On Sept. 5, a flight from Emirati airline company, Emirates, landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York with several ill passengers onboard. The flight, which departed from Dubai, was quarantined at the airport and passengers were examined by health officials. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 100 people aboard the plane had complained about symptoms. However, after health evaluations, only 10 were taken to the hospital.

Eric Philips — spokesman for the Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio — sent out continuous updates about the incident on Twitter. He confirmed in his final tweet that the affected passengers had suffered from influenza. Ultimately, ten people tested positive for the illness.

“Follow-up tests complete: nothing other than influenza and some common cold viruses found. The patients are being released from the hospital,” Phillips wrote, also encouraging people to get flu vaccines.

According to another tweet from Philips, the illness was suspected to have come from passengers who had performed the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca and were in-transit through Dubai before returning to the U.S. An outbreak of the flu was reported in Mecca shortly before the incident. Vanilla Ice — creator of the 90s classic Ice Ice Baby — who was on the flight to JFK, also took to Twitter to add some humor to an otherwise chaotic turn of events.

“This is crazy. Apparently there is [sic] over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy I’m up top, it’s a double-decker plane 380.”

Residents of the UAE have taken to social media to claim that their call function on WhatsApp worked for the first time last Saturday. This is despite the UAE’s de facto ban on so-called Voice over Internet Protocol services. VoIP is most commonly used in the context of voice-calling through the use of internet data. In the UAE, such services can only be administered by licensed providers that which are all owned by either du or Etisalat — neither of which offer the service at present.

The claims have been refuted by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority that has authority over the licensing of cell providers.

The social media claims come after Emirati businessman and founder of the Al Habtoor Group, Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, posted a video on Twitter on Sept. 9 calling for legal changes to allow WhatsApp calls.

Similarly, social media influencer, Khalid Al Ameri, recently posted a video on Facebook in which he interviewed people in Abu Dhabi about their opinion on the UAE block on Skype calling. Since it is not a licensed cell provider, Skype is subject to the same law. Al Ameri, like Al Habtoor, called for an end to the de facto ban. He argued that it limits the UAE’s ability to connect with the world.

Abu Dhabi Police, in cooperation with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Economic Development, raided an apartment in Abu Dhabi on Sept. 12, Gulf News reports. A group of women were caught running an unlicensed ladies beauty salon in the apartment. Such activity is illegal in the emirate. As a result, equipment was seized from the apartment and the staff were fined for working without a license. Ahmad Tarish Al Qubaisi, acting director of the commercial protection division of the DED, told Gulf News that the raid was the result of a tip given to the department by a member of the public.

Guidelines issued by the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City establish the rules for women’s beauty and personal care centers. Staff at these centers must hold a variety of licenses, centers must live up to various facility guidelines and must be registered with the DED.