BISHA, 7 July 2006 — A 20,000-square meter date farm in Bisha, located about 200 kilometers from Makkah, went up in flames, the daily Okaz reported yesterday. Civil Defense officials managed to contain the fire, keeping it away from neighboring farms. The cause of the fire? Farm workers were burning trees and underbrush in order to reduce the chance of accidental fires, thus affirming the old Bedouin proverb: “He applied kohl to darken the eye but he became blind in the process.”
