Upto Dh700,000 fine for sharing patient’s information without permission UAE

FNC passes new law to ensure privacy of patient’s data by all medical and health care professionals, and facilities

Abu Dhabi: Publishing a medical advertisement without a licence will attract a fine of between Dh100,000 and Dh200,000, according to a new Federal Bill passed yesterday (Tuesday) by the Federal National Council.

The new legislation also prohibits handling, transferring or storing of medical records and health information outside the country. Those who violate this article will face a fine ranging between Dh500,000 and Dh700,000.

Punitive measures against health facilities which violate the law will range from written notice, written warning, to a fine between Dh1,000 and Dh1 million through to temporary suspension and cancelling of permission to use the central information system.

Members of the Federal National Council yesterday passed the draft law on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in health care facilities across the country.

Members of the House stressed ICT is a major factor that will support the achievement of UAE’s various health care objectives, both in the short and long term.The ICTs-based health care law will be applicable to all health facilities across the country including those in free zones.

Abdul Rahman Mohammad Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention and Minister of Federal National Council (FNC) Affairs, said the new law envisages developing state-of-the-art, patient-centred health care delivery systems that match the best global standards and rank among the best in the world.

Innovation and excellence is a major theme of the health care development strategies of GCC member states. The UAE is at the forefront of such developments, with the UAE Vision 2021 aiming to create a world-class health care system.

UAE hospitals have already introduced smart medical records, enhancing how, where and why patient information is collected and stored. On the back of such advances, health and wellness tourism increased 12 per cent last year, with 350,000 visitors recorded.

According to the draft law, patients’ medical records and health information must be kept safe and private by all medical and health care professionals, and all health care facilities such as hospitals and clinics. The medical records and health information may not be released without written approval from the patients, except for information required by insurance companies and health care providers for review and approval of medical treatment, scientific and clinical research provided that ethics are met, preventive measures on request from health facilities and judicial authorities.

The draft law sets the minimum retention period of medical records and health information at 25 years.

The new legislation makes it illegal to publish any medical advertisement without a licence. It authorises the Ministry of Health and Prevention to ban websites which publish advertisements without licence from the ministry.

In the realisation of these ambitious health care goals, health care industries across the GCC states are expected to post double-digit annual growth rates over the coming years. And in the context of the growing local health needs and the prevailing medical focus on chronic diseases, GCC health care systems are also expected to undergo a major transformation going forward.

The ministry will set up a central system for storing and exchange of medical records and health information. The law obliges all health facilities to join the central system.

The ministry will also develop ICTs policies and carry out ICTs initiatives and programmes.

The ministry will also ensure integrity and credibility of the medical records and health information, according to the draft law.

The Cabinet will issue executive rules of the law within six months from the date of publishing this law in the official gazette.

The law will become effective three months after publishing in the official gazette.

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Shobhika Kalra: Meet the Dubai woman on wheelchair who helped build 1,000 ramps across UAE

Wheelchair-bound Shobhika Kalra, who has helped build over 1,000 ramps across UAE, is now creating a database to identify more locations

Dubai: Dubai-based Shobhika Kalra may be wheelchair-bound, but she makes sure she stays ahead of the game.

The 28-year-old, who has helped build over 1,000 ramps across the UAE, is set to raise the bar and rope in as many people as she can to identify more places that need to be wheelchair-friendly.

“As part of this campaign, we’re launching an app Wings of Angelz, named after our social initiative, to build a database of places that urgently require ramps. So far, whatever we’ve done has been project-specific and based on one-off inputs. We are now taking the initiative to the next level.”

That is no empty talk, considering Kalra has come a long way. The Indian expat, who suffers from a rare degenerative muscular disorder called Friedreich Ataxia, said dealing with challenges has been a way of life for her.

Turning point

A topper, she said she forced her parents, then in Abu Dhabi, to send her to boarding school when her grades once fell to second place. “I felt I was too pampered and convinced them I needed a hostel life. They enrolled me into a school in Hyderabad, India. But fate had other plans for me.”

