Spam-sending telecom firms threatened with revocation of licenses
Updated 28 March 2014
Jeddah: Arab News
The Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has warned telecom service providers against disseminating spam messages and has threatened violators with fines or even license revocation. The CITC has also called on mobile phone subscribers to report spam messages to enable the commission to take legal action against violators. Sultan bin Mohammad Al-Malik, director-general of Public Relations and Information at the commission, said that the commission places emphasis on subscriber privacy. “Subscribers have the right to define what they do or do not wish to receive from service providers,” he said. “Sending messages without subscribers’ prior consent is considered a violation.” “The commission takes such complaints very seriously; violators are fined and licenses are revoked in extreme cases,” he said. Al-Malik responded to a column written by Mohammad Al-Aheidib, where the writer attacked the CITC for failing to prevent the circulation of spam messages, saying that the commission is sharpening efforts to curb the phenomenon. Penalties are applicable to both telecom and Internet service providers, he said. “The commission does not have access to subscribers’ incoming messages and cannot know if these messages were approved by the subscriber,” he said. “Reporting such messages is crucial because it facilitates the work of the commission in stopping this phenomenon altogether.” The commission has developed a mechanism on its website to receive subscriber complaints. Subscribers are required to provide the date and time the message was sent, the symbol contained in the message and whether the message was sent as a name or a number. “Subscribers can file complaints directly with the CITC if their service provider fails to comply without the need for registering new information,” he said. The commission also refuted the writer’s criticism of the lack of free roaming services in the Kingdom, saying most telecom customers globally do not provide free roaming services but that some local providers enable subscribers to receive free calls while abroad.
Arab coalition intercepts Houthi drone targeting Saudi Arabia
The drone was targeting Khamis Mushait
Houthis continue to target civilians
Updated 06 June 2021
Arab News
RIYADH: The Arab coalition intercepted and destroyed late on Saturday a Houthi drone targeting Khamis Mushait south of Saudi Arabia, state TV Al-Ekhbariya reported.
We will take all necessary precautions to protect civilians as the Houthis continue to target them, the coalition added.
Last month, coalition air defenses intercepted an explosives-laden drone launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia toward Saudi Arabia late on Saturday, the alliance command center said.
In a statement carried by state TV Al-Ekhbariya, the coalition said the weaponized UAV was aimed at the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait along the border with Yemen.
It was the latest in a series of missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed militia against Saudi Arabia since the Kingdom spearheaded a coalition to restore the UN-recognized government in 2015.
Ignoring calls to support the peace negotiations being brokered by the UN, the militia has also refused to end its offensive in the city of Marib.
Over the past 5 years, the Kingdom has taken great strides in ‘go green’ initiatives that include everything from recycling to waste management. (Photos/Supplied)
Saudi Arabia making giant strides toward sustainable solutions
Saudi Arabia outperformed 172 countries in preserving and protecting natural environments
Updated 06 June 2021
DEEMA AL-KHUDAIR
JEDDAH: Within Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program is a plan to address environmental issues and implement sustainable solutions. Over the past five years, the Kingdom has taken great strides in “go green” initiatives that include everything from recycling to waste management.
Earlier this year, five national environmental centers, and an environment fund, were approved by a royal decree, as part of a national plan to regulate institutional structures in the environment sector, with climate change and sustainability two of the most important environmental challenges that Saudi Arabia faces.
Under the theme of “Generation Restoration,” Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Mansour Al-Mushaiti stated that the Kingdom was going to great effort to restore and protect ecosystems through various campaigns over the next decade.
The ministry has launched 17 initiatives to protect the environment, as well as developing meteorological services as part of the 2020 National Transformation Program.
Al-Mushaiti added that work is underway to establish a climate change center, in addition to stopping the cultivation of crops with high water needs and the introduction of environmentally friendly and water-efficient technologies, amid 64 further initiatives within the national environment strategy.
With the goal of becoming a zero waste city, Madinah municipality has partnered up with Bee’ah, a UAE company created in 2007 and considered one of the leading companies for sustainable solutions in the Middle East, to provide waste management solutions.
With projects spanning from environmental consulting to renewable energy, technology, sustainable transportation and training and development, Bee’ah has expanded into the Kingdom and has been awarded three contracts for waste management services in Madinah, encompassing 70 percent of the city and serving 1.2 million people. Services will include solid waste collection and transportation services, disinfection and sanitization of waste bins, training sessions, workshops, and awareness campaigns.
