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October 21, 2005 |
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***** The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz received the Diplomatic Corps Dean and Burkina Faso's Ambassador to the Kingdom Omar Diyawara; Dean of African Group and Cameroon's Ambassador; Dean of Arab Group and Qatar's Ambassador; Dean of Asian Group and Azerbaijan's Ambassador; Deputy Dean of South America and Venezuela's Ambassador; Deputy Dean of the European Group and Switzerland's Ambassador and Dean of Atlantic Group and New Zealand's Ambassador. The Monarch also received ambassadors of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries accredited to the Kingdom. The ambassadors conveyed to the King the greetings and congratulations of kings, presidents and emirs of their countries and the diplomatic corps accredited to the Kingdom on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan. In turn, the monarch sent his greetings to them, wishing Arab and Islamic countries and all the world blessings and many happy returns. The audiences were attended by Prince Abdulaziz Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on the anniversary of October 6 Crossing Day. In his own name and on behalf of the people and government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Monarch wished the President continuous good health and happiness and his people steady progress and prosperity. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques praised good relations binding the two brotherly countries and their peoples. A similar cable of congratulations was sent to the Egyptian president on this occasion by Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has issued his directives to extend SR 500 million to Pakistan, said a statement released by the Royal Court. The amount will be used in reconstruction of some infrastructure installations notably schools, hospitals and roads in the country. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques ordered the Minister of Finance to enable the Saudi Development Fund to carry out the Royal Order immediately in coordination with the concerned authorities in Pakistan. Earlier King Abdullah ordered airlift operations for carrying relief materials to Pakistan, which was hit by an earth quake. He also ordered the organization of a donations campaign in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the assistance of victims of the earthquake. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has issued his directives to airlift urgent relief assistance to the victims of the earthquake. The aid includes food stuffs, medical supplies, tents and blankets. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud has issued his orders to appoint and promote 1025 officers to various ranks in the military sectors, the Royal Court said in a statement. Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, received the Tunisian ambassador to the Kingdom Salah Eldeen Muawi. During the meeting, the Tunisian ambassador conveyed to the Crown Prince the congratulations of President of Tunisia Zine El-Abidine bin Ali on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. In turn, the Crown Prince sent his greetings to the president. The Tunisian ambassador thanked the Crown Prince for receiving him and for expressing his interest in enhancing the relations between the two countries in all fields. Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, received the Nepalese ambassador to the kingdom Abu Allaith Takwari. During the audience, they exchanged cordial talks. Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General has expressed his appreciation of and thanks to the Minister of Civil Service Mohammed Ibn Ali Al-Fayiz and the ministry's employees for their efforts in the field of civil service. The Crown Prince urged them on doubling their efforts, wishing them all success. The Crown Prince sent the minister a letter of thanks after reviewing a version of a statistical book entitled ''Civil Service in Figures'' and a report on the achievements of the Civil Service for fiscal year 1424/1425H. In response to a request made by Mohammed Ibn Abdullah Al-Nuwaisir, the Chief of the Royal Court, to relieve him from his post, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has accepted his request and has appointed Khalid Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Tuweijiri, as the new Chief of the Royal Court at the rank of a minister. The King has also ordered the appointment of Khalid Ibn Abdul Rahman Al-Eisa as the Deputy Chief of the Royal Court at the rank of a minister. Prince Salman Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Riyadh region, received Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Abdul Rahman Al-Atiyyah and the ambassadors of GCC countries accredited to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who came to greet and congratulate him on the occasion of the advent of the blessed month of Ramadan. Prince Salman Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Riyadh region, received the Bosnian ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Razim Tosholitch. They reviewed issues pertaining to the bilateral relations between the Kingdom and Bosnia. Prince Muqrin Ibn Abdul Aziz, Governor of Madinah region and Chairman of the Charitable society for social services has chaired the second meeting of the Bir Al Waledein Committee. Prince Muqrin praised the achievements of the Committee and lauded the role it plays. Syria's interior minister committed suicide, Syria's official news agency said. His death came days before the United Nations is expected to release its report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. "Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan committed suicide in his office before noon," the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. "Authorities are carrying out