Like all concerned mums, Kalra’s mother Dr Alka Kalra wanted her to get a medical check-up before she left. “She was concerned since I tended to lose my balance. At times, I couldn’t walk straight.”The check-up changed her life forever. “I was 13 and the diagnosis of my disorder shattered me.”

She said she was compelled to drop out of regular school as the classrooms were on the second floor. But thankfully, she was allowed to pursue distance learning from another institute. “This helped me regain my confidence. I not only finished schooling, but also went on to college and earned myself a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and a Master’s degree in Psychology.”

It didn’t matter that her condition, which has no cure, was getting worse. “I had to go on the wheelchair when I was 18,” she said.

Her mission to make the UAE wheelchair-friendly was born of an embarrassing experience back in India, when she had to be physically carried as a 19-year-old to her seat in a movie hall that did not have ramps. “We realised the UAE also has only a few ramps. so my sister Ruchika and I decided to bring about a change.”

She said, “I started with the pavement outside Rashidiya Metro Station. Although the station had ramps, the pavement outside didn’t. I just visited the RTA and told them about it. The idea was so well received and the ramp was built within a week.”

Clearly, there has been no looking back since

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National Centre of Meteorology posts video of massive funnel cloud hovering over water on Tuesday

Video: Rare waterspout spotted off RAK

National Centre of Meteorology posts video of massive funnel cloud hovering over water on Tuesday

Dubai

A rare fair-weather waterspout swirled across coastal waters off Ras Al Khaimah late Tuesday morning, said the national weather bureau.

The National Centre of Meteorology in Abu Dhabi posted an eyewitness video of the waterspout air-and-water column moving swiftly along coastal waters appearing to have dropped out of the storm clouds that have draped the north eastern reaches of the UAE since Sunday bringing heavy rains.There were no reports of any injuries on Tuesday morning from boats that may have been in the area.

The funnel cloud appears to have extended several thousand feet into low-level clouds.

Mohammad Al Khajeh, a national weather forecaster, confirmed the video was posted on Tuesday shortly after 11am on the weather centre’s twitter account.

“it’s rare,” Al Khajeh said.

Waterspouts are uncomming in the UAE given they need just the right storm cloud and rainy conditions to form.

He said waterspouts form when low-lying clouds leave a shorter vertical distance to the ocean surface and winds can quickly begin to swirl.

“The base of the cloud was very close to the sea and it created a rotation,” Al Khajeh said from the capital, adding water spouts can bring high winds and rough waters that can threaten watercraft navigating nearby.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, an American agency that reports on atmospheric and ocean conditions, waterspouts can take many forms on the water.

“They are sometimes seen as threatening funnel clouds descending from stormy skies. Others can be nearly invisible, like a ghostly spiral of wind skimming the sea surface. These eerie columns of rotating air are known as waterspouts — commonly defined as tornadoes over water,” said the agency on its website.

“Waterspouts usually develop over warm tropical ocean waters. They’re spotted in the Florida Keys more than any other place in the world. They’ve also been seen over the waters of the Great Lakes.

“Scientists that study waterspouts generally put them in two categories: fair weather and tornadic,” said NOAA.

Rainy, cloudy weather across the UAE is expected to clear by late Wednesday, said Khajeh.

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UAE amnesty: Heavy turnout leads to extension until December Dubai

Large number of applicants and slow procedures at some embassies prompt government to extend amnesty period for a month

Abu Dhabi: The Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (FAIC) announced on Tuesday that the visa amnesty will be extended for one more month.

The authority said that the heavy turnout of undocumented residents at the diplomatic missions of the foreign countries and Amnesty Centres and slow procedures at some of the diplomatic missions of foreign countries have prompted the government to extend the amnesty.

The authority had earlier announced a three-month long amnesty from August 1 to October 31, which would now be extended to December 1.

