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Syria top priority as Saudi crown prince visits Turkey

Al Arabiya | 5.21.13

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz will visit Turkey on Tuesday with the Syrian conflict at the top of his agenda, according to Al Arabiya.The planned two-day visit comes as violence rages in Syria between Syrian government forces ... Continue Reading and rebels. The Crown Prince Salman is set to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and a number of other Turkish officials. They are looking to discuss the two-year Syrian conflict and Iran's nuclear program. hide

Saudi Arabia to import near record high diesel this summer

Al Arabiya | 5.20.13

Saudi Arabia will import near record high diesel volumes this summer, as it gears up to beat the sweltering heat and meet rising travel needs during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, trade sources said.State oil giant Saudi Aramco will import ... Continue Reading up to 8.9 million barrels of diesel in June, up from an estimated 6.7m to 7.5m barrels in May, according to the sources, who expect at least the same volume or higher to be booked for July.Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia shipped in record diesel volumes of 8.99m barrels in July, 2011, up from 8.13m in June that year, government data published from 2002 through the Joint Organizations Data Initiative showed. hide

Saudis minimise Umrah visas for Pakistanis

The Nation (PK) | 5.21.13

The Saudi government has minimised the number of visas for Umrah during coming Ramadan to 25,000 only whereas last year this number was 125,000, said a travel agent on Monday. He said that travel agents have issued 52000 tickets to the pilgrims ... Continue Reading across the country for the coming Ramadan and these tickets are non-refundable. Tickets are issued by 12 airlines including PIA. A PIA officer seeking anonymity said that the PML-N upcoming government should take up the issue with the Saudi government since it would be a matter of big loss not only for the PIA and other airlines but for poor pilgrims also. He said that the PIA would be bound to operate its Jumbo and B-777LR and B-777ER for Umrah operation whether or not there was passengers load on the flight. Ultimately the PIA would have to operate under load flights causing huge losses of revenue hide

Kerry Heads to Mideast to Push Peace From Syria to Israel

Bloomberg | Indira A.R. Lakshmanan | 5.20.13

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will try during a weeklong Mideast tour to bring Syria's warring parties to peace talks and to revive negotiations for a two-state agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.In Oman today, his first stop, ... Continue Reading Kerry will meet Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said to discuss efforts to persuade the Syrian regime and opposition to agree on a cease-fire and transitional government to end a conflict that has taken more than 70,000 lives over the past two years, according to United Nations estimates. hide

Saudi Arabia signs accord to protect Philippine maids

Al Arabiya | 5.20.13

The Philippines said Monday it had signed a historic agreement with Saudi Arabia that would protect thousands of Filipina maids from being exploited in the Middle Eastern kingdom.The agreement guarantees Filipina maids benefits like a day off ... Continue Reading each week while preventing their hiring costs from being deducted from their salary among other safeguards, said Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz in a statement. hide

Fresh Israeli Face Plays Down Political Decline

New York Times | Jodi Rudoren | 5.20.13

Mr. Lapid, a popular television host with no political experience, stunned Israel in January by galvanizing the secular middle class around kitchen-table concerns to make his new Yesh Atid Party the second largest in Parliament. He was ... Continue Reading immediately crowned a kingmaker, and talked openly about quickly replacing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. hide

Saudi investor to delay Sudan farm project over dollar curbs

Ahram Online | 5.20.13

Struggling with foreign currency shortages, Sudan's central bank has made it almost impossible to transfer dollars abroad for firms outside the oil sector dominated by Chinese firms. Mohammed Hadi al-Barqawi, head of Riyadh-based Hadi ... Continue Reading Property Investment firm, said he had been mulling with a Turkish partner a 100,000 feddan (acre) project to produce wheat, soya, sorghum and animal feed in Sudan's northern state, which borders Egypt. "Sudan has everything... all the agricultural and human resources which could help secure food for a large number of countries," he told Reuters. hide

Saudi youth ‘must brush up job skills’

Arab News | Diana Al Jassem | 5.20.13

Saudi Arabia needs sectors that employ people, move the engine of the economy and help it achieve sustainability, says Nael Fayez, CEO of INJAZ-Saudi Arabia."Industries that drive the local economy need to be encouraged," he told Arab ... Continue Reading News."Importantly, we need to streamline our education and service sectors that are vital for every family and generate new employment opportunities," he said. hide

In Iran, opponents use age to attack Rafsanjani campaign

Washington Post | Jason Rezaian | 5.21.13

In a political order where elderly men have long been considered the most fit leaders, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's age -- 78 -- is the latest reason his detractors say he should not be allowed to run for president of Iran. Since entering ... Continue Reading the race to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on May 11, the two-term former president and founding member of the Islamic republic has been the target of focused criticism by Iran's conservative establishment, which considers him a threat to its continued influence. hide

