ABU DHABI // At just 18 minutes past midnight, Fawzia al Muhairy gave the final push that helped her win a friendly competition initiated by hospital staff.
"I was competing with another mother in labour, I could hear her in labour and everyone was telling both of us to push to see which baby will come first, and my Dhaye came out first," said Mrs al Muhairy yesterday.
And so Dhaye al Muhairy, weighing 3.63kg, won the race to become the first baby of 2010 at Corniche Hospital.
Mrs al Muhairy said her labour was surprisingly fast and easy, perhaps due to the motivation of wanting to be the mother of the first baby of the new year.
Dhaye's father, Mi'ad al Muhairy, said he was dazed from the excitement and joy of his daughter's arrival, and left the naming of the baby up to his wife.
"We already have two boys and two girls, and we didn't want to know what the gender of this baby was so we had no name picked out," he said.
But upon meeting her daughter, Mrs al Muhairy was adamant about calling the newborn Dhaye.
"Dhaye means a special light," she said. "She is the joy and light and blessing of our new year, so it is a good name."
She added that she had expected a boy from comparing this pregnancy to her other experiences, and had gone overboard buying boys clothes in different shades of blue.
Now, she said, "We have to go shopping for her soon and buy some pink clothes."
Dhaye's birth was the first of four more girls arriving in the new year.
Pamela Bartridge, the obstetrics services coordinator at Corniche Hospital, said that the first five babies of 2010, born between midnight and 4am, were girls.
The last baby of 2009 also happened to be a girl.
At 10.05pm on Thursday, Maram Wanis, weighing 3.43kg, became the hospital's last baby of the year.
The baby girl, who spent most of the hours following her birth sleeping soundly in her father's arms and decked in pink from head to toe, is the first child to grace the Wanis family.
"I'm so excited; I'm so proud," said her father, Abduladim Wanis from Libya, who works as a petroleum engineer at the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations.
A mere two years ago, Mr Wanis was living and working in Vienna, and was eager to move to an Arab country where he could meet a woman and raise a family.
"The reason I moved to work in Abu Dhabi is so I can settle down, get married, have a family," said Mr Wanis.
"And thank God, all my wishes came true, and a year after marriage, look at me, I'm a father! This is the perfect end to the year."
Mr Wanis said he has not been able to stop grinning since the arrival of Maram and he is already at ease handling her.
"The name Maram means something like a wish or desire; something you really want, which is a perfect name for my daughter."
At first, both parents worried that it would be a difficult birth.
"We were told that as a first delivery, and because of some complications, it may have been a difficult labour, and we were prepared for that," Mrs Wanis said.
"But as soon as my baby was born, I forgot everything, I forgot the pain and just saw her."
Mr Wanis marvelled that soon after they were told of the possible complications, they asked their families to pray for them through the night. Mrs Wanis's condition rapidly changed for the better.
"I think it is because of the prayers of our families that Maram made it safely into the world and answered all our wishes," Mr Wanis said.
Nineteen babies were born at the Corniche Hospital on Thursday.
@Email:hkhalaf@thenational.ae
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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Manchester United 2
(Martial 30', McTominay 90 6')
Manchester City 0
Afghanistan squad
Gulbadin Naib (captain), Mohammad Shahzad (wicketkeeper), Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
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Tries: Laumape, J Barrett
Conversions: B Barrett
Penalties: B Barrett
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Penalties: Farrell (4), Daly
Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
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
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Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
The specs: 2018 Maserati Ghibli
Price, base / as tested: Dh269,000 / Dh369,000
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 355hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.9L / 100km
