Driver’s beard pulled off in street fight
TABUK, 16 January 2003 — A heated argument between two truck drivers, one a Saudi and the other an Egyptian, degenerated into a fight during which the two men grabbed violently at each other’s long beards. Okaz reported that passersby failed in their attempt to separate the two men, and they only stopped when one of them realized that most of his beard had been torn off his face.
Joyriders to be given traffic tickets
TAIF, 16 January 2003 — Traffic police in Taif are to start recording on their computer database the offense of joyriding, according to Al-Madinah newspaper. First-time offenders will be given a ticket, a second violation will result in a fine and after a third violation the offender’s car will be confiscated for two months and the driver will be banned from driving for 10 days. If the offender is caught joyriding again the car will be seized and the driver will be jailed.
Tough penalty for sheltering overstayers
ASIR, 16 January 2003 — Director general of the Passports Department, Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Sajeeni, has clarified the rules and regulations regarding the treatment of overstayers with expired Haj or Umrah visas. Any Saudi citizen who harbors or in any other way assists an overstayer will be fined between SR10,000 and SR100,000, jailed for six months or both, Okaz quoted Sajeeni as saying.
Police to escort ATM delivery vans
ASIR, 16 January 2003 — Banks have started to strengthen security procedures surrounding the delivery of cash by road to ATMs following an armed robbery on a security van last Ramadan, Al-Madinah reported yesterday. A bank official told the paper that police cars will now escort security vans twice every day.
Housemaid commits suicide
DAMMAM, 16 January 2003 — A 27-year-old maid in Dammam committed suicide yesterday morning, just two months after arriving in the Kingdom to work for a local family. She immediately realized it had been a mistake to accept the job and asked her employer to send her back home. The family agreed and sent her to the local employment office. However, the maid then changed her mind, but afterward hanged herself. In another incident in Dhahran, a Moroccan maid committed suicide by throwing herself from the third story of the apartment building she was working in. She died immediately, and local police are investigating the incident.
Rotten food items seized
JEDDAH, 16 January 2003 — Police and officials from the Jeddah Municipality have seized huge quantities of rotten food deemed a serious danger to human health, along with huge quantities of counterfeit women’s abayas. They also seized sewing machines inside a house that had been converted into a factory managed by illegal overstayers in the Barmawiya area in Jeddah, Al-Madinah newspaper reported. Most of the workers were from Myanmar. Saad Al-Malki, manager of the Um Al-Salam Municipality and a member of the anti-fraud committee, said police stormed the Barmawiya area following reports that locals were selling rotten food and fish, causing a terrible smell in the
