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Starting point of a camel race at the Nad Al Sheba race track in Dubai. - Gulf News Archives

UAE enforces ban on child camel jockeys

2002 - The UAE started enforcing a strict ban on camel jockeys who are below 15 years from today, in line with the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan to ensure safe camel races, the Minister of Information and Culture said. Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the measures also include tightened security at UAE’s entry points to ensure that no children under 15 are admitted if it is suspected that they are being brought in to ride in camel races. Shaikh Abdullah said the Emirates Camel Racing Federation has always adopted a policy of discouraging the use of children in camel racing. But he added that parents and others living overseas have, unfortunately, continued to send children to the UAE for this purpose.

September 1

1879 - Britain signs peace treaty with Zulus in South Africa.

1905 - The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta enter into the confederation of Canada.

1914 - St Petersburg, Russia changes its name to Petrograd.

1923 - Great Kanto earthquake shakes the Tokyo metropolitan area, killing more than 142,000 people.

1928 - Albania becomes a kingdom.

1939 - Germany invades Poland, starting the Second World War.

1961 - United Nations breaks off relations with the Katanga government in Congo.

1962 - Singapore votes to join Federation of Malaysia.

1966 - French president Charles de Gaulle urges the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.

1971 - Qatar declares independence from Britain.

1972 - American Bobby Fischer wins the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.

1979 - US space probe Pioneer 11 becomes the first man-made object to reach Saturn.

1981 - President David Dacko of the Central African Republic is ousted by the army.

1983 - A Korean Airlines Boeing 747 is shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner enters Soviet air space, killing 269 people.

1985 - Sir Mohammad Zafarullah Khan, Pakistan’s first foreign minister, dies at age of 93.

1990 - Two Germanys sign a treaty providing a blueprint for merging the countries.

1991 - Lebanon and Syria sign a security pact.

1992 - France joins United States and British allies in enforcing the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.

1995 - Chandrababu Naidu, the son-in-law of film star-turned politician N.T. Rama Rao, succeeds him as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

1998 - Google is founded by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

2008 - American forces hands over Iraq’s western Anbar province to Iraqi security forces.

2011 - Chinese and Philippines leaders agree to transform the South China Sea as an area of friendship and cooperation.