The extension will provide more time for the amnesty-seekers to regularise their residency status to stay in the country or leave without paying fines or getting an entry ban.Brigadier Saeed Rakan Al Rashidi, acting director-general for Foreigners Affairs and Ports at the FAIC, said the authorities will not offer any leniency to the residency-law violators after the extended amnesty period.

An extensive inspection campaign will be initiated across the country to arrest residency-law violators and they will be prosecuted as per the laws of the country and penalised for the whole period of violation with imprisonment followed by deportation, Brig Al Rashidi said.

He said the extension comes under the directives of the country’s leadership to make all efforts to help all residents and make their life easier.

During the extended period, the amnesty-seekers can also apply for a six-month visa under self-sponsorship to look for a job. They can either move to a new job visa, if they get a job offer, or leave the country after six months.

The authority also clarified that those who will be leaving the country on exit-passes can legally return to the country and there will be no entry ban on them. Even absconders who ran away from their sponsors can leave the UAE without getting the entry ban

However, those who entered the UAE illegally [without a visa] can renter the country after two years only.

Brig Al Rashidi said diplomatic missions of some countries were slowly processing their citizens’ amnesty applications. This caused delay in completing the procedures of residency-law violators.

He said all nine Amnesty Centres across the country will continue to welcome amnesty-seekers who wish to regularise their residency status or leave the country.

The initiative aims to make the “Emirates free from violators”. All undocumented residents can avail of this opportunity, the official said.

Location of Centres

There are nine Amnesty Centres for amnesty seekers across the UAE where they can regularise their residency status or get an exit pass to leave the UAE.

In Abu Dhabi, the centres are located at immigration office in Shahama, Al Ain and Al Gharbia. In Dubai the registration centre is in Al Aweer, while in other emirates, the main immigration offices act as Amnesty Centres.

Reception centres are there in Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain to facilitate amnesty-seekers.

Those who wish to clarify and obtain any information about the amnesty can call on the toll free number 8005111. This is operational 24/7 and people can communicate in multiple languages, including English and Urdu.

Embassies welcome amnesty extension

Bangladesh

The extension would immediately help around 4,500 Bangladeshi amnesty — seekers who are still waiting to receive their renewed passports, which have to come from Dhaka in Bangladesh, said Mohammad Imran, the Bangladeshi Ambassador to the UAE.

Of 22,000 (twenty-two thousand) amnesty seekers who approached the Bangladeshi missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, 15,000 (fifteen thousand) applied for passports and remaining 7,000 (seven thousand) for emergency certificates. “Around 10,500 (ten thousand and five hundred) passports and almost all emergency certificates were already issued,“ he said.

Pakistan

The decision [extension] would help all those amnesty-seekers who for one reason or another have not been able to complete their papers, said Moazzam Ahmad Khan, the Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE. “We urge all those who are illegal to come forward and avail themselves of the opportunity and not wait for the last moment,” he said.

Philippines

“We continue to urge our kababayans to avail of the amnesty programme. The extension signals that the UAE has generously provided more time to all with immigration concerns to have their documentation and legal issues resolved and apply for the amnesty,” said Paul Raymund Corte, Philippine Consul-General in Dubai.

Indonesia

Around 3000 Indonesian amnesty-seekers approached the Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, which issued 476 emergency passports for those wanting to go back home (most are still pending confirmation from the amnesty system), said Hussain Bagis, the Indonesian Ambassador to the UAE. The embassy also processed 1,725 passports (1,247 new passports and 488 extensions). “The embassy will facilitate our citizens during this extension,” he said.

Sri Lanka

The extension would give more time to those who could not use the amnesty period, said A Sabarulla Khan, Charge d’affairs at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Abu Dhabi. “We served about 600 Sri Lankans, of whom about 90 per cent took emergency certificates to return to Sri Lanka. The number of people calling over at the Embassy to apply for passports or emergency certificates has sharply declined. We urge all those Sri Lankans who stay in UAE without valid visa to regularise their status using the amnesty, he said.

