SAKAKA, 25 June 2007 — A child marriage took place in the Kingdom last week in Sakaka. The groom was 15 years old and the bride 12, an Arabic daily reported yesterday. The young couple still go to school and the groom’s father encouraged his son to marry because he himself married at a young age. The father of the bride would not allow the groom to pay a dowry.
Traffic Violation Turns Into Fisticuffs
BURAIDAH, 25 June 2007 — A disagreement over a traffic ticket escalated into a fistfight between a police officer and a 20-year-old Saudi, the daily Okaz reported yesterday. The policeman pulled the young man over to give him a ticket for a traffic violation. The man objected to the ticket and refused to let the policeman to write it. The situation escalated to a fistfight. Passersby came to the police officers’ rescue and forced the man into a police car. The officer then drove him to a local jail and asked senior officers to make a judgment in the case. The young man accepted the traffic ticket and the policeman was criticized for using force in giving a traffic ticket and was told that he should have taken down the car’s license plate number instead of using force.
