YANBU: Camels have competition for being one of the Kingdom’s most beloved creatures; Saudis are also particularly fond of long-sprinting Arabian horses and strange-looking Damascene goats. Falcons, too, have a long tradition in the region. In fact a third of the world’s falconers are Arabs from the Gulf region. Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday that a Yanbu bird trader by the name of Salim Al-Sinani Al-Johani recently forked over SR500,000 (over $130,000) for a falcon caught by a bird hunter in an unnamed western coastal village. The bird was considered especially tempered for falconry and had a highly prized symmetrical pattern of feathers — and nothing else reflected these qualities more than the price tag!
Shopper delivers baby inside mall
TABUK: Considering the Saudi love of nice, big air conditioned shopping malls, it’s probably a surprise that this hasn’t happened sooner: A woman in this northwestern Saudi city gave birth to a baby inside a mall. According to yesterday’s Al-Madinah newspaper, hundreds of shoppers cleared the path for a woman who started having labor pains while shopping with her husband. But before the ambulance could arrive, the baby was born. The father told the newspaper that the long walk to the mall may have spurred the labor.