the necessary investigation into the incident." Hours before he died, Kenaan contacted a Lebanese radio station and gave it a statement, concluding with the words: "I believe this is the last statement that I could make." He asked the interviewer to pass his comments to other broadcast media. The Saudi Academy in Moscow has held a celebration on the occasion of the Holy Month of Ramadan. An open day in which all students took part was inaugurated with a speech from the Director of the Academy Gad Ibn Mohammed Al Otaibi who congratulated the attendance and urged them to take advantage of the Holy month to increase their good deeds. A symposium was held on the occasion as well as sports events. Minister of Hajj Dr. Fouad Al-Farsi met with Malaysian ambassador to the kingdom Dato Ismaeel Ibn Ibrahim. During the meeting, issues concerning Hajj were discussed. A halt in heavy rains allowed helicopter relief flights to resume across Pakistan's quake zone, but fresh landslides hampered efforts to move supplies by road and officials estimated the death toll could now be more than 54,000. Eight international medical teams took off from Muzaffarabad to outlying villages, as fears grew for millions of survivors without healthcare and shelter in the isolated mountains of Kashmir. U.S. diplomat Geoffrey Krassy estimated that about one-fifth of populated areas had yet to be reached. "There are serious patients with infected wounds and gangrene," said Sebastian Nouak of the International Committee of the Red Cross, after a team of its doctors landed in Chekar, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) east of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's part of the divided Himalayan region. He said about 200 people in the town had not received any medical help since the 7.6 magnitude quake struck on Oct. 8, and landing choppers there was dangerous because desperate villagers rushed into the landing area. Iran must obey international rules over its nuclear program and should not doubt the will of the international community to ensure it does so, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "The position of Europe and America has been the same on this. We will continue the pressure," Blair told a news conference. "They have to abide by the rules of the international community on their nuclear capability. They have to stop support for terrorism, whether it's in the Middle East or elsewhere." "I think they would make a great mistake if they thought the international community lacked the will to make sure that is done," he added. Blair said Britain was "concerned" about the situation in Iran and said a recent IAEA report on Iran's nuclear activities was "very significant". Britain, France and Germany led negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program but talks collapsed in August. "We'll pursue those discussions, but it has to be on the basis that people live up to their obligations under the IAEA rules," Blair said. "Nothing less than full obedience to the rules is acceptable." British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the Assad regime will have to take 'appropriate action' if Syrian officials are implicated in Rafiq Hariri's assassination, and asserted he knows nothing about a deal with the Bush administration to grant Syria's top officials immunity against the fallout of the impending Detlev Mehlis report. "I don't know anything about the so-called deal," Blair said in the news conference at 10 Downing Street. "I think we have just got to wait for the report, but obviously if it implicates people in positions of authority in Syria, that is very serious for Syria and I would expect them to take the appropriate action." The Sultanate of Oman views the establishment of private television channels and radio stations as a necessity rather than a luxury, Hamad bin Mohammed al Rashdi, Minister of Information, said. The minister made this remark in an interview with the editor-in-chief of Al Ahram al Arabi magazine. Replying to a question whether the Sultanate supports the prevailing trend of privatising information media, the minister said the private sector must be allowed to qualify in this field of investment as the arena was no longer confined to social, political and economic mission. The minister underscored that even as the private sector was allowed to operate television and radio stations, national channels should be preserved, strengthened and boosted as they pertained to the community in general without seeking commercial interests. The minister stressed that the Sultanate had no problems or wars of words with anyone, pointing out that the main responsibility of Oman"s information was to be an objective, mature, tolerant and open information of social trustworthiness. The minister said that the Omani information was constructive and based on enlightenment and education as a noble message that falls in great harmony with the sustainable, durable and comprehensive concept of development. "When we talk about advancing information, we do not mean a provocative, artificial information that stirs troubles, but an information of positive effect that leads society into a shining future," Al Rashdi said. The minister described the current phase of Omani information stride as a stage of growth, saying that the process of growth and development in general was not new in the Sultanate as it was connected to the Renaissance that started in the 70s. The developments in the Oman media are closely linked to the big leap the information technology has witnessed lately, Al Rashdi said. That can be noticed in the modern communication systems, the open world via satellite channels and cultural globalisation, he said, adding that all this movement was aimed at human development, rapprochement among nations and nurturing of security, peace and tolerance in the world. On concern over repercussions of the growth and change at world level