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New York Man Built 200-Pound Bomb To Detonate On Election Day: Feds

A New York state man built a 200-pound bomb in his basement and planned to detonate it in Washington on Election Day, according to federal authorities who arrested him. 

Paul Rosenfeld, 56, of Tappan, intended to kill himself in the explosion and draw attention to his political beliefs, prosecutors said. They said Rosenfeld is a proponent of “sortition,” an ancient political system in which government officials are randomly selected.

“Rosenfeld concocted a twisted plan to draw attention to his political ideology by killing himself on the National Mall in Washington, D.C — risking harm to many others in the process,” Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “Rosenfeld’s alleged plan for an Election Day detonation cut against our democratic principles.”

Rosenfeld sent letters and text messages to a person in Pennsylvania ― identified by NBC News as a reporter ― in which Rosenfeld detailed his plan to blow himself up, authorities said. The person contacted law enforcement, and on Tuesday, Rosenfeld was pulled over by police and arrested. 

Authorities said Rosenfeld admitted to ordering large quantities of explosive black powder over the Internet, which he’d transported from New Jersey to his home in Tappan. He said he used the substance to construct a large bomb in his basement.

He told investigators he installed “certain components in the explosive device to ensure that he was killed in the blast,” which he planned for Nov. 6 on the National Mall. 

Rosenfeld also admitted to building smaller bombs and conducting test detonations, prosecutors said. 

The Journal News reported that Rosenfeld’s home was searched Tuesday by law enforcement officials, who discovered what “appeared to be a bomb weighing about 200 pounds.” The explosive was removed by FBI bomb technicians and transported to a safe location.

Rosenfeld made his first appearance in federal court in New York on Wednesday, charged with unlawfully manufacturing a destructive device and also interstate transportation and receipt of an explosive. He faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.

Officials said they believe Rosenfeld acted alone and was not part of a larger terror organization. “Rosenfeld’s stated reason for these acts was to draw attention to his political belief in ‘sortition,’” Berman’s office said in a statement.

Sortition was “the main system for choosing political officials in ancient Athens,” The Daily Beast wrote in a 2014 explainer about the ideology, which noted there were some advocates in the United States. 

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Turkey sets free American pastor

IZMIR, Turkey — American pastor Andrew Brunson walked out of court a free man today after 24 months of imprisonment, including house arrest.

A Turkish judge convicted Brunson on charges of “providing aid to terrorist groups without being a member,” while sentencing him to time served and lifting a ban on foreign travel, clearing the way for his return to the U.S.

Brunson hugged his wife and shed tears of joy as he left the courtroom flanked by an American delegation. Making a statement in perfect Turkish, the Evangelical Presbyterian minister, who moved to Turkey in 1993, said, “I’m an innocent man — I love Jesus, and I love this country.”

Brunson’s release ends a sore diplomatic saga between Turkey and the U.S. Both President Trump and Vice President Pence have been outspoken in their calls for Turkey to release the pastor. After repeated attempts to negotiate a deal to secure Brunson’s release, the U.S. responded with sanctions against Turkey, worsening an economic crisis that has seen the Turkish lira lose nearly 40 per cent of its value this year. Brunson’s final hearing also came at an opportune time for Turkey as investigators continue probing the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Brunson, who had maintained his innocence throughout the the trial, ran a small Evangelical Presbyterian parish in the coastal city of Izmir with about 50 members. He was active in humanitarian aid projects to serve Syrian refugees, and that’s where Turkish investigators say he came in contact with members of terrorist groups.

He was jailed in October 2016 amid accusations of having links to groups Turkey blames for a bloody coup attempt three months earlier. Several of Brunson’s parishioners testified as witnesses, both for and against him.

