Al Arabiya with AFP -

A man died on Monday of the SARS-like coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, bringing the death toll for the respiratory infection in the kingdom to 16, the health ministry said.

“One of the patients who had contracted the virus has died,” in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia where most of the kingdom’s cases have been registered, the ministry said.

The victim was not identified, but the ministry said he was a diabetic who also had heart and kidney problems.

The ministry also said that the health of a nurse who had been infected by patients in the Eastern Region was now improving.

Saudi Arabia now wants the coronavirus to be discussed in an upcoming World Health Organization session, according to the Saudi Gazette on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Geneva-based WHO reported that two Saudi health workers have contracted the deadly coronavirus from patients — the first evidence of transmission in a hospital setting.

“This is the first time health care workers have been diagnosed with nCoV (novel coronavirus) infection after exposure to patients,” the WHO said in a statement, according to AFP news agency.

On Saturday, the health ministry said a new case had been detected, bringing to 31 the number of officially recorded cases in the country.

Since last September, the WHO says it has been informed of a global total of 40 laboratory confirmed cases of the virus, including 20 deaths.

Several countries in the Middle East have been affected. Cases have also been reported by three countries in Europe: France, Germany and Britain. All of the European cases have had a direct or indirect connection to the Middle East, the WHO said. The virus has been the deadliest, however, in Saudi Arabia.

Human coronavirus was first discovered in 2012 in a man in Saudi Arabia, and almost all of the cases reported to the WHO originated in the Arabian Peninsula.

The virus is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in east Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts and eventually killing some 800 people.

Al Arabiya -

Twenty percent of private-sector companies in Saudi Arabia are not meeting quotas for the employment of nationals, despite a program aimed at boosting recruitment that launched two years ago, a labor official said.

Nitaqat, a government-led Saudization program, was launched with the aim of increasing the number of national employees in private-sector companies, and to help reduce the unemployment rate.

The Nitaqat program classified companies into blue, green, yellow, and red categories according to their level of compliance.

Companies most compliant with Nitaqat’s regulations belong in the blue category, while companies with little or no compliance are classed as red.

One-fifth of companies in the Saudi market are in still the red category, Ahmed al-Humaidan, the undersecretary at the Ministry of Labor, told Aleqtisadiah on Monday.

Since launching Nitaqat, the Saudi Ministry of Labor confirmed the employment of 500,000 Saudis, thus improving the compliance of companies in the private sector, Aleqtisadiah reported.One-fifth of KSA firms don’t meet quotas for employing Saudis
Monday, 20 May 2013

One-fifth of companies in Saudi have not met quotas for employing nationals. (Reuters file photo)

Al Arabiya -

Twenty percent of private-sector companies in Saudi Arabia are not meeting quotas for the employment of nationals, despite a program aimed at boosting recruitment that launched two years ago, a labor official said.

Nitaqat, a government-led Saudization program, was launched with the aim of increasing the number of national employees in private-sector companies, and to help reduce the unemployment rate.

The Nitaqat program classified companies into blue, green, yellow, and red categories according to their level of compliance.

Companies most compliant with Nitaqat’s regulations belong in the blue category, while companies with little or no compliance are classed as red.

One-fifth of companies in the Saudi market are in still the red category, Ahmed al-Humaidan, the undersecretary at the Ministry of Labor, told Aleqtisadiah on Monday.

Since launching Nitaqat, the Saudi Ministry of Labor confirmed the employment of 500,000 Saudis, thus improving the compliance of companies in the private sector, Aleqtisadiah reported.

The labor official said he was certain that companies will enhance their compliance and get out of the red category, in the face of penalties.

Companies in the red category face being banned from completing procedures such as the change of profession, transfer of visas, issuance of visas, and the opening of files for new branches. These companies have a grace period of six months to improve their status, according to Nitaqat’s regulations.

Al-Humaidan confirmed that a labor ministry committee is looking into ways by which nationals can benefit from working in the maintenance and operation of public facilities.

This follows a decision by the Shura Council, last October, which banned Saudis from working in such fields, unless the job was of a “special nature.”

The Nitaqat system states that business owners must provide regular and updated data on employment positions in operations and maintenance for public facilities, to gain the committee’s approval.

The labor official said he was certain that companies will enhance their compliance and get out of the red category, in the face of penalties.

Companies in the red category face being banned from completing procedures such as the change of profession, transfer of visas, issuance of visas, and the opening of files for new branches. These companies have a grace period of six months to improve their status, according to Nitaqat’s regulations.