and the effect therein on the situation in the Sultanate, Al Rashdi said there was no cause for concern as long as one was capable of giving and taking. The Omani society has proved, from the beginning, that it cherishes advancement and progress and always looks forward to bolster values in pursuit of welfare through self-capabilities under the leadership of its government that steers to the road of progress, he added. The minister referred to aspects lacking in Arab information for improving the image of Arabs and Muslims in Western countries as well as building bridges between Arab Muslims and the West. He stressed there were some problems represented in perspectives on both sides that were based on wrong perceptions, but the right approach would be through a language understandable to Western communities. "Our friends or those who understand us in Western communities could be the best means to convey the correct image about us and our societies," Al Rashdi said, stressing that "a long-term effort in this regard was necessary to be exerted by governments, businessmen, diplomatic missions, students and academics to set ourselves in the right course." The Gulf print media has recorded advancement similar to satellite channels despite the fact that the channels have increased in number, the minister said. The channels are capable of conducting direct and open dialogue with people something, which gave them an upper hand over the print media. Yet, the print media has made big strides both at the quantitative and qualitative levels, he added. Commenting about Omani journalism, the minister said he looked forward to seeing something better than what was existing so that the cycle will keep rolling ambitiously for a better future. A Defense Department analyst pleaded guilty to passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and revealed for the first time that he also gave classified information directly to an Israeli government official in Washington. Lawrence A. Franklin told a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that he met at least eight times with Naor Gilon, who was the political officer at the Israeli Embassy before being recalled last summer. The guilty plea and Franklin's account appeared to cast doubt on long-standing denials by Israeli officials that they engage in any intelligence activities in the United States. The possibility of continued Israeli spying in Washington has been a sensitive subject between the two governments since Jonathan J. Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, admitted to spying for Israel in 1987 and was sentenced to life in prison. Court documents filed along with Franklin's plea said he provided classified data -- including information about a Middle Eastern country's activities in Iraq and weapons tests conducted by a foreign country -- to an unnamed "foreign official." The country was not named, but as Franklin entered his plea, he disclosed that some of the material he gave the lobbyists related to Iran. His attorneys stopped him from speaking further, and prosecutors immediately accused Franklin of revealing classified information in court. Franklin said he passed the information because he was "frustrated" with the direction of U.S. policy and thought he could influence it by having them relay the data through "back channels" to officials on the National Security Council. He said he never intended to harm the United States, "not even for a second," and that he received far more information from Gilon than he gave. "I knew in my heart that his government already had the information," he said. Franklin, 58, a specialist on Iran, pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and a third charge of possessing classified documents. As part of the plea agreement, Franklin has agreed to cooperate in the larger federal investigation. Legal experts called the plea a major development in the long-running investigation of whether U.S. secrets were passed to the Israeli government. Franklin said he disclosed classified data to two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Those employees, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, have been charged in what prosecutors said was a broad conspiracy to obtain and illegally pass classified information to foreign officials and news reporters. Palestinians from all walks of life in Gaza Strip paid glowing tribute to UAE President H. H Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his pledge to build Sheikh Khalifa City. The foundation stone for the project aimed at building residential apartments and urban facilities in Sheikh Khalifa City in Gaza Strip was laid by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Information and Culture and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The international donor's conference on Lebanon is a good opportunity to find radical solutions to the public debt, Finance Minister Jihad Azour said. "The aim of this conference is to find a radical solution to the public- debt problem and we must not waste this opportunity," he said at the Finance Ministry. Azour, who announced the successful closure of the $750 million Eurobond issues last week, said privatization of state-owned assets and administrative reforms are part of the solution to the public debt, which he estimated at $34 billion. The U.S., Europe and some Arab states as well as the World Bank pledged to meet in Beirut before the end of the year to discuss soft loans or grants to Lebanon to help curb the public debt. But these states have said economic assistance will not be forthcoming if Lebanon does not come up with a viable reform plan. Azour said the demand for the $750 million 10-year Eurobond, which carried a coupon of 8.5 percent, far exceeded the supply. "The issue was over-subscribed. We got offers for $1 billion from local and international markets but we settled for $750 million." The minister added the 