Saudi media monitor August 11, 2002. Dubai International Airport to begin passenger registration for e-Gate usage from August 17, 2002
- Half of Saudi population is under 15, GCC population 26 million.
- Saudi Religious Ministry Goes High-Tech with e-Umrah project scheme.
- Saudi Man kills wife, baby and then self
- Greens demand that critics of Bush's intended invasion be included in
hearings, especially UN weapons inspectors
1,285 AIDS cases in Saudi Arabia, Arab World HIV infection cross 26,000
Saudi Arabia needs 90,000 nurses!
RIYADH, 11 August — The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recorded 1,285 AIDS cases since it began monitoring the dreaded disease in 1984, Dr. Yaaqub ibn Yousuf Al-Mazroue, assistant deputy health minister for preventive medicine, disclosed in Riyadh on August 10. The low official figure indicates that the spread of AIDS in the Kingdom remains much lower and more effectively controlled than in other countries he claimed in a statement.
"But this does not mitigate the danger of the disease. It is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases in the world," he said.Recently, a report suggested that an HIV infecte Saudi citizen was living in an unhygenic condition below a bridge in one of the Saudi cities. Following the newspaper reports about the man living an isolated and depressed life alone inside a temporary make shift home under the bridge, the man disappeared in a mysterious circumstance. An investigation was ordered into the epeisode but it is said that in view of the potential danger to public health, Saudi Authorities might have removed him to an unknown destination
"The MoH started a public program to register all AIDS patients in 1984 with the aim of checking the spread of the disease. The total number includes 452 patients who have full blown AIDS and 833 who are in different stages of the diseases", Arab News quoted Mazroue as saying. Tthe MoH is preparing an awareness program in cooperation with other government agencies and private sector organizations to educate the people as to how the disease is transmitted and how it can be prevented". The ministry takes proper care of AIDS patients and has allocated adequate amounts in the budget to supply medicine and treat the patients, he said.
"We have also established three new advanced clinics in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to check AIDS cases," he pointed out.Spelling out how the HIV virus transmits the disease from AIDS patients to healthy individuals, he said in more than 80 percent cases it is transmitted through sexual contact. Blood transfusion and use of syringes and surgical equipment contaminated by the blood or saliva of AIDS victims are other reasons, it said. Mazroue called upon the public to keep away from illicit sexual relations. The number of AIDS cases exceeds 9,000 in the region including the Gulf states where the number of HIV infections has crossed the 26,000 mark. The disease is spreading in the Gulf region also at a steady rate. HIV transmission through injection of drugs has been reported in all countries of the region. The Arab Scouts Organization is involving nearly one and a half million children and young adults to enhance awareness about AIDS on the regional level. Some countries have also set up telephone hotlines to enable young people to obtain full information about AIDS in complete confidentiality. The aim is also to motivate people to adopt preventive measures.--keralamonitor.com
Dubai International Airport to begin passenger registration for e-Gate usage from August 17, 2002
Dubai Airport is third in the world, and first in Middle East to facilitate access through smart card
Dubai --August 11, 2002 keralamonitor.comThe Dubai Naturalization & Residency Department (DNRD), in association with the Department of Civil Aviation, has launched the first phase of a revolutionary and hi-tech e-Gate project at the Dubai International Airport to allow passengers fast access through electronically controlled gates.
Details of the project and the registration process were announced at a press conference held yesterday (Sunday August 11, 2002) attended by H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Department of Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Airline and Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah bin Hassan, Assistant Director, DNRD for Airport and Free Zone.
Dubai Airport is the first airport in the Middle East and the third in the world to install such an advanced passenger clearance system that considerably accelerates the movement of traffic through electronic screening of passengers' data with the help of a smart card.
The Naturalisation & Residency Department has opened a registration office at the Dubai Airport to allow passengers to complete the formalities required for acquiring a smart card to gain instant electronic access to the airport. VIP registration will be made available during this week, while first-time users are required to register at the enrolment office of Dubai Airport, which officially commences from August 17, 2002. The process requires users to show their original passports and complete simple procedures that include finger printing and photography. Once registered, they will be supplied with a smart card that carries all the relevant information about the holder. The whole system is linked to a central monitoring unit that controls all the operations.
