MAKKAH, 22 October 2006 — A woman went into labor while inside the Grand Mosque, the daily Okaz reported yesterday. The pilgrim started experiencing contractions as she was performing saieh, where pilgrims walk from Safa to Marwah (two important sites inside the mosque). The woman was taken to a nearby hospital where she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whom she named, of course, Marwah.
‘Lady, I Can’t Afford Your Phone-In Habit’
HAIL, 22 October 2006 — Jamal Al-Mahmoud became mad and couldn’t take it any more after he received another fat phone bill, this time for SR6,400 ($1,800). It turns out that the woman he married had an addiction to participating in phone-in television games shows. Al-Mahmoud, a nurse at King Khaled Public Hospital, said he has tried on several occasions to get his significant other to allow her mobile phone to cool down a bit to no avail. The man in his 30s decided that he could no longer afford his unemployed wife’s telecommunication habits on his SR3,000 monthly salary (about $800). “I can’t pay this bill,” he told a local newspaper in a story published yesterday. “That’s why I divorced her.” Well, that certainly settled it, doesn’t it?
Fake Recruiter Tries to Sucker Job Seekers
MAKKAH, 22 October 2006 — A Saudi man was sending SMS messages to cellular phones to “recruit” women for work. He was offering jobs for various salaries based on level of education. The catch? He wanted interested job-seeking women to send him SR120 worth of pre-paid calling time. And what was the other catch? The man actually didn’t have any jobs; he was just trying to get free mobile phone minutes, according to a report yesterday in the Okaz daily.
