Foreign News

Supported by Princes and top government officials, Saudi Arabia’s real estate developers are considering the demolition of some of Islam’s historic sites in Makkah.


The 1,400-year-old buildings from the early Islamic period are at risk for being demolished to make way for high-rise towers for Muslims flocking to perform the Hajj. As said by a historian in Makkah: “Its layers of history are being bulldozed for a parking lot”. Over the past 50 years at least 300 historical buildings have been levelled in Makkah and Madinah.A 1994 edict by the Kingdom’s senior council of religious scholars, ruled that preserving historical buildings might lead to polytheism. This edict is conveniently being used by real estate developers to expand their projects. Developers are spending around 50 billion riyals ($13 billion) on projects in the city for hotels, apartments and shops.

He can sleep on nails and shards of glass, and withstand boulders being broken on his chest. Meet Saad Ismail Jassim, a professional pearl diver, one of the last links in a breed which has nearly become extinct. Saad is 69 years old, thrice married, and has eight children. But his main calling was fetching pearls from the depths of the sea, a traditional vocation that is possible only for four to five months in a year when the Gulf waters are warm. Saad, who speaks fluent English, can be seen daily at the Heritage Village on the third floor of City Center during the Qatar Summer Wonders festival.


He recalled his days of pearl diving (“I still do it”), and explained how it used to be carried out before the discovery of oil. For hundreds of years, the finest pearls in the world were found in the waters of the Arabian Gulf. The ancient pearling industry provided the only real income for people of the region.

Saudi Arabia, has announced easing of foreign manpower recruitment procedures as part of several key initiatives to make the Kingdom investor-friendly.Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, head of the Supreme Economic Council, in charge of economic reforms, approved the implementation of 17 agreements between the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority [SAGIA] and relevant government departments to make Saudi Arabia more investment-friendly. SAGIA chief, Amr Al-Dabbagh said the agreements allow offering special incentives for projects that contribute to the GDP by easing process of bringing in expatriate workers they need. Other measures include offering special incentives to locals and foreigners who invest in less developed areas of the vast Kingdom and drafting plans to raise the operational capacity of Saudi ports.

Sitting down for a personal meeting with Bill Gates last fortnight, 10-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa asked the Microsoft founder why the company does not hire people her age. Under the circumstances, the question was not so unreasonable. Arfa, a promising software programmer from Faisalabad, Pakistan, is believed to be the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world. Arfa received the certification when she was still 9. It began at age 5, when she walked by a computer lab at her school and started wondering about those strange “boxes,” the computers and monitors. She persuaded her father to buy a computer, and demonstrated unexpected aptitude, using Microsoft PowerPoint and other programs. Encouraged by what she was doing, her father took her to Applied Technologies, or APTECH, an advanced computer institute nearby. “I saw her making presentations,” said her father, Amjad Karim, who serves with a U.N. peacekeeping force in Africa She has created basic Windows applications, such as a calculator and a sorting program, primarily in the C# programming language. The certification she received was as a Microsoft Certified Application Developer.

Remote-controlled robot jockeys have made their debut as camel riders in the United Arab Emirates, competing in a trial race after the Gulf Arab state tightened a ban on child jockeys. Robots weighing up to 15kg were dressed in the clothes of human jockeys during the race held in the capital Abu Dhabi recently. The UAE outlawed using children under 18 in camel races, a practice condemned internationally as a form of slavery. UAE officials plan to order up to 10,000 robots from Asian countries at the cost of about $2000 each.

The Australian Police is looking for objectionable Islamic books being sold at several Islamic bookstores in the country. It is investigating if the book titled Defence of Islamic Lands which carries a picture of Osama Bin Laden on the title page could be seized from circulation. New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroni has said the police is trying to ascertain if it the said book incites violence. The book discusses if the strategy of suicide bombing is effective. Another book which has raised umpteen eyebrows is titled as Join the Caravan. The book wonders if the Muslim youth could be any longer stopped from waging Jihad. The Police Commissioner said the Police is seeking legal advice as to proscribing the books. Moroni said he personally considered such literature provocative. It may be recalled that the Western world which include Australia and New Zealand too, considers the banning of books violative of basic freedom of speech and had raised a great ruckus over banning of Satanic Verses by India and several other countries.

The Institute of Transport Management (ITM), London has named Sharjah International Airport the best global airport this year. ITM Director Dr John Burke said, “I am delighted to announce Sharjah International Airport as Global Airport of the Year for their unique business initiatives and successes, especially with their introduction of the first new-concept airline in the Gulf and North African region and its huge success.”


“Their marketing efforts to generate traffic were unique, especially in this highly competitive market. Feedback from leading airlines was exceptional in its praise of standards of service provided by the airport,” he said. The Institute of Transport Management, founded in 1977, undertook more than 7,500 hours of research into standards of excellence at more than 200 airports worldwide before naming Sharjah Airport as the winner this year.

The United Arab Emirates will build a new town for Palestinians on the site of the demolished Jewish settlements once Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip. To be named as Khalifa bin Zayed City, after UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, it would house 30,000 to 40,000 Palestinians at a cost of at least $100 million. This is a gift from the President to the Palestinian people in order to help ease their ordeal and offer them proper housing.