RIYADH, 16 June 2003 — Frequent interruptions of the water supply have led to acute water shortages in different parts of the city during the seasonable hot weather. In some areas residents have left their homes because of undependable supplies of water.
RIYADH, 1 June 2003 — The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance has fired 353 imams and muezzins (prayer callers) while at the same time asking some 1,357 imams and muezzins to attend training courses to improve their performance.
RIYADH, 28 May 2003 — The Kingdom has stepped up efforts to ensure greater participation of Saudi women in the commercial sector and to promote female entrepreneurship. The move is a joint effort between public and private sector organizations.
RIYADH, 12 May 2003 — The Kingdom yesterday pledged to work closely with oil producing and consuming countries to promote dialogue between them in order to keep oil prices steady and solve energy-related issues on a global level.
The English-language newspaper Riyadh Daily, published in the Saudi capital city, will cease publication from next month following a decision of its publishers, Al-Yamamah Press Est. This was announced here yesterday by Talaat F. Wafa, editor in chief of Riyadh Daily.
RIYADH, 3 April 2003 — The war on Iraq will last more than three months, according to a majority of people polled by Arab News. The poll, conducted in the last two days by telephone, covered a cross-section of senior professionals of 17 nationalities including Saudis, Western expatriates and Asians living in Riyadh. Some of them spoke on condition of anonymity.
RIYADH, 25 March 2003 — The Kingdom has put in place an emergency plan to protect its people and environment against any nuclear accident or doses of high radiation from industrial disasters or bombardment. “We have set up 14 radiation monitoring stations and early warning systems in the country, which have so far not detected any abnormal levels of radiation because of the war on Iraq,” said Dr. Ahmad Ali Basfar, director of the Institute of Atomic Energy Research at King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) here on Sunday.
RIYADH, 22 June 2003 — In a move to privatize the Kingdom’s education sector, the government has given permission to private organizations to set up two new universities and 36 colleges. Government incentives will include land for campuses at subsidized costs as well as soft loans for construction of buildings.
RIYADH, 20 March 2003 — More than 40 digital earthquake monitoring stations located around the Kingdom will measure the movements and aftershocks of bombs and missiles which will strike Iraq. Dr. Abdullah N. Al-Rajhi, director of tectonic studies at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), said that the earthquake monitoring stations in the Kingdom under the Saudi Arabian National Digital Seismographic Network (SANDSN) project are capable of differentiating between artificially-produced earth movements and the natural ones of earthquakes.
RIYADH, 18 March 2003 — Three illegal residents, a man and two women, have been arrested for possessing and distributing pornographic films in Abha. In another development, officials confiscated 3,036 bottles of liquor when a truck driver tried to smuggle them into the country.