The final courtroom drama played out in a series of bizarre and dramatic surprises as several witnesses for the prosecution recanted their testimonies.

One woman said she did not personally know Brunson. Two men contradicted their past assertions. When the newly appointed prosecutor asked them about past statements they made asserting that a parishioner — a member of the blacklisted Kurdistan Workers Party — was building bombs, both men said that the statements were rumors they had heard from the other.

One witness accused another who testified against Brunson of holding a vendetta after he was kicked out of the congregation.

Another witness was asked by the prosecutor why he believed Brunson was connected to terrorist groups. The man replied, “I never saw any bombs or bombers, but I’m a Turkish nationalist — to me, all Syrians are terrorists.”

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Australian law allows religious schools to reject gay students, PM says

(CNN)Prime Minister Scott Morrison said religious schools in Australia are already legally allowed to deny students a place based on their sexual orientation, following criticism of a leaked report that proposes allowing schools to bar them.

Morrison was commenting on the contents of a leaked report on religious freedoms, reigniting debate about what constitutes unlawful discrimination against gay people just months after Australia's Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage.

Fairfax Media reported Wednesday it had seen contents of the report, which recommended amendments to a federal law that allows religious schools to discriminate against students "on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status."

When asked if he thought religious schools should be able to turn away students on the basis of sexual orientation, Morrison demurred twice, saying "that is the existing law."

The Prime Minister's office said he was referring to a section in the federal Sex Discrimination Act that exempts religious educational institutions from some discrimination requirements. However, some states have passed their own discrimination laws and do not allow religious schools to reject students on the basis of sexual orientation.

"We're not proposing to change that law to take away that existing arrangement that exists," Morrison said.Morrison, who opposed the same-sex marriage bill and abstained from the final vote in December 2017, vowed to change the law to protect religious freedom in an interview last month, shortly after the sudden ouster of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. But Morrison said any new laws would take into account the religious freedom review, which Turnbull commissioned in order to assuage the concerns of marriage equality opponents who said the new law infringed on their religious rights.

The report was compiled after a public consultation period that attracted 15,000 submissions and submitted to Turnbull in May, but the government has yet to formally release it, Fairfax reported.

"We have a report that's been provided to the government. It's a report to government, not from government. It's a report that the government will be considering and developing a balanced response to, and we will do that in our orderly process, taking it through Cabinet," Morrison said Wednesday.

Critics, including civil liberty groups, members of the opposition Labor Party and gay rights advocates, said the government should not be proposing avenues for discrimination.

"The fact of the matter is that every child is entitled to human dignity. We shouldn't even be having this debate," opposition leader Bill Shorten said.

Alex Greenwich, an MP from Sydney and a gay rights activist, said he was concerned about the divisiveness of the report.

"One of the tragic things out of this report is it seeks to establish a narrative of gay versus God," he told Sky News Australia. "The faith community is largely supportive of the LGBTQI community and the LGBTQI community is very supportive and respective of the faith community."

According to Fairfax, the panel rejected the idea put forward by Australian conservatives that religious freedom was in "imminent peril."

It also found that businesses should not be allowed to refuse service to customers on religious grounds because it would "unnecessarily encroach on other human rights" and "may cause significant harm to vulnerable groups," Fairfax reported.

Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter said in a statement Wednesday that the report does not propose creating any new exemptions for religious schools to discriminate on the basis of sexuality, nor does it make any changes to the regime currently in place. The law was last amended in 2012, when the opposition Labor party was in power.

"The exemption that allows schools to make employment and student admission decisions in a way consistent with the tenets of their religion already exists for religious schools," he said.

Morrison said the report has not been considered by the Cabinet, but would be released "in due course."

"It will be released with a response from the Government, once we're in a position to advise our comprehensive response to that report, and once we've carefully considered and respectfully considered all the measures and recommendations and proposals that have been put forward," he said.

Mohammad Shakeel of Faisalabad annoyed the new way to stop the wife going out

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