Addressing the media, H.H. Sheikh Ahmed said: "I would like to congratulate the Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department on executing this challenging project that marks a radical transformation in the way passengers enter and exit the airport. The single most commendable aspect of the project is that it has been conceived and developed in-house by the Department's IT section. This is a matter of great pride for UAE nationals, as it displays their expertise and ingenuity in the technological field."
"The e-Gate at the Dubai International Airport is a revolutionary step aimed at eliminating delays and introducing a foolproof security system that can detect fraudsters or impersonators. This is yet another milestone for us and a strong testimony to the spirit of innovation that drives Dubai and makes it a dynamic and friendly place for people of all nationalities," H.H. Sheikh Ahmed added.
"Dubai International Airport is used by millions of business visitors, tourists and expatriates. This enormous volume of traffic and the ensuing documentation pose a major problem to the authorities," said Lieutenant Colonel bin Hassan. "The e-Gate at Dubai International Airport represents a totally new concept in air passenger clearance through the implementation of best of breed technologies in line with the vision of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, to leverage the benefits of technology to ease the lives of citizens."
The electronically operated gates are designed to ensure quick passenger clearance by utilising a smart card. In order to obtain the smart card, passengers need to be above 17 years of age. They can register at the airport by providing the original passport and a passport size photograph. This will enable the authorities to complete certain procedures that include finger printing and photography. The finger printing identification is the most significant aspect of the system, as it ensures that a person can enroll just once in the database. The smart card, which costs Dhs 150, is valid for a period of two years and can be collected within 10 minutes after registration.
The electronic gate facility will be available alongside the conventional manually operated gates, giving passengers an option to use either of the gates. Those using the smart cards will get detailed instructions at every step. The Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department has taken steps to ensure that the whole system is very user friendly and quick.
Saudi Arabia needs 90,000 nurses!
Saudi Arabia need around 90,000 nurses, said Linda Luna, supervisor of the nursing department at King Faisal Specialist Hospital Research Center in Jeddah. Addressing a seminar at Dar Al-Hekma College, she said Saudi authorities were making intense efforts to train Saudis for nursing jobs to meet the growing local requirements. The college and the hospital have signed an agreement for launching a bachelor degree course in nursing. Dr. Souzan Fekhani of the college highlighted the growing awareness among Saudis about the importance of the nursing profession. Due to overwhelming demand for nurses in the UK, US and Scandinavian countries to treat the HIV patients, there is an exodus of Asian and African nurses from Saudi Arabia and othe r Gulf countries.
Saudi Religious Ministry Goes High-Tech with e-Umrah project scheme.
The Ministry of Haj and Saudi private sector are planning to set up an IT company called Sejal Technology for introducing what is termed "e-Umrah". A new IT company will be set up by a group of Saudi investors, led by the Jeraisy Group to create a database for Umrah traffic. Other members of the consortium include Xenal and GAMA. It will have a capital base of SR200 million, with Abdulrahman Al Jeraisy as its chairman. When it becomes operational later this year, it is expected to give a tremendous boost to Umrah traffic, reported the London-based ‘Saudi Review’ in its latest issue.
It said Saudi travel agencies have been authorized by the ministry to bring in Muslim pilgrims from around the world on a one-month visa for performing Umrah. "Thereafter, they could travel outside the Makkah region for sightseeing or shopping. The Haj Ministry now wants to move a step further by promoting this concept through the Internet, so that pilgrims could do their bookings through designated travel agencies on the Internet for performing Umrah,"the Saudi Review magazine said.
Quotin the Saudi Haj Minister Iyad A. Madani, it said two million people are expected to perform Umrah every year, except during the Haj season. To this end, 137 travel agencies in the Kingdom have been licensed to provide Umrah services. This will provide a shot in the arm to the travel and business establishments as well as the local industry catering for the needs in terms of food, accommodation, internal transport and consumer spending.- keralamonitor.com
Saudi Man kills wife, baby and then self
A Saudi security man shot and killed his estranged wife and five-month-old baby and seriously wounded a four-year-old daughter before committing suicide. The 30-year-old, identified only as A.S., went beserk Friday at his father-in-law’s house in Muthnab city, 300 kms northwest of Riyadh, where his wife had fled two months earlier over a dispute. The man immediately shot the wife and daughters and sped off in his car. A few minutes later he shot himself at the wheel. The wife, 23, and the baby daughter died instantly, while the older daughter was in critical condition, says Saudi based newspapers. -keralamonitor.com
Theft in Saudi Shariah court !
