SUSRIS Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
/Provided as a service from the Saudi-US Trade Group, Washington, DC
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News-2013-01-07
January 7, 2013
There has been many infographics released over the passed few months about social media in the Middle East, some have tapped into all social networks at large and others have taken one single social network and presented the audience with the usual; number of users, gender segmentation, age …
Even at growth of 3.4 percent, Saudi Arabia’s economy will be the envy of most other large countries. That figure is above the average expected GDP (3 percent) of the G20 nations – of which the kingdom is one – according to Moody’s. And, waiting in the wings, is Saudi Arabia’s vast foreign …
Economists have estimated the Kingdom’s revenues from Haj and Umrah services in 2012 at more than SR 62 billion ($ 16.5 billion), 10 percent up from 2011 figures. They also said that Haj revenue accounted for three percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Fahd Al-Andeejani, …
Prince Abdulaziz’s remarks to the “Intervention and Mediation” plenary session served as a tour d’horizon of regional security concerns from the perspective of Riyadh, ranging from implications of the so-called Arab Spring to conditions vis a vis Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Iran. He also discussed …
The major barrier in the progress of science in Muslim countries is the absence of a culture based on scientific research. There are no established research strategies, poor institutional support and insufficient integration among science-rich communities. Appointments and promotions in …
The Middle East and North Africa region is the most water-scarce region in the world, and based on current World Bank current estimates, water availability in the region is expected to fall by half by 2025 and will have reached absolute water scarcity by 2050. According to the …
It is essential that the issue of war or peace with Iran be fully vented, especially with the U.S. national interest in mind. Although the president has skillfully avoided a specific commitment to military action by a certain date, the absence of a negotiated agreement with Iran regarding its …
New U.S. sanctions have broadened the front in the West’s escalating economic conflict with Iran, targeting large swaths of the country’s industrial infrastructure even as Iranian leaders are indicating a willingness to resume negotiations on the country’s nuclear program. With Iran’s …
Today, Syria is a devastated country. The cities have turned into battlefields, and in the places from which the Assad regime’s troops and militias were forced to withdraw, its air force is now incinerating the infrastructure. Nevertheless, after months of static conflict between unequally …
In a rare public appearance Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dashed hopes that a negotiated settlement to the nation’s civil war would be feasible anytime soon, delivering a speech in which he offered no hint that he is prepared to surrender power, negotiate with his opponents or halt …
President Obama has selected a former Nebraska senator, Chuck Hagel, as his next defense secretary, a White House official said Sunday, turning to a prominent Republican to lead the Pentagon as it faces of the challenge of winding down the war in Afghanistan and possible reductions in military …
Cairo-based diplomats believe that dozens of radicals from across the Middle East have flocked to the barren wilderness, and are taking up the banner of local extremists. Egypt’s military, which is prevented from having any presence near the Israeli border due to the 1979 peace treaty signed …
Bahrain’s highest appeal court has upheld the sentences of 13 activists for their part in anti-government protests in 2011, lawyers say. This was their last possible chance of getting their convictions overturned, their defence lawyers said. Some of the activists received life sentences …
The U.S, government has spent more than $21 billion since 2006 in tackling the IEDs, which it considers a strategic weapon that will remain ‘an enduring threat.’ Marred with questions of inefficiency and mismanagement, the effort is led by JIEDDO, Joint IED Defeat Organization. The group has …
It was a moment of unaccustomed triumph for the US military, still haunted by the defeat in Vietnam. But to Nagl, it also signaled the end of the era that made the triumph possible. Tank-on-tank combat had been the defining mode of warfare for a modern superpower; now it teetered on the verge …
A suspected U.S. drone strike killed 17 people and wounded three Sunday in Pakistan’s volatile tribal region, Pakistani intelligence officials said.The strike occurred in Babar Ziarat, which borders the Pakistani provinces of North and South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, the officials …
Al-Jazeera will pay an undisclosed sum — unconfirmed reports said $500 million — for Current TV, the little-watched but widely distributed cable network co-founded by former vice president Al Gore. Al-Jazeera doesn’t want Current for its name or programming; it wants Current’s entree into …
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services ranked Lebanon in the high-risk group eight in its latest Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment. In a report published Thursday that maintained Lebanon’s banking sector rating as BB negative, the agency said Lebanon scored respectively 9 – extremely …
A Kuwaiti court on Sunday sentenced an opposition youth to two years in jail for writing tweets deemed offensive to the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights activist said. Rashed al-Enezi, who was in the courtroom to hear the sentence, was arrested by police and taken to jail, the head …
It is no place for the faint-hearted. But come every Friday, lovers of the animal kingdom congregate in this spot to view and buy rare and common creatures from the Kingdom. At the Animal and Bird Souk in south Jeddah, where domesticated animals are marketed throughout the week, a unique …
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