironic twist after the plans of the previous UK government to use Rwanda to process the asylum claims of those arriving in small boats ran into opposition in the courts, before being shelved.
Voyage around the globe
Priya’s extraordinary journey began in 2021, but it is tied to the political situation facing Tamils in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war in 2009.
She said her work as a photographer attracted the attention of the Sri Lankan military, which led to her arrest and detention. She alleges she was raped by soldiers at a Sri Lankan army base, after which she left for India in 2021. Her family continued to face harassment and violence, she says.
“Around that time, someone told my father about a boat leaving for Canada,” she said. “I feared the boat journey, but I had to escape from India. I had no other options, so I chose this journey.”
While at first glance the idea seems outlandish, similar voyages have been accomplished in the past. In 2010, 492 Tamils travelled from Thailand to western Canada on a ship that had been bound for the scrapyard. The group was picked up by the coastguard.
“They were genuinely travelling to Canada. It sounds fantastical, but it's true, and the ship's logs record that’s what they were doing,” lawyer Tom Short, from Leigh Day Solicitors, which represents many of the asylum seekers, told The National.
Many of those who set out from India's southern Tamil Nadu state in September 2021 sold their valuables, including wedding rings, to pay for the journey. It was organised by fellow Tamils, and not people smugglers.
The boat was bought by four members of the community and they sourced water and diesel for the journey. They found a crew for the ship, but they were not professional sailors or had little experience of navigating the high seas.
The aim was to make the voyage in the small boat in as little as 45 days, which is ambitious to say the least. It takes 33 days for cargo vessels to do the trip.
One woman, who says she paid 150,000 Indian rupees ($1,700) for the journey, soon began to realise those on board had been sold a lie.
“They said they would land us in Canada in 45 or 60 days,” said the woman, 40, according to a written statement given to The National. “They said they were taking us on like a ship, not a boat, that there will be everything like toilet facilities and bedroom facilities, even a facility to convert seawater into drinking water, and satellite phone call facilities. It was only later that we came to know that everything they said was a lie and they had cheated us.”
The drinking water tank broke after less than a week at seam because of rough condition that also damaged the boat’s hull. The passengers were forced to drink unclean water for days, before even that ran out. “I thought I was going to die,” the woman said.
Priya explains that, when they saw lights in the distance, they steered the boat towards them before “slowly realising it was not a ship but an island”.
The boat's engine broke down as they neared the island on the morning of October 3. But soon “a British navy boat came towards us at full speed and we asked them for drinking water", Priya said.
They still wanted to press ahead on their voyage to Canada and asked for help from the Royal Navy to repair the boat. A couple of days later, they were told it was not possible to get the vessel into a sufficiently seaworthy shape to continue. They were stuck on Diego Garcia.
Hell in paradise
People on the voyage told The National that they thought they were going to die at sea, only to be faced with a different kind of despair once it became clear they could not leave easily.
With pristine, palm tree-lined beaches and wild donkeys friendly enough to be patted, on the surface Diego Garcia resembles an island paradise. The territory is one of the Chagos Islands, which sit in the Indian Ocean and became British territory after the Napoleonic Wars.
It is constitutionally separate from the UK, but is run by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. An airstrip was built on the island during the Second World War and the UK purchased the Chagos Islands from what at the time was the self-governing colony of Mauritius, creating a British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in the process.
The government of Mauritius has long argued it was illegally forced to give the islands away in return for independence from the UK in 1968. British authorities last month agreed to give sovereignty of the island to Mauritius, in return for retaining control for the next 99 years of the military base it leases to the US.
That means the military personnel on the island, who number between 3,000 and 5,000, will remain there for the time being.
The base is of strategic importance to the US Air Force, whose bombers used the island to launch attacks on Afghanistan after 9/11, as well as carrying operations during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It remains crucial for US power projection in the region. To cater for the needs of military personnel and their families, there are shops, bowling alleys, softball pitches, tennis courts and parks, as well as clubs where military personnel dance at foam parties or play pool and darts.
The Tamils' claim for asylum is the first to be launched on a BIOT. It has resulted in a prolonged and complex legal battle as they push to be relocated and for the harsh conditions in which they have been held to be improved, all set against the backdrop of political wrangling about the UK’s immigration policy and its colonial legacy.