A Shariah court in Maysan, Saudi Arabia as burgled last weekend! The clever thief got away with an unspecified sum of money. The burglar made good his escape after rummaging through official documents and destroying some, Al-Riyadh reported. Police found that the thief entered the court after breaking a back window of the building. Documents in the shelves were scattered around in his frantic search for money. Investigations are under way. The people in the court’s neighborhood have been complaining of thefts in their homes when they went out for shopping or socializing.It was reported earlier that about SR1 million was stolen from a house in the area.
Electrical and electronic devices such as computers, cameras, fax machines, telephones, television sets and videocassettes and laboratory equipment were burgled from a Riyadh girls’ school last Sunday. Several documents kept in shelves and on desks were also destroyed by the thieves. The principal of the school said this was the fourth time thieves broke into the building but the losses were not so huge on pervious occasions. He said he was very worried about the loss of computers because they contained large data about students and teachers.-keralamonitor.com
Half of Saudi population is under 15, GCC population 26 million.
Fifty percent of the Saudi population are under 15, revealed a study conducted by the Statistics Department. A third of the national workforce is aged between 20 and 39 years and that 89.76 percent of them are educated. The study noted that women outnumbered men in literacy, their percentage being 93.21 for women against 89.20 for men., Saudi Press Agency Reported. Saudi Arabia, by far the biggest GCC nation, accounted for around 71 per cent of the GCC population at the end of 2000, with an estimated 22 million, according to the annual report by the Riyadh-based GCC secretariat. The demographic structure in all the Gulf countries is dominated by the youth.
The total population of six-nation GCC countries --Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait -grew by nearly nine million over the past decade to reach around 31 million at the end of 2000, an annual increase of about one million people, according to official estimates.The high growth of around four per cent was a result of a continued influx of expatriate workers and long-standing policies in the 21-year-old Gulf group of encouraging nationals to have more children so that they become a majority in their home country.
The combined GCC population stood at 21.89 million in 1990 and recorded a high growth over the following years to reach 25.99 million in 1995. It increased by an average of one million annually in the ensuing years and most of the growth was in the local population.
The UAE was the second most populated GCC state, accounting for around 10 per cent or nearly 3.1 million. The population was estimated at 2.42 million in Oman, 2.22 million in Kuwait, 675,000 in Bahrain and 585,000 in Qatar.
The report on the GCC economic and social conditions gave no figures for 2001, but the population is believed to have topped 32 million. Foreigners formed a majority in most member states but they were below 30 per cent in Saudi Arabia.The report estimated the combined GCC work force at the end of 1997 at around 10.85 million and said expatriates dominated the labour market in most member countries."The bulk of the labour in most of the GCC countries is foreigners, mainly Asians, who started to stream into the region after the discovery of oil," it said. The work force grew to around 11.6 million at the end of 2000 and it could have topped 12 million last year. Saudi Arabia had around 7.4 million workers while they stood at 1.77 million in the UAE, 1.2 million in Kuwait, 660,000 in Oman, 321,000 in Qatar and 319,000 in Bahrain. The figures showed the GCC population was growing faster than the economy in real terms, resulting in a decline in the per capita income and an aggravation of unemployment.
