SUSRIS Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
/Provided as a service from the Saudi-US Trade Group, Washington, DC/
1.24.12 EDITION
Investments are Engine of KSA’s Development: King Abdullah: SAUDI GAZETTE
1/24/12
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud has stressed the need to increase investment opportunities in the Kingdom. Inaugurating the sixth Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) in Riyadh on Saturday night, King Abdullah described investments as Saudi Arabia’s engine of development. The King’s inaugural address was delivered by Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry, at the Four Seasons Hotel at the Kingdom Tower.
Boeing Delivers Two 777-300ERs to Saudi Arabian Airlines: PRESS RELEASE
1/24/12
Boeing reached a major milestone with Saudi Arabian Airlines when it delivered the airline’s first two 777-300ERs (extended range), marking another step forward in Boeing’s historic and enduring relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Sees $66bn Worth of Projects Signed In 2011: ARABIAN BUSINESS
1/23/12
The total value of contracts awarded in Saudi Arabia reached $66bn in 2011, a six percent increase on the previous year, according to new research.
No Cash to West until KSA Given More Clout: ARAB NEWS
1/23/12
Big emerging economies such as Saudi Arabia, India and China will not aid the West in its financial crisis unless they are given more influence in running the global economy, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi ex-envoy to US and UK, said on Monday. “The financial crisis and great recession were born in the West, developed in the West yet hit hard throughout the world,” he said while addressing the Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF).
Why Won’t Saudi Arabia Write Down Its Laws?: FOREIGN POLICY
Nathan J. Brown | 1/23/12
In 2007 and 2009 Saudi King Abdullah capped a decade of legal and judicial reforms in his country by reorganizing the judiciary and ordering that Saudi Arabia follow the step that virtually all other states in the region did long ago by codifying its laws — committing to paper a comprehensive compendium of the operative laws in the kingdom. Since that date, however, his order has been neither challenged nor implemented. Why is codification of law seen as such a dramatic step in Saudi Arabia? And why does the king seem incapable of making it happen?
Will 2012 Be A Year of Opening for Saudi Arabia?: ARABIANOMICS
Lucien Zeigler | 1/23/12
The investment, aviation, and tourism sectors are all set for major changes to the status quo in 2012 after years of anticipation by foreigners to break into these lucrative markets in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the most significant and highly anticipated of these openings is in the opening of Saudi Arabia’s stock market.
Saudi Interior Ministry: Authorities Detain 9 Accused Of Instigating Riots In Shiite City: WASHINGTON POST
1/24/12
A Saudi official says police have detained nine men accused of instigating riots in the eastern city of Qatif, home to the country’s Shiite minority.
Saudi Cabinet Approves Expansion Of Oil, Gas Relations With China: SPA: PLATTS
1/24/12
The Saudi cabinet has mandated Oil Minister Ali Naimi to enter into negotiations with China in line with a protocol signed between the two sides to expand cooperation in the oil, gas and minerals sectors, official news agency SPA reported Monday.
Saudi to Introduce Bank Wage System for Expats: EMIRATES 24|7
1/24/12
Saudi Arabia will join the UAE in forcing its private sector employers to transfer salaries of their workers to banks to protect their rights and ensure they get their wages on time, newspapers said on Tuesday.
Hundreds Of Child Smugglers Nabbed: ARAB NEWS
1/24/12
A total of 448 people involved in smuggling children from Yemen to the Kingdom along the southern borders were caught last year, Al-Eqtisadiah reported Monday. The local daily was quoting the commander of the Saudi Border Guards Gen. Zameem Al-Sawwat.
50 Job Centers To Be Set Up For Women Soon: Labor Minister: ARAB NEWS
1/23/12
Labor Minister Adel Fakeih said on Monday his ministry plans to set up 50 job centers for Saudi women throughout the Kingdom to enable them to find employment opportunities in various sectors.
Cabinet Okays Pension For All GCC Citizens: SAUDI GAZETTE
1/24/12
The Council of Ministers has approved the Unified System for the Extension of Insurance Protection for all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizens working in this country. The system provides pension coverage for GCC citizens in all member states.
IRAN: HOW TOUGH ARE THE SANCTIONS?
The sanctions, agreed upon yesterday in Brussels but not to be implemented until July, comes with possible unintended consequences ranging from oil market disarray at a time of economic crisis to further brinkmanship by the Islamic Republic. Yet some experts feel that the EU’s advertised toughness is less than meets the eye, and that the EU may have quietly kicked the can down the road, or at least left open the door for changes that could decrease pressure on Tehran, CSM writes. NEGOTIATIONS CAN RESOLVE STANDOFF, IRAN SAYS: Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said only negotiations and not sanctions can resolve the standoff over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, Bloomberg reports. BACKGROUND: EU TRADE WITH IRAN: Iran provides a notable, but not decisive, quantity of oil to the European Union. Of the 896 million barrels of crude imported to the 27 EU member states in the first quarter of 2011, just 4.4 per cent came from Iran, Monsters and Critics writes.
SYRIA: GULF ARAB STATES QUIT MISSION
Saudi Arabia’s Gulf allies joined Riyadh on Tuesday in pulling out of an Arab League monitoring team to Syria, risking the collapse of a mission whose presence has not halted more than 10 months of violence, Reuters reports. BASHAR’S RUSSIAN PALS: Bashar Assad is feeling lonely, though not yet lonely enough. First the Turks, Americans and Europeans de-friended him. Now formerly fraternal leaders at the Arab League want him deposed. The Syrian strongman’s forces have killed more than 5,400 people in 10 months and turned a peaceful protest movement into a virtual civil war. But he still has a few friends in low places, opines the Wall Street Journal.
UNITED STATES: OBAMA TO DELIVER STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH TONIGHT
President Barack Obama will pitch new initiatives on jobs, taxes and housing in an election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday, making a sweeping case for a second term, Reuters reports.
EGYPT: FIRST PARLIAMENT IN POST-MUBARAK ERA HELD
Egypt’s military rulers said they handed legislative powers to the country’s lower house of parliament on Monday — the first day the parliament convened since former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year, CNN reports.
TURKEY: GENOCIDE LAW SUBJECT OF ROW WITH FRANCE
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan attacked the French parliament on Tuesday for passing a “discriminatory and racist” bill which makes it illegal to deny that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide, Reuters reports.
LIBYA: GADDAFI LOYALISTS SEIZE TOWN
Moammar Gadhafi loyalists have seized control of a Libyan town and raised the ousted regime’s green flag, an official and commander said Tuesday, AP reports.
IRAQ: CAR BOMBS KILL 14
A wave of car bombings today hit the Iraq capital, killing 14 people and wounding more than 70 as violence surges in the country amid an escalating political crisis a month after the US military withdrawal, AP reports.
YEMEN: 750,000 CHILDREN MALNOURISHED
A year of Yemen’s turmoil has exacerbated the number of malnourished children under the age of five to around 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country’s infrastructure to tackle the problem, AP reports.
AFGHANISTAN: 16 INSURGENTS KILLED
Sixteen insurgents have been killed in a series of operations conducted by Afghan and NATO-led coalition forces over the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Sunday, Xinhua reports.
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