Middle East in spotlight amid escalating cyber attacks

Saudi Gazette | 5.20.13

The Middle East has become a hotspot for cyber attacks, experts warn, amid an escalation of computer-led warfare across the globe. Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of Crowdstrike, a security technology specialist firm, told last week's Reuters ... Continue Reading Cybersecurity Summit in Washington that he is most concerned about cyber attacks linked to Iran, particularly if there is a spike in tensions in the Middle East. He said that there is a worry that hackers from unspecified countries could destroy or modify crucial financial data in the United States, following attacks on more than a dozen US banks in the past nine months. hide

Opinion: Female teachers: Les Miserables

Saudi Gazette | Abed Khazandar | 5.20.13

There are substitute women teachers who have been contracted by the Ministry of Education under temporary contracts with low salaries. There are about 10,000 female teachers who have worked for some time in adult education. Two royal decrees ... Continue Reading were issued to fix all temporary male and female teachers in permanent jobs. For an unknown reason the substitute women teachers were excluded from this decision. Another royal decree was issued about two years ago specifically asking for confirmation of the substitute teachers, but this never happened. The Ministry of Education said the royal decree meant only the women teachers who were on the job at the time, though the decision was conclusive and general and did not exclude anyone. hide

Opinion: Arab Energy Efficiency Day: Need to raise public awareness

Saudi Gazette | Anjum Iqbal | 5.20.13

The Arab world  is celebrating Arab Energy Efficiency Day today. The Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity has set aside May 21 each year as the day for the Arab world to raise awareness about the importance of energy efficiency. On this day ... Continue Reading Arab energy institutions undertake social events to develop the culture of energy conservation and efficiency in their countries. Energy conservation and efficiency are both energy reduction techniques. Energy conservation refers to  reducing the amount of energy usage from the power source.  Energy conservation differs from efficient energy which refers to applying techniques using less energy for a constant service. Reducing the number of days of using your car per month is energy conservation. Using a car with better mileage is energy efficiency. hide

May 20th, 2013 Edition

Saudi vies to avoid Afghan-style blowback from Syria

Yahoo/AFP | Assad Aboud | 5.20.13

Chastened by the experience of Afghanistan, where hundreds of Saudis fought before returning to sow terror at home, the kingdom is battling to avoid similar blowback from the conflict in Syria, analysts say.In recent months, Saudi officials have ... Continue Reading issued increasingly stern warnings against volunteers from the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom heading off to fight alongside the mainly Sunni rebels trying to oust the Damascus regime. hide

Saudi woman makes history by reaching Everest summit

BBC News | 5.18.13

A Saudi woman has made history by reaching the summit of the world's highest mountain. Raha Moharrak, 25, not only became the first Saudi woman to attempt the climb but also the youngest Arab to make it to the top of Everest. She is part ... Continue Reading of a four-person expedition that also includes the first Qatari man and the first Palestinian man attempting to reach the summit. They are trying to raise $1m (660,000) for education projects in Nepal. hide

Saudi Arabia’s ‘barbed wire battle’ for security

Al Arabiya | Jamal Khashoggi | 5.19.13

Walls in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh. Photo by Lucien Zeigler for SUSTG.org. We cannot say that Saudi Arabia has prevailed against terrorism as long as high walls and barbed wire are still surrounding residential housing compounds for European, American and Arab expatriates who work in the Kingdom. These compounds are ... Continue Reading still protected by guards who are heavily armed.Ten years ago, Riyadh was rocked by midnight suicide bombings targeting four housing compounds for expatriates; 26 civilians from several nationalities died and 170 were injured. It turned out later on that the goal of this deadly terrorist attack was to cause the largest possible number of deaths. We knew soon after, that the attackers were young Saudi men drowned in the abyss of extremism, fanaticism and hatred.Through these bombings, the attackers wanted to issue a "political statement" representing their own vision and that of the Sheikhs and people provoking them to attack the kingdom. Late King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz speech at the Shura Council a few days later, was an indirect response to their acts. hide

Big Oil’s Saudi Aramco Builds LEED Certified Homes in Riyadh

Green Prophet | Margaret Stoner | 5.18.2013

The irony here is clear: the first international LEED certified housing complex is built by an oil research facility in Saudi Arabia. Though in some ways, the construction of the King Abdullah Petrolum Studies and Research Center (KEPSARC) is ... Continue Reading not so surprising. Pioneering the sustainable and green building movement in a country with a growing population and dwindling resources seems like a smart economic move for any industry. hide

