Traffic fine discounts brighten up the week

Our coverage of the historic visit of Pope Francis to the UAE was the front, back and centre of the Khaleej Times newspaper. We covered every aspect and angle of his visit and, as expected, our online stories days before his arrival, during his actual visit and the day he left were the most viewed, shared and discussed by netizens – averaging close to half a million page views daily this past week.

Everything about the Pope was a fodder to the news mill, even a playful tweet on Tuesday by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) rubbishing a “Photoshopped tweet” that private schools in Dubai will enjoy a week-long holiday. It got 25,000 views, was searched 7,000 times and

shared 2,000 times – mostly by parents, we guessed – hours after we posted it.

But it was not just the papal visit that was good news to our readers. When we broke the story that motorists can get up to 100 per cent discount on Dubai traffic fines, our page views went through the roof. Our online report got over 437,000 page views, was searched 76,000 times and shared over 91,000 times.

It was a fitting announcement in line with the Year of Tolerance, and the Dubai Police got kudos from our readers.

On another note, the UAE government has dismissed reports it had detained a British citizen for supporting Qatar during a football

tournament. The UAE Embassy in the UK clarified that the dual SudaneseBritish citizen was not arrested for wearing a Qatar football shirt but was charged with wasting police time and making false statements. The online report got 21,000 page views and was shared and posted by netizens 18,000 times.

But there was one lucky Indian expat who became the envy of many netizens for a good reason. Prashanth Pandarathil became Dh10 million richer after winning the Big Ticket Abu Dhabi lottery on Sunday. The story got 56,000 views, was searched 24,000 times and shared 22,000 times.

We just hope Prashanth will also “share” some of his blessings with us.