8.5-percent coupon is a very low rate , noting 44 percent of the issue was grabbed by international markets and the rest went to local banks and financial firms. "The over-subscription reflects the great confidence investors have on Lebanon despite the events that marked the first six months of the year." Azour said the $750 million Eurobond will meet Lebanon's needs for the rest of 2005 and part of 2006. The Lebanese government has been tapping local and international markets since 2004 to finance the public debt which has exceeded 180 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Azour said that contrary to the figures circulated by some individuals, the real public debt currently stands at $34 billion according to the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank. "Our aim is to tackle the public debt but we resort to these borrowings to finance our needs and meet our commitments," Azour said. He added that the government was seeking to reduce the public debt in order to achieve economic growth. "Since the government took over, we were able to record a primary surplus in the months of August through tightening spending. We were also able to secure sufficient liquidity to weather any internal and external developments." Azour was alluding to the anticipated report by the UN team investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14. The minister said earlier that the ministry and the Central Bank want to boost the foreign currency reserves to last the country at least five to six months under any difficult condition. "We don't know for sure what type of help the international community will give to Lebanon. But we hope to reduce debt servicing which represents 40 percent of the total government spending." Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco) awarded a Dh3.6 billion EPC contract to Fluor of the United Kingdom. The engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPC) contract is for the Habshan Gas Complex Expansion Package-1. Fluor will manage engineering and procurement activities from its UK office and the project is scheduled for completion in 33 months, including test runs. The project will increase the capacity of pressure boosting units to feed additional associated gas from Bab oilfield for processing in the present gas treatment trains of the complex. It also includes installation of two new sulphur recovery units with about 1,600 tonnes per day production capacity, an acid gas enrichment unit, additional process and utility units as well as upgrading of existing control systems. Gasco said the pipeline to transfer part of Bu Hasa associated gas to Habshan will be set up separately. The United States will "soon" hand over five of the 11 Kuwaitis imprisoned at its camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the state news agency KUNA said. "The US administration will hand over five of the Kuwaiti detainees at Guantanamo camp to the Kuwaiti government soon," Kuwaiti ambassador to Washington Shaikh Salem Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah was quoted as saying. Shaikh Salem, who did not provide a specific date for the repatriation, said the two countries were engaged in discussions over the "mechanism" for handing over the inmates who have been held without trial, often for years. The United States has agreed to release the five inmates following concerted efforts by Kuwaiti leaders, including Prime Minister Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the ambassador said. After returning to Kuwait, the five detainees will be tried before a Kuwaiti court, he added, without saying on what charges. The head of the society of families of Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo, Khalid Al Ouda told AFP that he expected the five to be repatriated before the end of October. "Everything is ready, the plane and the security team that would bring them back. We only need arrangements with two airports where the plane would land during the trip," Ouda said, without elaborating. He also said that Kuwaiti and US officials are engaged in talks for the release of the remaining six prisoners. In January, the United States released Kuwaiti national Nasser Najr Al Mutairi, who spent three years in Guantanamo. He was tried by a Kuwaiti court which in June cleared him of charges of undermining Kuwait's national interests by allegedly committing an act of aggression against a foreign nation. In September, six Kuwaiti prisoners joined a hunger strike staged by some 200 inmates to protest at their conditions and prolonged confinement without trial, according to Ouda. According to Thomas Wilmer, the US lawyer defending the Kuwaitis, most of them were captured by bounty-hunters in 2001 near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and sold to the United States. The Lebanese Ministry of the Interior has allocated One Billion Lebanese Liras for information leading to the arrest of terrorists. The government had declared it would be offering financial rewards for any information leading to the arrest of terrorist bombers who wreaked havoc on Lebanon's Christian heartland after the Feb. 14 Hariri assassination. "The Cabinet," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after a meeting at the Baabda palace, "has decided to ask the interior minister to announce a financial reward to anyone who provides information on terrorist attacks that are carried out in Lebanon, and to anyone who helps track down and apprehend the culprits." Six people died in the bombing attacks over and above 23 others killed in a string of assassinations, including the late Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, ex-Economy Minister Bassel Fleihan, journalist Samir Kassir and Communist Party Ideologue George Hawi. The latest terrorist attack targeted LBCI ace anchorwoman May Chidiac, who lost her left hand and left leg in a booby-trap explosion that wrecked her 4-wheeler Sept. 25. |