TOURISM ARRIVAL STARTS REGISTERING POSITIVE GROWTH -ANNUAL REVIEW
Saudi Airlines to fly to Kochi, Oman Air to increase frequency
JEDDAH, 31 December 2002 — Saudi Arabian Airlines has joined the other Gulf based airlines in starting the lucrative Kochi service. According to an agreement reached between a Saudi delegation, led by Presidency of Civil Aviation Ali A.R. Khalaf, and an Indian delegation, led by Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary K. Roy Paul, in Jeddah yesterday, there will be an increase of 900 passengers per week by each other’s national carriers. Saudi Arabian Airlines, which already operates to New Delhi, Bombay and Madras, will be flying additional 900 passengers per week to Kochi. Air-India is increasing its flights to Riyadh by 50 percent, from six to nine per week, resulting in increase in capacity by 900 passengers per week.“A-I, which regularly operates from Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah, will introduce increased frequencies from March 30,” Roy Paul told a press conference.
Saudi and Indian Civil aviation officials decided to increase the number of regular flights to 30 per week between the two countries. According to a new agreement , Saudia will operate flights to Cochin in addition to its existing destinations — Bombay, New Delhi and Madras.The Saudi-Indian talks were co-chaired by President of Civil Aviation Dr. Ali ibn Abdul Rahman Al-Khalaf and Indian Civil Aviation Secretary Roy Paul who visited Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Oman Air plans to increase the current Muscat-Kochi Services to seven per week. According to its countrymanager in India, Oman Air also intends to start new services to Kozhikkodu, Banglore and Delhi. It will use the new aircraft to start non stop long distance flights to Europe and South East Asia.
Omantel slashes Telephone Charges
Omantel has slashed international telephone tariff with effect from tomorrow. The reduction in call charges vary up to a maximum of 31 per cent depending on the destination called and will be applicable both to fixed and mobile telephone services. According to the revised call charges, overseas calls originating from Oman to India will be cheaper by 75baisas (bzs) from the existing rates during peak hours and 100 bzs during off-peak hours. Off-peak period is between 9pm and 7am the next day. Currently, the existing peak tariff is 425bzs, which will come down to 350bzs, while the off-peak rate, which is currently at 375bzs per minute is reduced to 275bzs.
Rates to India, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Iran, Tanzania, South Africa and Latin American countries will be reduced to 350bzs per minute during peak timings while the off-peak rate has been fixed at 275bzs.
Calls to the neighbouring UAE will be 225bzs per minute (currently, 275bzs) during peak hours. There is no change in the off-peak hour charges, which is 105bzs at present. Tariff to other calls to AGCC countries during rush hour will be 225bzs but the off-peak rates will be 150bzs per minute. In respect of international calls made to Arab states, the peak hour rates will be 300bzs per minute (currently, 350bzs) and 250 bzs during off-peak hours, which is 300 bzs now. Peak hour and non-peak hour international calls to the US and Alaska will be 300 bzs per minute and 250 bzs, respectively. The new call charges to south Asian countries, African and Asian states and the Middle East will be 400bzs during peak hours and 350 bzs during non-peak hours.
Saudization is a priority: Al-Namlah
JEDDAH/KOCHI- , 31 December 2002 — Dr. Ali Al-Namlah,Saudi Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, announced that Saudiazation is a major priority of the Saudi Government. According to Al-Madinah newspaper report, in his keynote address at the second annual conference of Employment and Saudization, Dr. Namlah said the private sector in the Kingdom has the potential to employ Saudis. The government used to provide employment in the past to citizens when the country was in its early stages of development. The government also took the responsibility of educating and training the people, he said.
In the conference entitled: “Toward a successful strategy for Saudization of jobs,” the minister urged the private sector to take over from the government the responsibility of employing Saudis. The conference is organized by the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Saudi Administration Society and the Arab Organization for Administration Development.
Three American Doctors Shot Dead in Yemen Hospital
A suspected religious extremist shot and killed three American doctors and seriously wounded a US pharmacist Monday at a Southern Baptist missionary hospital in southern Yemen, security officials said. The suspected attacker, a Yemeni, was later arrested, the officials said on condition of anonymity. Americans have been repeatedly warned to take care in Yemen. Officials said the gunman entered the complex of Jibla Baptist Hospital in the town of Jibla hiding a semiautomatic rifle under his jacket to make it resemble a child and then opened fire, killing the three doctors instantly. He then headed to the hospital?s pharmacy and opened fire, wounding the pharmacist, they said. Jibla is in Ibb province, 200 kilometers south of the capital, Sanaa. According to the officials, one of the victims was the hospital director. The other two killed, both women, were the chief doctor and another doctor. Officials said they believed the gunman was a religious fundamentalist. The names of the victims were not immediately available.
The official Yemeni news agency Saba quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying the 30-year-old assailant, whom he identified as Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, said under interrogation that he plotted Monday?s attack in collaboration with Ali Al-Jarallah, a member of Yemen?s Islamic Reform Party, who was arrested for shooting dead a senior Yemeni leftist politician on Saturday. The Interior Ministry official, who was not identified further, said without elaboration that security forces have doubled their efforts to protect foreigners. Hospital administrator Julie Toma told CNN from Jibla she believed it was an isolated incident. She said she believed the shooting was linked to preparations to hand the American hospital - which was set up in Yemen in 1964/5 - over to a Yemeni administration. "It was a backlash against that. It was an isolated incident," Toma said, adding that as a Westerner she felt safe living in Yemen.
Man held after group claims responsibility for oil firm fire
LAGOS, 30 December (IRIN) - Nigeria's security police have detained a man
for questioning after he claimed his organisation set fire to the Lagos
offices of the state-owned oil company, his lawyer said on Friday.Chris Nwokobia, who leads the previously unknown Youth Democratic
Movement, allegedly called a number of media houses earlier in the week
and said his group was responsible for a fire that razed the main office
in Lagos of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Tuesday.The action was to protest misrule by President Olusegun Obasanjo's
administration, he was reported as saying. The fire, which started overnight, raged for 15 hours, sweeping through the 11 floors of the building as fire-fighters struggled to put it out. Obasanjo said vital documents related to the country's joint venture operations with several oil transnationals were destroyed in the blaze.Nwokobia surrendered to the state security police on Wednesday, his
lawyer, Festus Keyamo, said. "He was arrested when I handed him over to the Lagos State director of State Security Services," Keyamo said. "I urge the authorities to arraign
him in a competent court for any offence he may have committed."Obasanjo, who had ordered an immediate investigation into the fire, said
on state radio on Saturday that while his government was ready to listen
to the complaints of Nigerians it would not tolerate acts of terror by any
individual or group."Arson is the height of irresponsibility and it will be dealt with as
such," he said. (keralamonitor.com)