Embassy Threats Grow in Mideast

Wall Street Journal | Siobhan Gorman | 5.17.2013

The U.S. is seeing a spike in al Qaeda-related terror plots and threats against its embassies in Libya, Yemen and Egypt, say current and former U.S. officials citing domestic and foreign intelligence reports. The threats against U.S. missions ... Continue Reading in Tripoli and Yemen\'s capital, Sana\'a, are believed to involve bomb plots by Sunni extremists and perhaps al Qaeda-linked individuals, and have set off alarms among U.S. officials still shaken by last September\'s attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. hide

SUSRIS: Muslim Schindlers – Mulhim

SUSRIS | Abdulateef Al-Mulhim | 5.19.13

During the Holocaust, it wasn't only Jewish lives that were saved by Muslims. The Sarajevo Haggadah, a 600-year-old manuscript, which was hidden from the Nazis, was given to a Muslim cleric to hide it. Interestingly, he kept it under the floor ... Continue Reading of a mosque until the war ended. All these events tell us that our creator had created us to help each other not hurt each other. And now, we saw 65 years of attacks and counterattacks and no peace is achieved. The Middle East is going through the most difficult times in its history and the longer we wait in bringing different parties together the more difficult it will be to solve anything. The Palestinians and the Israelis must take every initiative for the sake of the future generations. History taught us that conflicts no matter how complicated they are can always be solved at the negotiation table not in the battlefield. hide

MOH confirms Saudi Arabia’s 31st coronavirus case

Arab News | 5.18.13

Another case of novel coronavirus infection in the eastern part of the kingdom was confirmed by the Ministry of Health on Saturday."One case of coronavirus has been recorded in the Eastern region, and he is now under the medical health care ... Continue Reading receiving the proper treatment," the MOH said in a brief statement posted on its website.The new discovery brings to 31 the total number of coronavirus infections in the Kingdom, mostly in the eastern town of Al-Ahsa, since the SARS-like virus first emerged in September 2012.Known as novel coronavirus, or nCoV, the new virus is from the same family as those that cause common colds and the one that caused the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that emerged in Asia in 2003. Most of the infections were in Al-Ahsa and a few were reported in Jeddah and Riyadh, said the MOH.Last week, the MOH and World Health Organization (WHO) said 15 of the nCov victims in Saudi Arabia have died.WHO said it had been informed of a total of 40 laboratory-confirmed cases worldwide, including 20 deaths. hide

Opinion: It’s not the lowest bidder always

Saudi Gazette | Rashid Al-Fouzan | 5.19.13

However, anyone who follows up on the government projects will notice that many of them are never completed on time or that their completion is not according to the required standards or quality. Years and years have passed on some projects ... Continue Reading without them being completed while the need for them is steadily growing. As a result, development remains to be an illusive goal and the gap in services remains unsolved. The government projects have been characterized by slowness, slackness and incompletion. In my opinion, the entire problem lies in the way the government projects are offered. The projects are usually offered to the lowest bidder. This is an actual fact despite repeated denials by the concerned government departments. When he opens his file to see why the project is behind schedule, the contractor will discover that he has spent his money not on the project itself but in some other areas. hide

Obama to discuss counterterrorism strategy

Google News | AFP | 5.20.13

President Barack Obama will discuss his counterterrorism strategy Thursday, revealing to the American public his plans for unmanned drones and Guantanamo Bay, the White House said Sunday.During his speech at the National Defense University in ... Continue Reading Washington, the president will discuss "our broad counter-terrorism policy, including our military, diplomatic, intelligence and legal efforts," a White House official told AFP."He will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as Al-Qaeda core has weakened but new dangers have emerged."The speech will come a little more than a month after the deadly twin bombings in Boston blamed on two ethnic Chechen brothers who lived in the United States for several years. hide

Saudi Arabia reports 73% decline in bounced checks

Al Arabiya | 5.19.13

Saudi Arabia has seen a 73 percent drop in the number of bounced checks since 2009, following the start of a government campaign aimed at consumers and businesses.The decline in the total value of bounced checks was even greater, falling to ... Continue Reading SR3.8 billion in 2012 from SR15bn in 2009, marking a decrease of 74.6 percent, according to a report by the Saudi Credit Bureau (SIMAH).SIMAH also provided figures on how many personal and commercial checks bounced. From 2009 to 2012, the total number of personal bounced checks decreased by 63 percent. The total number of commercial bounced checks decreased by 67 percent within the same time frame. hide
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