Maid 'thought she delivered a dead baby girl'

Dubai: A housemaid thought she delivered a dead baby girl in a driving school before she put her in a plastic bag, which she dumped in a garbage container, her lawyer told a court yesterday.

"My client didn't intend to kill her newborn. She thought she delivered a dead baby girl inside the toilet of a driving school, where she sat for a driving test. When her labour contractions started, she delivered the girl ... The baby's face was blue and my client thought her baby had died, so she put her in the bag," the lawyer of the Filipina, M.K., told the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.

Mechanic gets a life sentence

A court has increased a mechanic's 15-year imprisonment to a life sentence for the premeditated murder of his compatriot after strangling him and robbing Dh29,000. The Dubai Court of Appeal increased the 22-year-old Syrian mechanic, J.F.'s initial verdict of 15 years in prison to 25 years in jail. He will be deported after serving his term.