Kholud Al-Fadhli, principal of Green Leaves PlayGroup, is 11 days into creating the largest map of the world out of plastic bottle caps, and hopes to beat a previous Guinness World Record by 250 square meters.
“We are proud that Bee’ah have been tasked with deploying its world-class city cleaning and waste collection solutions for Madinah last year, and we are developing a comprehensive roadmap for waste management services to make Madinah the cleanest city in the Middle East,” Mohamed Al-Hosani, CEO of Bee’ah KSA, told Arab News.
Al-Hosani said the Kingdom is making excellent headway to promote sustainable development and to protect its environment.
Earlier this year, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 60 percent, increasing 50 percent of its energy capacity from renewables by 2030, and planting 50 billion trees in the Middle East.
He said the Kingdom has made a number of commitments under Vision 2030 and the G20 Summit in Riyadh last year outlining their approach to sustainability.
FASTFACTS
• Saudi Arabia ranks first globally on the Species Protection Index.
• The Kingdom ranked first in the ‘Tree cover loss’ index and ‘Wetland loss’ index.
• Work is underway to establish a climate change center in the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, the leading environmental sustainability solutions provider in Saudi Arabia, Naqaa Solutions, has introduced a new sustainable product: The Reverse Vending Machine (RVM).
The RVM can be utilized to collect specific recyclables while also providing incentives. Beverage containers alone take up to 50 percent of the capacity in a standard trash bin, making the RVM ideal for schools, universities, shops, supermarkets and stadiums.
These compact machines are free-standing and take all polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and aluminum containers. The RVM was created primarily to provide an easy way for the public to recycle, and was created in full compliance with European environmental directives to automatically separate and compact drink containers.
“Now more than ever before, Saudi Arabia under the ambitious leadership is heading toward sustainability in every aspect, and conserving the environment is part of achieving Saudi Vision 2030 and improving quality of life,” Mouna Eusman, co-founder of Naqaa Solutions, told Arab News.
“Our work in Naqaa is to keep up (with) and accelerate the transition to a sustainable future following the blueprint developed by the government,” she added.
Kholud Al-Fadhli, principle of Green Leaves PlayGroup, is 11 days into creating the largest map of the world out of plastic bottle caps, and hopes to beat a previous Guinness World Record by 250 square meters.
Caroline Chaptini created the world’s current largest bottle cap mosaic on May 30, 2020 in Miziara, Lebanon, measuring 196.94 square meters.
“It is an exciting idea for the Kingdom to break that record,” she said, with more than half of the map already made up of nearly 300,000 multi-colored bottle caps.
“With World Environment Day, I would like to shed light on the importance of taking care of our Earth in so many ways. I chose to collect plastic,” she told Arab News.
The idea came to her three months ago when she created a campaign to collect plastic bottle caps.
“This was for my circle of family and friends and suddenly the circle grew and it made me create a campaign to encourage people not to throw away their bottle caps, but to collect them and send them to me as I’m trying to break a world record by using these numbers of bottle caps to create a map of the world,” she said.
“I wanted to challenge myself to complete this map. I told everyone it is a good deed to recycle and once I’m done with the map, I will send all the bottle caps to Mawakeb Al-Ajer, a charity organization in Jeddah, where they will send them to recycling factories, and the factories benefit from their charity programs. It’s a self-challenge; (an) environmental and charitable goal.”
Saudi Arabia, Italy, Indonesia and Colombia organize G20 anti-corruption event at UN
Saudi Arabia launched the Riyadh Initiative, which aims to a create a global network of operations to exchange information between anti-corruption agencies around the world
Updated 06 June 2021
Arab News
LONDON: Saudi Arabia on Friday organized an event to tackle corruption on the sidelines of a special UN General Assembly session devoted to the same topic, which was held over two days in New York, Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
The Kingdom’s permanent delegation to the UN organized the event, entitled “Leadership in Combating Corruption and the G20: Its Objectives and Achievements,” in cooperation with delegations from Italy, Indonesia and Colombia, as well as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Saudi Arabia launched on Wednesday the Riyadh Initiative, which aims to a create a global network of operations to exchange information between anti-corruption agencies around the world, which was welcomed by UN member countries and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Friday’s event addressed the importance of launching the Riyadh Initiative, which frames an agenda emanating from the G20, of which Saudi Arabia held the rotating presidency last year, to combat corruption and implement integrity and transparency.