The Commissioner for Diego Garcia, the UK civil servant who governs the territory, accepts he cannot return them to Sri Lanka, as that would breach international law. At a court hearing on Diego Garcia last month, the first to be held there for 40 years, lawyers representing the Tamils argued they were being detained unlawfully. A decision in the case is due later this year.
Squalid conditions
Conditions in the 100-metre by 140-metre area near the military base, where the Tamils have been confined, is anything but idyllic. Priya said they were put into nine tents at first, with about 15 people living in each one.
Men and women shared one toilet, there were no medical facilities and not enough food or drinking water. “We were told that if we try to leave the camp where we were held, the US military would shoot us,” she added.
UN representatives who visited the camp in 2023 heard allegations of sexual assault and harassment carried out by other asylum seekers.
It’s absolutely insane that the vast majority of his life has been lived in a tent infected by rats
Martin Short,
lawyer
The sense of hopelessness felt by the Tamils, a group that 16 children, has resulted in recurrent attempts and suicide and cases of self-harm by more than 20 people, including Priya. The UN refugee agency agreed with previous assessments that the conditions "fail to provide the necessary standards of privacy, safety and dignity".
“Diego Garcia is a hell island. We think that death is better than living like this situation on Diego Garcia,” one asylum seeker said. “We can't go back to Sri Lanka or India …. that's why we are stay here like this.”
Mr Short says delays in dealing with the Tamils have been dragging on so long that many of the younger members of the group know no other way of life.
“To put it out in some context, our youngest client is about to turn five next month, and he has been there since he was one,” he says. “It’s absolutely insane that the vast majority of his life has been lived in a tent infected by rats.”
Some of the asylum seekers secured the right for to move around more freely on the island, after going to court this year.
A handful were sent to Rwanda to receive medical treatment after falling ill, or after surviving attempts at suicide. They have remained in the capital, Kigali, but their future still rests on the outcome of the Diego Garcia legal case.
Life in Rwanda
The UK government proposed sending migrants who arrived in small boats to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed, in a bid to deter them from making crossing the Channel from France. The scheme foundered after refugee groups launched legal action on the basis that the central African country was unsafe, although one asylum seeker went voluntarily.
There are currently eight Tamil asylum seekers living in Rwanda.
Priya says she was driven to despair after being told she would be sent back to Sri Lanka at the beginning of last year. She also says she was raped in Diego Garcia by a man living in the same tent as her.
“I was thinking of suicide because I had no protection," she says. "There was no point to my life after losing my dignity. I was so afraid that if I fall into the hands of the Sri Lankan army again, they will torture and kill me.”
Priya and her father, who is unwell, are living in an apartment in Kigali, rather than the hotel the Rwandan authorities prepared to receive asylum seekers. But she says she does not feel safe there.
“Many times, burglars came to my apartment," she explains. "I could not sleep at night because we were so afraid of burglars. I went to the police station several times, but the police have not taken any action.”
Soon after arriving in Rwanda, Priya was told she would not be sent back to Sri Lanka and that UK authorities were working to find a safe third country for her.
Rwandan official Doris Uwicyeza Picard has told the BBC that all the migrants transferred from Diego Garcia were being treated “to the best of our ability”. She said the migrants’ concerns about the safety of the country are not shared by local people.
“It breaks my heart to hear that somebody may not feel safe in this country, especially when we've worked very hard to make this country safe for everyone," she added.
The National has sought a response from Ms Uwicyeza Picard.
End in sight?
The British government’s reluctance to grant the Tamils asylum in the UK stemmed from a fear that the Chagos Islands could be used as a back door for asylum seekers to arrive in the country, Mr Short explained.
Handing back the islands to Mauritius removed that possibility. Any new migrants arriving on the islands will be sent to St Helena in the south Atlantic, but the Tamils will not be part of that group.
An agreement has now been reached for some of the Tamils on Diego Garcia and Rwanda to be transferred to a UN emergency transit centre for asylum seekers in Romania for six months. During that time, the UK government may offer them the chance to go to other countries, while the remaining 28 unaccompanied men remain on Diego Garcia. Others have been offered an enhanced voluntary package to return to their countries of origin.
“This government inherited a deeply troubling situation which remained unresolved under the last administration for years after the migrants’ arrival on Diego Garcia, resulting in mounting legal challenges," a UK government spokeswoman said.
“The British Indian Ocean Territory has never been a suitable long-term location for migrants. Migrants’ welfare and safety have been our top priority and UK ministers have worked hard to find solutions and contingency plans which protect the integrity of British territorial borders and migrant welfare.”