Al-Humaidan confirmed that a labor ministry committee is looking into ways by which nationals can benefit from working in the maintenance and operation of public facilities.

This follows a decision by the Shura Council, last October, which banned Saudis from working in such fields, unless the job was of a “special nature.”

The Nitaqat system states that business owners must provide regular and updated data on employment positions in operations and maintenance for public facilities, to gain the committee’s approval.

Reuters –

LONDON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has reported another case of infection in a concentrated outbreak of a new strain of a virus that emerged in the Middle East last year and spread into Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday.

In a disease outbreak update issued from its Geneva headquarters, the WHO said the latest patient is an 81-year-old woman with multiple medical conditions. She became ill on April 28 and is in a critical but stable condition.

Worldwide, there have now been 41 laboratory-confirmed infections, including 20 deaths, since the new coronavirus was identified by scientists in September 2012.

The novel coronavirus, which had been known as by the acronym nCoV but which some scientific journals now refer to as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, or MERS, belongs to the same family as viruses that cause common colds and the one that caused a deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003.

MERS cases have so far been reported in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Britain, Germany and France, but Saudi Arabia has had the vast majority of cases.

The WHO said that latest patient was in the same clinic in eastern Saudi Arabia that has seen 22 cases, nine of them fatal, since April 8.

WHO experts visiting Saudi Arabia to consult with the authorities on the outbreak have said it seemed likely the new virus could be passed between humans, but only after prolonged, close contact.

Al Arabiya -

Saudi Arabia has seen a 73 percent drop in the number of bounced checks since 2009, following the start of a government campaign aimed at consumers and businesses.

The decline in the total value of bounced checks was even greater, falling to SR3.8 billion in 2012 from SR15bn in 2009, marking a decrease of 74.6 percent, according to a report by the Saudi Credit Bureau (SIMAH).

SIMAH also provided figures on how many personal and commercial checks bounced. From 2009 to 2012, the total number of personal bounced checks decreased by 63 percent. The total number of commercial bounced checks decreased by 67 percent within the same time frame.

The total value of personal checks that bounced decreased by 75 percent from 2009 to 2012. The value of commercial bounced checks during the same period decreased by 72 percent.

The report provided 35 reasons behind the phenomenon of bounced checks in Saudi Arabia. It found that 63 percent of bounced checks in Saudi Arabia were due to insufficient funds, the main reason cited.

Since March 2010, the Saudi government passed tough legislation on bouncing checks to reaffirm the importance of checks as methods of settling debts and payments, according to another SIMAH report titled ‘Checks in GCC Countries’.

The report states that, under Saudi law, the punishment for bounced checks can be a fine ranging between a SR100 to SR2000, or jail time ranging from fifteen days to six months, or both.

Another drive to target the issue initiated by SIMAH included a campaign aimed at limiting problems by including bounced checks into the credit reports of companies.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal (R) met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) to discuss regional affairs and China-Saudi bilateral relations.

Al Arabiya -

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal expressed, on a visit to Beijing Friday, that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should not be allowed to continue committing crimes against civilians.

The meeting between Saudi and Chinese counterparts comes ahead of the second Geneva meeting, where a peace conference on Syria will be held in the first half of June.

The foreign minister said Saudi Arabia is keen on finding a resolution to the ongoing Syrian crisis and violence in the war-torn country should come to an end.

Al-Faisal stressed the importance of having a unified international stance on the Syrian crisis.

China has meanwhile agreed that hostilities in Syria should be stopped, adding that any decision the international community is going to take should abide by the United Nations Charter and principles.

During the visit, the Saudi minister met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss regional affairs and China-Saudi bilateral relations.

“It is a set policy of China to develop friendly relations with Saudi Arabia no matter how the international situation changes,” the Chinese president said as quoted by Xinhua news agency.

Sources speaking to Al Arabiya said al-Faisal was told that China will not support an Iranian nuclear program that could impose a threat on the Gulf region.

Al Arabiya -

Raha Moharrak made history by becoming the first woman from Saudi Arabia to reach the world’s highest peak Mount Everest.

The 25-year-old is also considered to be the youngest Arab to climb Everest, the BBC reported on Saturday.

Moharrak is part of a four-person expedition that also includes two Arab men climbers from Qatar and Palestine, both attempting to be billed the first of their nations to reach the summit.

The expedition aims to raise one million dollars for education projects in Nepal, the BBC said.

Moharrak, originally from Jeddah, is university graduate based in Dubai, the BBC added.

On a biography posted on the expedition’s website, Moharrak said convincing her family to agree to her climb “was as great a challenge as the mountain itself.”