The event was attended by the Italian Coordinator of International Anti-Corruption, Alfredo Durante Mangoni, the Head of International Collaboration at the Saudi Oversight and Anti-corruption Authority, Dr. Nasser Aba Al-Khail, and the Head of the Legal Committee of the Kingdom’s Permanent Delegation to the UN, Nida Abu Ali.
Who’s Who: Khalid Albaker, chief delivery support officer at KSA’s Quality of Life program
Updated 06 June 2021
Arab News
Khalid Albaker has been the chief delivery support officer at the Quality of Life program since July and its acting chief marketing and communication officer since December.
Albaker, who is a member of the Saudi Management Association, was executive director of the board secretariat at Qiddiya Investment Co. between 2019 and 2020. He was also an adviser to the secretary of the board of directors at the same company.
From 2018 to 2019 he held several positions at the General Sport Authority, which has been renamed the Ministry of Sport. He was director of government cooperation, a member of the Saudi Dakar Rally Committee, the head of coordination and cooperation for the Formula E project, and an assistant to the director for the same project.
In 2018 he was an executive assistant at the Saudi Sports for All Federation. The following year he became a consultant for Jeddah Season events, worked on the Diriyah Season, and supervised the planning of Hail Season.
Between 2011 and 2012, Albaker was a sales manager at Lamborghini, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
He has a master’s degree in business administration from Al-Yamamah University in Riyadh and a bachelor’s degree in the same subject from King Faisal University in Al-Ahsa.
Last month he received an achievement certificate from the London Business School’s Leading Change program.
Last October, the Saudi Falcon Club organized a major auction that saw the sale of a young peregrine, captured in Hafr Al-Batin, for SR650,000 ($173,000), making it the most expensive sale to date. (Reuters/File)
Falconry: A cultural legacy and lucrative hobby in Saudi Arabia
Over 100 falcons were sold in 20 days, earning a total amounting to SR10 million
Updated 06 June 2021
Tareq Al-Thaqafi
MAKKAH: Fast, small, agile and powerful: These are some of the most notable characteristics of the falcons that are bred and used for hunting in Saudi Arabia. It is a very expensive hobby, but also a lucrative one, the history of which goes back millennia.
The Kingdom is home to various species of falcons, and lies on a key migratory route. Every year, hunters attempt to capture them under a strict set of guidelines.
“It’s no easy feat,” Husam Al-Qarawi, a falconer, told Arab News. “It takes skill, intelligence and acumen to deal with them. Special nets are made for hunting them (filled with) pigeons and quail, and looking after them requires patience.”
The spokesman for the Saudi Falcon Club, Walid Al-Taweel, noted that there are two types of native falcons in the Kingdom: The peregrine falcon and the lanner falcon, known as Al-Wakri.
Al-Taweel told Arab News that the peregrine falcon reproduces in mountainous environments, with the male smaller than the female; mating and nest building spans from February to August.
He added that other peregrines that migrate to the Arabian Peninsula from mid-September to November are called sea peregrines, and are larger and more expensive than the native mountain-dwelling peregrine falcons because they are faster and more elusive.
The falcon migration routes that pass from the northern regions of the Kingdom to the western coastlines are known as Al-Hammad. From the west and east coasts, the routes are called Al-Saman and Dibdiba, and all three routes are famous for hunting, with Al-Hammad being the most famous, and up to six falcon auctions held in the northern regions a year.
HIGHLIGHTS
• There are two types of native falcons in the Kingdom: The peregrine falcon and the lanner falcon, known as Al-Wakri.
• Falcons with a high price tag are rare, and there are a number of factors at play in determining price, including size, weight, shape, feathers, color and eyes.
Between migratory and native falcons, Saudi falcon groups and clubs are active in preserving and breeding falcons, and holding auctions that result in the sales of the most expensive falcons in the world.
In the Kingdom, falcon sales have reported record figures, reflecting the region’s passion and love for the birds. Saudi Arabia is considered the international center of the sector.
Last October, the Saudi Falcon Club organized a major auction that saw the sale of a young peregrine, captured in Hafr Al-Batin, for SR650,000 ($173,000), making it the most expensive sale to date.
Over 100 falcons were sold in 20 days, earning a total amounting to SR10 million.
Falcons with a high price tag are rare, and there are a number of factors at play in determining price, including size, weight, shape, feathers, color and eyes.
Al-Qarawi pointed out that falcons in captivity are covered with a hood in order to calm them, because their movement increases when they see people, which could cause them to hurt themselves. The hood also helps the falcons to sleep and rest.
He added that Saudi Arabia now has production, hatchery and crossbreeding farms, with three farms in Hail and the Eastern Province.
