RIYADH, 26 August 2003 — An official at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said a meeting of a group of prominent non-governmental organizations operating in the six Gulf states including Saudi Arabia will be held on Oct. 7 this year to develop a comprehensive strategy for regional stockpiling of humanitarian relief materials and to discuss the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq.
RIYADH, 14 August 2003 — A Saudi telecommunications group last week filed a lawsuit accusing Lucent of bribing a Saudi official in order to gain business in the Kingdom. In the lawsuit filed in the New York District Court on Friday, the National Group for Communications and Computers alleges that Lucent and the Swiss company ACEC provided a former official with bribes worth an estimated $15 million between 1995 and 2002.
RIYADH, 13 August 2003 — The Philippine Embassy will seek royal clemency for a Filipina, Sarah Jane Dematera, who has been in a Saudi jail for 11 years. Sarah, who arrived in 1992 to work as a maid for a Saudi family, was charged with the murder of her employer’s wife a few days after her arrival, according to a Philippine Embassy spokesman, Ray Banda. A Saudi court found her guilty in November 1993, sentenced her to death and sent her to jail to await execution.
RIYADH, 10 August 2003 — In a move to promote Saudi participation in the health sector, especially in terms of owning and operating health clinics in the Kingdom, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has imposed tighter restrictions on the issuance of licenses.
RIYADH– The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has stepped up efforts to facilitate employment and movement of their nationals among member states. There are also plans to ease travel restrictions for the hundreds of thousands of expatriates currently living in GCC countries.
RIYADH – The Kingdom together with the other five Gulf states will have only a 0.1 percent share of the $7 trillion global e- business in 2005. This is true despite many initiatives currently in place to redress the situation and to boost Gulf countries’ participation in global online business, according to Dr. Fawaz Alamy, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for technical affairs and chairman of E-Commerce National Taskforce.