“I really don’t care about being the first,” she is quoted as saying. “So long as it inspires someone else to be second.”

Saudi Arabia, where Moharrak comes from, follows an ultraconservative interpretation of Shariah, or Islamic law. The Kingdom has banned sports for females in schools and sport clubs.

Earlier in May, the Saudi official press agency said that private girls’ schools are now allowed to hold sports activities in allegiance with “rule of Shariah.”

In last year’ Olympics, two Saudi females were allowed to participate for the first time wearing a modified veil agreed by Olympic officials.

In 2012, a group of Saudi women teamed up to raise breast cancer awareness by reaching the base camp Mount Everest. The climb was sponsored by Zahra Breast Cancer Association along with other organizations.

Reuters, Islamabad -

Gunmen killed a senior female politician from a reformist party in Pakistan on Saturday night, the latest violent incident in a bloody election campaign and one that set off a war of words between two major opposition parties.

Around 150 people were killed in the run-up to national elections held last week, which handed a landslide victory to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N party.

It marked the first time an elected government replaced another one in a nation that has been run by military leaders for more than half its history.

Results from a handful of constituencies are still awaited amid accusations of vote-rigging. The shooting came hours ahead of re-polling in a key area beset by allegations of voting fraud.

It was not immediately clear who killed Zara Shahid Hussain, a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The PTI has promised to reduce endemic corruption in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people.

The PTI’s leader, former international cricket star Imran Khan, was quick to pin the blame on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, which represents the Urdu-speaking majority, and specifically its boss, Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London.

“I hold Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he had openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts,” AFP reported Khan as saying on his Twitter feed, describing the killing as “a targeted act of terror.”

“I also hold the British Govt responsible as I had warned them abt Br citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats to kill PTI workers,” he said, adding that he was “shocked and deeply saddened by the brutal killing.”

MQM leader Hussain is wanted on murder charges in Pakistan and leads his party remotely from exile in England. His party is designated a terrorist organization by Canada, a charge it strongly denies.

In recent days he gave a speech which many Pakistanis felt was an incitement to attack political rivals. The British police have been flooded with complaints demanding an investigation.

The MQM leader insisted his words were taken out of context. MQM leaders held a press conference within hours of Hussain’s death to disclaim responsibility and demand a retraction from Khan.

Firdous Shamim, a local PTI leader, told AFP that Hussain “was leaving her home for some work when three gunmen attacked her. She thought they wanted to snatch her purse and handed it over to them but they killed her.”

Police said all three gunmen escaped after the attack.

“They shot her with one bullet near her chin and she could not survive,” senior police official Nasir Aftab told AFP.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Khan’s party, Jamal Siddiqui, claimed Shahid was killed to sabotage a re-vote scheduled to be held in Karachi on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

Khan’s election campaign electrified many Pakistanis, pushing the PTI from a marginal party with no seats in the legislature to become Pakistan’s third largest party.

National polls held a week ago gave the MQM 18 out of 19 national assembly seats in its power base in Karachi. Re-polling is due to be held Sunday in the final constituency, thought to be a stronghold of PTI, after many polling stations failed to open on election day.

The steamy port city of Karachi is Pakistan’s financial heart and home to 18 million people. It typically sees about a dozen murders a day, a deadly combination of political killings, attacks by Taliban and sectarian militant groups, and street crime.

Richard LeBaron
May 17, 2013

It is likely that every American president since George Washington has joked with his advisers that he would love to have the absolute power wielded by some of his fellow world leaders. With such authority, he could deal decisively with pesky domestic critics, unruly media, or noisy civil-society groups. Occasionally a president has imposed emergency laws (Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt), carried out “dirty tricks” against critics (Richard Nixon), or stretched the rules of domestic surveillance (George W. Bush). But such practices tend to be aberrations and usually evoke a corrective response from the judiciary, Congress or the public.

Such systemic give and take is alien to many regimes in the Middle East, whether they are led by monarchs or by civilians who monopolize power. In the Gulf, royal families view themselves as the ultimate legitimate leaders. They are skeptical of the merits or the effectiveness of systems of shared power. They believe the fact that they have survived and their countries have thrived for the most part indicates their future durability.

One can only imagine the pained reactions in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, or Manama when they read Jordanian King Abdullah’s recent comments to an American reporter suggesting that his son would be the monarch in a “Western democracy with a constitutional monarchy.” The Gulf leaders want to be rulers—not mere symbols—and are taking a variety of steps beyond the normal generous benefits to citizens to try to ensure their longevity. For example, there are sharp crackdowns on any evidence of political organizing by Islamists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), enforcement of laws against criticizing the ruler in Kuwait, and attempts to limit discourse about the king on social media in Bahrain.