In 2000, the per capita income stood at around $10,300 for a gross domestic product of nearly $320 billion. The income is believed to have slipped last year because of an increase in the population and a drop in oil prices. Individually, Qatar had the highest per capita income in the GCC, standing at around $29,000. It was followed by the UAE with a per capita income of around $21,500.-keralamonitor.comGreens demand that critics of Bush's intended invasion be included in hearings, especially UN weapons inspectors
WASHINGTON DC, USA, 11August 2002 (GP): Warning that a U.S. invasion of Iraq would violate international law, candidates and other members
of the Green Party of the United States called on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee to reopen hearings on President Bush's planned
war against Iraq. Greens demanded that the hearings be open to
dissenting voices, including former U.N. weapons inspectors who could
provide an adequate analysis of the security threat posed by Iraq."Senator Joe Biden [D-Del., chair of the hearing] excluded anyone who
opposes Bush's policy on Iraq, or who might have offered a realistic
assessment of Iraq's military and chemical weapons capability or the
human costs of an invasion," said Holly Hart, Green Party candidate
for Lieutenant Governor of Iowa. "Instead, we heard Caspar
Weinberger, a pardoned criminal, repeat the Bush line. Americans
deserve to hear a real debate before we sacrifice lives on both sides
in a military venture that could cause a shock to the U.S. and world
economy, destabilize the region, and flare up into a greater war
involving dozens of nations."Jennifer Daniels, Green candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New
York, said that "[Bush's] strategy places the U.S. in the position of
becoming the very threat it opposes. The present U.S. strategy makes
us all less safe."Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who spent seven years
investigating Iraq's weapons program before resigning in protest over
U.S.-led economic sanctions, has repeatedly stated that Iraq neither
possesses weapons of mass destruction nor maintains ties to
international terrorism. NATO asked Ritter (who is Republican) to
testify shortly after Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asserted
that Iraq posed a security threat. After Ritter's presentation, 16 of
the 19 NATO nations wrote letters of complaint to the U.S. government
about Rumsfeld's comments and about Bush's justification for war."We're not only concerned about massive U.S. casualties in our armed
forces, but about the slaughter of Iraqi civilians," said Rahul
Mahajan, Green candidate for Governor of Texas. "6, 000 Iraqi
children a month are already dying from the economic sanctions,
according to the U.N. Children's Fund. Two years ago the Pentagon
estimated that about 10,000 Iraqi civilians could be killed in such a
war. Destruction of Iraq's water supplies, medical care, electricity
and other infrastructure could lead to hundreds of thousands of
additional deaths, especially among children and the elderly.""A unilateral invasion would violate international law and the U.N.
charter, as well as the U.S. constitutional limit on the use of armed
forces for defense," said Steve Greenfield, New York Green candidate
for the 22nd Congressional District. "It has no support among our
European allies. Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA chief George
Tenet, and numerous military officials and experts are skeptical.
There's no credible evidence of a threat to American security. Such a
war would further destabilize the Middle East, could lead to the
overthrow of other governments in the area and is unlikely to promote
democracy in Iraq or its neighbors.""This war is being launched for political reasons, and without
Congress's required approval," added Margart Lewis, Green candidate
for Congress in the New York's 20th District. "Only Congress has the
constitutional power to declare war, regardless of earlier 'blank
checks.' Bush is furthermore using the invasion as an excuse to drill
for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Once a White House-
mandated invasion is justified, all sorts of destructive policy can
and will be enacted, and with minimal public debate."Greens note that, if the relatively short Persian Gulf War cost $80
billion, then the invasion, extended occupation and rebuilding of
Iraq would likely cost the U.S. far more, further diverting taxpayer
money from needed domestic investment in schools, health care and the
environment."Our Arab allies, already encountering strong anti-American sentiment
at home because of U.S. support for Israel, not only fear domestic
rebellions, but will demand huge pay-offs from the U.S.," explained
Tim Harthans, Iowa Green candidate for the U.S. Senate. "Jordan says
that it wants the U.S. to help make up for the loss it would suffer
if the discount-price oil it gets from Iraq is cut off. The cost of
the Gulf War and the resulting rise in oil prices led to an economic
recession. An invasion of Iraq will have even a worse effect on the
troubled U.S. economy.""The Bush Administration is planning this invasion with no exit
strategy," said Dick Kaiser, who is seeking a House seat in
Wisconsin's 8th District . "Saddam's successor is likely to be
military strong man with the same kind of bloody past and disregard
for law and life. We didn't see democracy, human rights, or equality
for women in Kuwait after the Persian Gulf War, either.""Even Britain, America's staunchest ally, does not support war for
the sake of 'regime change,'" said Dr. Jonathan Farley, a Tennessee
Green candidate for Congress currently visiting England on a
Fulbright scholarship. "This war is illegal and immoral, and I'm
against it.""The Senate needs to protect the interests of the American people and
the world community, not provide political cover to President Bush,"
added Pennsylvania Green activist Carl Romanelli. "It's not enough to
call Saddam Hussein evil incarnate."
