JEDDAH, 20 August 2006 — Relatives of an 80-year-old granddad, who is in intensive care at a hospital in Jeddah, were shocked to find the old-man’s long beard had been shaved off by the hospital barber, the Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.

The Saudi son of the man said his father is suffering from a serious illness and was in the intensive care unit at the hospital when his beard was shaved off. The man said that he came to visit his father and was shocked to see that the hospital barber had given the 80-year-old “the Gillette look.”

The hospital issued a written apology to the family and said that the barber misunderstood instructions to trim the beard. The son, who has threatened to sue the hospital, said, “My father has never shaved his beard since he was born. This is so tragic, I can’t believe they could be so careless.”

Undercover Diva Arrested at Mall

RIYADH, 20 August 2006 — Security guards at a shopping mall in Riyadh were having a regular day when they became suspicious of an Arab “woman” struggling to walk while wearing high-heels, the Al-Jazirah newspaper reported yesterday. Guards called members of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, who came and discovered that the woman was in fact a man who had dressed himself up from head to toe in ladies clothing. The man was also carrying a stylish ladies handbag. “I was experimenting what it felt like being a woman in the Kingdom. It’s hard walking in high-heels,” said the man as commission members arrested him and took him away.

One-Man Activist Demands His Water

QUNFUDA, 20 August 2006 — A Saudi man in this southern village may not like the US neo-conservative term “the New Middle East,” but he certainly has adopted an uncommon way in Saudi Arabia to get some new Middle East plumbing: By organizing a one-man peaceful protest, the Okaz daily reported yesterday. While activist gatherings in the Kingdom are illegal, putting a huge sign in front of your residential building isn’t. The sign reads: “This building has been deprived of water for eight months because of the contracting company.” This miniscule expression of flower power has so far been enough to cause some ripples with the contracting company, which was quick to issue a response that they are working to fix the problem.