Some of these crackdowns are reactions to manifestations in the Gulf of the “awakening” elsewhere in the region, which the Gulf monarchies view largely as a threat, and not as a way to make gradual, progressive reforms. Mark Lynch has dissected the costs of mocking a monarch in the Gulf and suggests that prosecuting people for criticism “is the surest sign that they (monarchs) are losing.” Indeed, energetic stifling of criticism will not eliminate it and risks further erosion of legitimacy.

To protect U.S. interests, senior American policymakers, including the president, need to engage their Gulf counterparts in a sustained dialogue about internal political developments. These difficult conversations have tended to fall off the bottom of agendas between U.S. presidents and Gulf leaders, as they deal with pressing issues of the day. Such neglect was evident in the policy confusion that emerged during and after the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, as Washington floundered to define its interests and have some impact on developments. Leader-to-leader discussions do not replace U.S. engagement across a broad spectrum of Gulf populations. But given the political structures of the Gulf, these talks are absolutely necessary and are too late if they come only at the moment of crisis.

Why So Little Concern?

During his conversations with Gulf leaders recently in Washington, it is unlikely that U.S. president Barack Obama raised human-rights concerns with Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan or discussed allowing greater dissent with Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal. Nor did he likely suggest that the Amir of Qatar rescind the sentence of a recently jailed poet. In the hierarchy of U.S. interests in the Gulf, internal political developments rank well below many other issues. Why?

First, there is no clear and present crisis. Domestic politics have become complicated and tense in Bahrain and Kuwait, for example, but they do not compare with the wholesale slaughter of citizens in Syria, nor to the wholesale violation of human rights in Iran. In fact, one poll finds that “the UAE is country where most Arab youth would like to live.” Second, the United States has strong, shared security interests with Gulf states, ranging from concerns about Iran and Syria to counterterrorism cooperation. The Gulf states are accommodating of U.S. military presence in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, for which they pick up a good portion of the bill. Third, economic and commercial ties are very important to the U.S. economy. The free flow of oil is still critical. Gulf treasuries own vast amounts of U.S. debt, Gulf consumers buy huge amounts of U.S. goods and services, and Gulf states are major customers for U.S. defense exports.

Given the web of shared interests that bind the Gulf and the United States, it is not surprising that human rights and internal political developments do not gain more prominence in bilateral relations. The State Department’s annual human-rights report has become an annoying sideshow in the Gulf and elsewhere—the report provides well-documented information but is not integrated into other aspects of U.S. policy. Meanwhile, some of the Gulf states are adept at building goodwill in Washington, including through generous support for educational institutions, think tanks, disaster relief and other philanthropic endeavors.

Serving as a diplomat at the U.S. embassies in Cairo and Kuwait, I was part of the apparatus in which the interests of the day dominated and little attention was given to longer-range issues. When I served in Kuwait from 2004 to 2007, the main U.S. interest was to provide logistical support for our forces in Iraq. The Kuwaitis provided such support for much longer and at much greater expense than they expected when the Iraq war was launched. (Recall that U.S. policymakers thought it would take just a few months to conclude.) Of course it served their interests as well, but the Iraq war would have been a lot more expensive for U.S. taxpayers had, for example, the Kuwaitis not donated virtually every drop of fuel for U.S. combat vehicles and planes. To its credit, the Bush administration simultaneously pushed for the enfranchisement of women in Kuwait, and the Kuwaiti leadership got the message. But there were no discussions at high levels concerning the durability of the Kuwaiti model of government, which was already showing the strains that are more evident now.

While I was at the U.S. embassy in Cairo from 1998 to 2001, before every visit by then president Hosni Mubarak to Washington, the embassy would almost ritualistically recommend to Washington that it have “the conversation” with Mubarak about how to unfreeze the political system in Egypt. That exchange was one that would need to be between presidents, without note takers, and not just once. U.S. “suggestions” would include rescinding the emergency law, figuring out how to allow viable opposition parties and backing off from the government’s media domination. To my knowledge, that conversation never took place, and it certainly did not occur in a sustained way over time.

How Things Could Change

In the near term, the Gulf states are unlikely to face the kind of existential crisis that Mubarak and former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali encountered in 2011. But one should also recall that not a single Middle East expert predicted the timing or the depth of the changes in Egypt or Tunisia. The Gulf is not immune to social and political change. While I do not share Bruce Riedel’s bleak portrayal of the situation in Saudi Arabia, I certainly agree with his assessment that there is a clear U.S. interest in a better understanding of both the underlying dynamics of the transitions taking place in the al-Saud family and (perhaps more crucially) the undercurrents of fundamental change occurring in that country.

