Silicon Graphics Inc. lays added emphasis on oil and gas sector

GCC IT market estimated to reach US$ 7.9 billion in 2005

US army takes over control of Baghdad from Marines

BAGHDAD, April 19 -- The US army took over the control of Baghdad Saturday from the Marines, who started to pull out from the Iraqi capital that they captured 10 days ago. Soldiers from the US army's 3rd Infantry Division have replaced the Marines in many areas of Baghdad Saturday, while elements of the US 4th Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne also moved intothe city.

About 1,600 Marines left Baghdad early Saturday to head south toan assembly area near the central southern Iraqi town of Kerbala, Marine officers said. The Marine pullout came as the US military's prime mission in Iraq turned from combat to civil peacekeeping.

It was also part of a US plan to reorganize the pattern of US forces in Iraq, because the army has more resources than the Marines, the vanguard striking forces, to deal with civil duties. According to the plan, troops from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division will remain in Baghdad, while the 4th Infantry Division will control the northern part of the country.

The withdrawal of Marines, which controled the east part of Baghdad, was expected to unite the US control of the city under a single US commander.After the takeover of Baghdad, the US army units are facing a daunting challenge to restore the order in the city, which has been plagued by looting, violence and public anger towards the US occupation in the past days.

Top on the army's agenda will be restoring the disrupted basic civil services, mainly the electricity, water, hospitals and law and order.The public anger has been heating up in Baghdad 10 days after the downfall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, as more and more people took to streets to protest the US failure to ease their suffering from lack of food, water, medicine and security.

Iran prepared for sharp fall of oil price: minister

TEHRAN, April 19 -- Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on Saturday predicted a sharp fall of oil price on the international market, but adding Tehran is ready to face the fallout of such price drop.Zanganeh predicted that the oil price will not exceed 25 US dollars per barrel in the remaining time of this year due to the USpresence in Iraq that will have a long-term impact on the oil market. He especially blamed US policies on Iraqi oil supply for the expected oil price drop.

"Iraqi military ruler Jay Garner's policy on supply of 7 millionbarrels of oil per day would strongly affect the oil market, leading to price falls," Zanganeh was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. But he added that the Iranian government has adopted necessary mechanisms to face possible repercussions from the price drop.

On Thursday, the minister called on members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to trim down their oil production in the second quarter, in an effort to prevent price slide on the world oil market.

Iraqi children facing threat of bomblets left over by US forces

BAGHDAD, April 19- Although the war is nearing the end, Iraqi children in Iraq are facing another danger of bomblets left over by the US forces as the number of casualties kept rising in the past days.

Two children were killed and two others were injured Saturday afternoon when a bomblet that they found at a garden in Rahnania, western Baghdad, exploded, a doctor at the Al-Kark hospital said.

Ali Mahbi Kazin, a 12-year-old boy who was injured in the blast,said he and his friends found something on the ground that they did not know as a bomb. The device exploded when they played with it.Kazin's left arm and other parts of his body were seriously injured by the shrapnels.

The doctor at the Al-Karkh hospital said that it had already received several victims killed or wounded by bombs left over by the war in Iraq which started on March 20.

In another similar incident, a 48-year-old mother of three lost one of her legs in a bomb explosion in Baghdad, which also injured two of her children. The bomb went off when she and her children were walking in the Ikhlas street in western Baghdad.

The woman said her family was nearly paralyzed by the tragic incident, because she was the only breadwinner of the family after her husband was disabled during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.

The Al-Karkh hospital, like others in Iraq, also suffers from shortage of medicine and other medical equipment due to the war and looting threat.

Hospital officials said some of its medicine and medical equipment were plundered by looters over the past few days. Now the doctors have to guard the hospital to protect it from further mob attacks apart from taking care of the patients.

In another bomb explosion Saturday, four US soldiers from the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, and an Iraqi girl were wounded Saturday when the girl handed them a M-42 bomblet, a canister-size piece of a cluster bomb. Col. Michael Linnington, commander of the wounded soldiers' unit, said one soldier's leg was amputated, while the 7-year-old girl suffered a hand injury and was taken away by her family to a hospital.

Linnington said there are still "some remnants" of US ordnance around Baghdad. He said an Iraqi man was killed Friday and three soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were wounded when aM-42 bomblet exploded under similar circumstances.

In the Dura neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad, residents havebeen urging the US forces to remove the cluster bomblets scattered through the area. Human rights groups have strongly criticized the US forces for using cluster bombs in Iraq. Each cluster bomb contains about 200 small bomblets, some of which may not explode on impact but can explode when they are picked up or played with.

 

Aptec Holdings appoints HR & Operations Manager
Jo Dalling to focus on improving business standards

April 19, 2003

Dubai -Aptec, the fastest growing IT distributor in the region has announced the
appointment of Jo Dalling as HR & Operations Manager of Aptec Holdings
to further consolidate and strengthen its operations and services in the
region. This tactical move is in keeping with Aptec's focus on 'people
excellence' at all levels and to boost the excellent market, customer and
product knowledge of its employees, which has helped the company, achieve
high profitability and better margins, whilst also building on its relationships
within the channel through quality focused customer service initiatives.
The new manager will focus on linking the reengineering of business standards
in the region and translating this into a qualified and visible range of
value added services.

"Aptec has witnessed tremendous growth in 2002 and we expect the trend
to continue this year. I am really excited about my new position at Aptec
and am looking forward to using my skills to enhance the development of
the employees, achieve the company's objectives and improve every aspect
of the service we offer," said Dalling.

"I will be focussing on the Dubai office in the short term but will be
rolling out improvements in people and business excellence to the whole
region towards the end of the year to further enhance the Aptec brand as
a professional international standard. We have prioritised the key objectives
into a yearly roadmap by first tackling those areas which will have a triple
effect on our three focus areas of improving the performance of our people,
achieving corporate objectives and creating a visible and effective improvement
in our customer service performance. There is a great company spirit here
at Aptec and a real focus on the customer and we are going to build on
both those aspects," she added.

Dalling has a strong HR and operational background working for multinationals
both in the Gulf for 13 years and in the United Kingdom. She has an extensive
background in purchasing and will be working with the product managers
and the new purchase team on various analysis and system improvements to
improve the reliability and integrity of the stock. This means quicker
and greater satisfaction of Aptec's resellers channel needs. Better stock
mix on the ground means improved customer service and this will be a major
focus for the company over the upcoming quarterly periods. Aptec Gulf will
also be working on a sharper international supply chain, leading to shorter
lead times on the more unusual slower moving products as well as refocusing
on the internal delivery system within Dubai, to provide the reseller with
shorter door-to-door delivery times.

"Whilst all these business improvements are implemented, I will also be
focussing on establishing developmental and motivational objectives for
the staff," said Dalling. "So my responsibilities will be working simultaneously
on people management and business systems. I am hoping that the reseller
channel will notice the improvements in our sales order processing procedures
and stock mix by the end of the second quarter, as the changes we are making
will start to show some real quantifiable results."

Aptec is the leading distributor of IT and telecommunications products
covering the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe. The company has 6
subsidiaries with offices in the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon,
and Africa. Aptec is focussed on trade only distribution of the top industry
brands The company has invested heavily in the automation of its
order processing systems and warehouses and through its advanced B2B e-commerce
system called Aptec-Online.