MAKKAH, 28 July 2006 — Police found that there was no criminal involvement in a recent accident in which a blind 70-year-old woman suffered severe burns while she was making a cup of tea in the Jarwal district of Makkah. The police made detailed inquiries following complaints from some of the woman’s relatives that the incident was not an accident but an act of attempted homicide, according to Al-Riyadh newspaper. The inquiries, which included the old woman, her son, relatives and neighbors, revealed that the flames caught the edge of her flowing head cover and then spread further on her flammable cloths causing severe burns to her body. The Civil Defense took the woman to Al-Nour Specialist Hospital where she was admitted to the emergency ward.
Indian Workers Flee With SR700,000
RIYADH — Three Indian workers in a catering company reportedly stole SR700,000 from the safe of their employer and disappeared recently, the daily Al-Riyadh reported. Muhammad Al-Shammari, victim of the theft, said he was shocked not so much by the loss of money as by the fact that the authorities failed to stop the three men from leaving the country even after he reported the crime to the police shortly after it happened. Al-Shammari said he reported the matter to the passport department in Jeddah to prevent the workers from escaping. The final shock came, according to Shammari, three days later when one of the accused called him to say that they had arrived home safely.
Wedding Cut Short by Road Collision
QUNFUDA, 28 July 2006 — A freshly coiffed bride left a beauty parlor on her way to her wedding when the car she was riding in collided head-on with a truck in the town of Salehi on Monday, Al-Riyadh reported yesterday. The music in the wedding hall turned to wailing and lamentation while the groom rushed to the nearby hospital’s intensive care unit. The woman was in critical condition and the wedding was canceled. The accident was attributed to low visibility due to a sandstorm.
Woman Run Over After Surviving Crash
AL-KHARJ, 28 July 2006 — A woman in her twenties was killed when a car ran over her on the Riyadh-Kharj highway on Sunday. She had escaped without injuries another accident only a few minutes earlier. The woman was killed crossing the road as she was trying to seek help for a seriously injured passenger in the first accident, the daily Al-Watan reported.