Conversations with our friends about their domestic political issues are obviously awkward and uncomfortable, but no less necessary. The United States has long-term interests that it needs to protect: U.S. policymakers have an obligation to anticipate surprises and be positioned to deal with them. In addition to good intelligence based on a wide range of sustained contact across the breadth of Gulf societies, the United States needs to be able to speak frankly to Gulf leaders about tough issues before crises emerge, in part so that we can have a constructive role when they inevitably do appear. The U.S. policy confusion and mixed signals in the last days of the Mubarak regime were painful to observe and served neither U.S. nor Egyptian interests.

We do not know what might spark fundamental change in the Gulf, just as we did not know Mohamed Bouazizi’s name until he became the symbol of revolution in Tunisia. Change in the Gulf could come suddenly and unexpectedly, or as a result of an accretion of grievances and failed responses. Alternatively transitions could occur over time through conscious actions by the leaders in the region. We should not rule out that one or more of these families will develop a model to respond and include their publics in political systems that can evolve into a hybrid between multiparty democracy and constitutional monarchy.

The wave of change in the Middle East, both outside the Gulf and within it, needs to take its proper place in the U.S. bilateral agenda with Gulf states. The dialogue needs to be sustained and needs to take place quietly, but not be limited to leaders. Long-term interests demand that the United States be well positioned to understand and absorb changes ahead. That requires honest and ongoing engagement at various levels, both official and unofficial.

Richard LeBaron is a visiting senior fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East of the Atlantic Council and served as US Ambassador to Kuwait from 2004 to 2007.

Reuters, Riyadh -

Several government websites in Saudi Arabia were sabotaged in a series of heavy cyber-attacks from abroad in recent days, disabling them briefly until the attacks were repelled, the government said.

An investigation traced the “coordinated and simultaneous attacks” to hundreds of Internet protocol addresses in a number of countries, an unnamed source at the Saudi Interior Ministry told state news agency SPA.

The interior ministry website crashed on Wednesday after it received a “huge amount” of service requests, but was back online less than two hours later after the “necessary technical drills” were performed to counter the attack, the source said.

The report made no mention of a possible motive.

Businesses, government agencies and critical infrastructure operators face unprecedented challenges from increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks launched by criminals, hacker activists and foreign governments.

An attack last year on national oil company Saudi Aramco -the world’s biggest oil company – damaged some 30,000 computers and was one of the most destructive cyber strikes conducted against a single business.

That attack used a computer virus known as Shamoon. A group that claimed responsibility said Saudi Aramco was the main source of income for the Saudi government, which it blamed for” crimes and atrocities” in several countries including Syria and Bahrain.

On Friday, the website and Twitter feed of the Financial Times newspaper were hacked, apparently by the “Syrian Electronic Army”, a group of online activists who say they supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The 193 U.N. member states are set to vote on the draft resolution on Syria. (Reuters)

Al Arabiya with Reuters -

A draft resolution that condemns Syrian authorities and accepts the opposition Syrian National Coalition as party to a potential political transition is set to be voted on at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.

The vote comes as Britain and France delayed a Syrian request for Islamist al-Nusra Front to be designated by the United Nations as a terrorist group.

The European countries said they want the militants to instead be listed as an alias of al-Qaeda, diplomats said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the 193 U.N. member states are set to vote on the draft resolution, which some Western diplomats said was unlikely to win as many votes as a resolution that passed last year with 133 in favor.

Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is opposed to the resolution, which was drafted by Qatar and other Arab nations.

“I’m convinced a lot of countries voted for this text because they believed they were voting for the winning side,” a senior western U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters news agency in reference to the August, 2012 resolution.” They are not so sure anymore.”

“Now also you have the Islamist, terrorist factor which is much more conspicuous,” he said.

No country has a veto in the General Assembly.

The Syrian conflict started more than two years ago with mainly peaceful demonstrations against Assad, but turned into a civil war in which the United Nations says at least 70,000people have been killed. Islamist militants have emerged as the most potent of the anti-Assad rebels.

Wednesday’s vote comes as Washington and European governments have been mulling the benefits and risks of supplying arms to Syrian rebels.

Another senior U.N. diplomat, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said this draft resolution was stronger than the earlier resolution, prompting Russia to write to all states to complain that it was unbalanced. The diplomat said Russia had also warned that it could hinder preparations for a Syria peace conference, as agreed by Russia and the United States.