A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Iran’s on Saturday, disrupting communications but with no immediate reports of casualties.  The epicentre was in the rural Negar region in southwest Kerman. There were no immediate reports of casualties. A similar quake shook Iran’s northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi, on Friday injuring 170 people

Iran, including the capital Tehran, sits astride several major fault lines in the earth’s crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating.

In the last month or so Fly Dubai has added new destinations  to Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Colombo. It also introduced on line booking services.

The latest reported news  is that it is giving all passengers a 100% reimbursement of their fare if they travel between 15th August and 6th September 2010 during the holy month of Ramadan.

Passengers will only have to pay for the taxes for certain flights booked before 1st August with travel dates between 15th August and 6th September and the fare will be given back to passengers in the form of a voucher via email on 9th September 2010. Passengers receiving these vouchers would have the privilege of using them on any flydubai route and is valid until 8th December 2010. Be quick!

Public buses have commuted around 56 million passenger journeys so far in 2010. It is forecasted to reach  119 million passengers trips by the end of the current year. Bus punctuality has reached a high of 62%  with a drop of accidents rate to 1 accident per 100 thousand kilometers.  The bus depots at Al Khawaneej & Jebel Ali wil be opened in August this year.

In July 201o the  Department of Economic Development (DED), today, introduced a new ‘Business Dashboard’ on its website, www.dubaided.gov.ae. The initiative is part of DED’s efforts to help businesses and investors save time and effort by completing the business registration process swiftly and at their convenience on-line.

In addition to a new segment, ‘Business Pulse’, which gives an overview of the current economic and business trends, ‘Business Dashboard’ serves as a one-stop facility for a range of business services. These include reserving the trade name, renewal of trade name reservation, updating the trade license data, free re-printing of the trade license, renewal of licenses, enquiries about the status of the transaction, and electronic payment. The most recent service added is electronic initial approval of licenses permits for most activities.

The site also provides a “Step by step” service, electronic newsletters and “Rasaeli”, which allows investors to contact DED staff through an account on the website. Investors can also inquire about the commercial activities, the number of licenses issued as per activity, the addresses of companies, and the estimated fees for the issuance of a license or its renewal.

introduced a new ‘Business Dashboard’ on its website, www.dubaided.gov.ae to help businesses and investors to complete the business registration process swiftly at their convenience on-line.

A new segment, ‘Business Pulse’ gives an overview of the current economic and business trends, ‘and serves as a one-stop facility for a range of business services. These include:

•  reserving the trade name,
•  renewal of trade name reservation,
•  updating the trade license data,
•  free re-printing of the trade license,
•  renewal of licenses,
• enquiries about the status of the transaction,
•  electronic payment.
•  The most recent service added is electronic initial approval of licenses permits for most activities.

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Metro

 Dubai Metro service hours during the holy month of Ramadan

• Weekdays:  6am to 1am during
• Fridays:   2 pm to 1 am

Parking charges – times.

 Al Tayer announced that the RTA has revised the working hours of paid parking zones during the holy month,

• Morning session unchanged:   08:00am to 01:00pm
• Evening session: from 07:00pm  to  midnight.

So afternoon free parking is extended but parking from 9 – midnight is now chargeable.

So the same number of hoursfor using parking zones in the evening session – Revising the parking timing in the evening session is intended to ease the pressure on parking users in the afternoon up to Iftar time.