Mr Short says that, in the face of the conditions and allegations of abuse, it is “incumbent on the UK government to take decisive action to ensure our clients are relocated immediately".
“Everybody thinks they need to come off the island and the UN agrees with that,” he said. “If the judge agrees with us that they're unlawfully detained on the island, the main thing is that it adds further weight to the argument they have to be removed even if it's the UN facility or it's some other solution that the government comes up with. It's just untenable for them to stay on the island.”
For Priya, moving on to Romania seems the most probable next step, although the prospect of living in another camp fills her with dread. All she wants is for “peaceful sleep and a safe place” to live.
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
Pakistan v New Zealand Test series
Pakistan: Sarfraz (c), Hafeez, Imam, Azhar, Sohail, Shafiq, Azam, Saad, Yasir, Asif, Abbas, Hassan, Afridi, Ashraf, Hamza
New Zealand: Williamson (c), Blundell, Boult, De Grandhomme, Henry, Latham, Nicholls, Ajaz, Raval, Sodhi, Somerville, Southee, Taylor, Wagner
Umpires: Bruce Oxerford (AUS) and Ian Gould (ENG); TV umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS); Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
Tickets and schedule: Entry is free for all spectators. Gates open at 9am. Play commences at 10am
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Dunki
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Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Bawaal%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nitesh%20Tiwari%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Varun%20Dhawan%2C%20Janhvi%20Kapoor%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Joe Root's Test record
Tests: 53; Innings: 98; Not outs: 11; Runs: 4,594; Best score: 254; Average: 52.80; 100s: 11; 50s: 27
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
'Champions'
Director: Manuel Calvo
Stars: Yassir Al Saggaf and Fatima Al Banawi
Rating: 2/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Under-21 European Championship Final
Germany 1 Spain 0
Weiser (40')
Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
ALRAWABI%20SCHOOL%20FOR%20GIRLS
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bundesliga results
Mainz 0 Augsburg 1 (Niederlechner 1')
Schalke 1 (Caligiuri pen 51') Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Miranda og 81')
Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday
Borussia Dortmund v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm kick-off UAE)
Bayer Leverkusen v Schalke (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Cologne (5.30pm)
Mainz v Arminia Bielefeld (5.30pm)
Augsburg v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Bayern Munich (8.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Freiburg (10.30pm)
Sunday
VfB Stuttgart v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Union Berlin v Hertha Berlin (8pm)
MIDWAY
Produced: Lionsgate Films, Shanghai Ryui Entertainment, Street Light Entertainment
Directed: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Ed Skrein, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Luke Evans, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Darren Criss
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
box
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Student Of The Year 2
Director: Punit Malhotra
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal
1.5 stars
How to keep control of your emotions
If your investment decisions are being dictated by emotions such as fear, greed, hope, frustration and boredom, it is time for a rethink, Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, says.
Greed
Greedy investors trade beyond their means, open more positions than usual or hold on to positions too long to chase an even greater gain. “All too often, they incur a heavy loss and may even wipe out the profit already made.
Tip: Ignore the short-term hype, noise and froth and invest for the long-term plan, based on sound fundamentals.
Fear
The risk of making a loss can cloud decision-making. “This can cause you to close out a position too early, or miss out on a profit by being too afraid to open a trade,” he says.
Tip: Start with a plan, and stick to it. For added security, consider placing stops to reduce any losses and limits to lock in profits.
Hope
While all traders need hope to start trading, excessive optimism can backfire. Too many traders hold on to a losing trade because they believe that it will reverse its trend and become profitable.
Tip: Set realistic goals. Be happy with what you have earned, rather than frustrated by what you could have earned.
Frustration
Traders can get annoyed when the markets have behaved in unexpected ways and generates losses or fails to deliver anticipated gains.
Tip: Accept in advance that asset price movements are completely unpredictable and you will suffer losses at some point. These can be managed, say, by attaching stops and limits to your trades.
Boredom
Too many investors buy and sell because they want something to do. They are trading as entertainment, rather than in the hope of making money. As well as making bad decisions, the extra dealing charges eat into returns.
Tip: Open an online demo account and get your thrills without risking real money.
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Tom Fletcher on 'soft power'
MATCH INFO
Quarter-finals
Saturday (all times UAE)
England v Australia, 11.15am
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm
Sunday
Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
