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Saudi
Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah To Visit Hong Kong
”His Highness Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi
Arabia is set to include a stopover in Hong Kong
as part of his upcoming official visit to Beijing.
This official visit highlights the progress made
since the establishment of the Hong Kong
Consulate-General just two years ago, and comes as
trade and investment links between China and the
Kingdom are blossoming..”
Lubna
Al-Olayan on WPP Board
”British
marketing giant WPP has appointed Olayan Financing
Company CEO Lubna S. Al-Olayan as non-executive
director. She joins the board of WPP with
immediate effect. Al-Olayan is a distinguished
business figure in the Arab world and beyond. As
CEO of the Riyadh-based Olayan Financing Company,
she is responsible for The Olayan Group’s
operating businesses and investments in Saudi
Arabia and the Middle East..”
Saudi
Crown Prince Due In Paris For Lebanon Talks
”Saudi
Arabia's crown prince and de facto ruler Abdullah
bin Abdul Aziz is to travel to France on Saturday
to discuss the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon
with French President Jacques Chirac..
..Abdullah will visit Paris before going to
Algeria to attend the annual summit of Arab heads
of state slated for March 22-23, the official told
AFP, requesting anonymity..”
Lebanon
to Figure Prominently in Abdullah’s Talks With
Chirac
”Crown
Prince Abdullah will pay a three-day visit to
France from March 19 before leaving for Algiers to
attend the Arab League Summit, press reports said
quoting high-level sources. Prince Abdullah will
hold talks with French President Jacques Chirac
and his top aides on major issues including
Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine..”
France
Seeks to Boost Ties With Saudi Arabia
“France
is keen in developing economic relations with the
Kingdom. "We are content with the strong
political ties with the Kingdom but there could be
more improvements in the field of economic
relations between the two countries," the
leader of the visiting team of French senators,
Serge Vincon who met Crown Prince Abdullah..”
Saudi
Arabia Demands OPEC Boost Output, Signals It Could
Act Alone
”OPEC
kingpin Saudi Arabia signaled it could act alone
to meet a predicted increase in demand for oil, as
it pushed hesitant fellow members of the cartel to
raise production quotas immediately. ‘Uppermost
in our mind is to satisfy the demand that is out
there,’ Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi told
reporters, after arguing he expected ‘a
substantial rise between the third and fourth
quarter to the tune of two plus million’ barrels
per day (bpd)..”
Saudis
Try to Wrestle Oil Prices Lower
”Saudi Arabia is trying to wrestle oil prices
lower with a pledge to pump more crude - with or
without OPEC. But so far, it isn't working. On
[Mar 15], the world's largest oil producer said it
might boost supplies unilaterally to bring relief
to world markets if other members of the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
balked at its earlier proposal to raise the
cartel's output quota..”
OPEC
Pledge Fails to Cool Market, Oil Hits $57
”Oil
prices scaled fresh highs [Mar 17], forcing OPEC
to consider a second output increase just a day
after its deal to raise supplies failed to halt
crude’s record-breaking advance.US light crude
set a record of $57.50 a barrel before easing by
1600 GMT to $56.70, up 24 cents on the day. London
Brent crude, benchmark for European imports, hit a
new high of $56.15 a barrel before easing to
$55.30, a 47 cent gain..”
Aramco
Signs Khursaniyah, Hawiyah Contracts
”State-owned
Saudi Aramco signed contracts yesterday with
international engineering and construction firms
to develop its Khursaniyah oil and gas project and
Hawiyah NGL program, the company said in a
statement. Aramco said the Khursaniyah project
will add 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day to
Saudi Arabia’s production capacity by the end of
2007. The Hawiyah NGL recovery program will
produce an additional 310,000 barrels of ethane
and NGL products by 2008, through the Hawiyah
plant and an expansion of the Juaymah gas
fractionation plant near Ras Tanura..”
Saudis
Caution Myers on Iraq Terrorists
”Senior Saudi defense officials expressed
concern to the U.S. military's top general on
Wednesday about terrorists in Iraq crossing the
border into Saudi territory. Gen. Richard B.
Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
after meeting with Prince Khalid bin Sultan, the
deputy defense minister, and other officials in
the Saudi capital that he was unsure whether
significant numbers of terrorists were
infiltrating. But he added, “Certainly the
potential is there and I think the incentive is
there as well, so it's something we have to worry
about”..”
For
Arab Writers, New Lines in the Sand
”Pioneered two decades ago by men whose work is
banned here, a genre of politically charged
fiction in Saudi Arabia is now being produced by
more writers and in greater quantity than ever
before, according to academics and publishers
increasingly interested in the work. It marks an
artistic advance in a society in which writers
have long confronted the deadening effect of state
censorship and a milestone in a desert kingdom
whose people were mostly illiterate a generation
ago..”
Taped
Threats By Saudi Al Qaeda
”An
audio recording appearing on an Islamic Web site
[Mar 17] claimed to represent the new al Qaeda
leader in Saudi Arabia, and he promised to
dispatch fighters to join the Iraqi insurgency. It
was not immediately possible to verify the
authenticity of the tape, posted on an Islamic Web
site run by Mohammed al-Masaari, head of a Saudi
opposition group called the Committee for the
Defense of Legitimate Rights in Saudi Arabia..”
Saudi
ARAMCO Awards $8 Billion Projects
”Saudi
oil company ARAMCO and foreign firms signed five
contracts worth $8 billion for boosting oil and
gas production in the kingdom's eastern province.
Official sources said Thursday the contracts
involve gas and oil development projects to be
built in the field of Kharsaniya for $5 billion
and in the region of Hawiya for $3 billion.. ..The
projects, which are expected to be completed by
the end of 2007, will result in production of
500,000 barrels of crude oil per day..”
Saudi
Arabia's Naimi In Philippines Visit Next Week
”Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi will
arrive in the Philippines on Monday for a
three-day visit to discuss ways to further expand
energy, trade and investment relations between the
two countries, the Philippines' Department of
Foreign Affairs said Friday.
Naimi will be accompanied by Ibrahim Al-Mohanna
and Ahme Al-Ghamdi, both advisers to the minister,
and Ali Twairqi, director general of the Ministry
of Petroleum and Mineral Resources...”
Mediation
to Defuse Libya Row Denied
”Saudi Arabia [Mar 18] denied media reports that
Egypt had mediated between the Kingdom and Libya
to defuse a row over an assassination plot
targeting Crown Prince Abdullah. “Reports of
mediation between Saudi Arabia and Libya, and that
this mediation achieved its objective, are
baseless,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted an
official source as saying. Saudi Arabia has
accused Libya of plotting to kill Crown Prince
Abdullah in 2003..”
Walesa
Leads Team to Thank Abdullah
”A
high-level Polish delegation headed by former
Polish President Lech Walesa arrived here
yesterday to thank Crown Prince Abdullah and the
government for helping to have the Polish
conjoined twins separated at King Abdul Aziz
Medical City. The team, which includes former
Premier Aan Bielecki, will meet the crown prince
and the medical team which separated the twins —
Daria and Olga — on Jan. 3..”
A Third of Shoura Council Seats Sought for
Women Members
”Dr.
Suhaila Zainul Abideen Hammad, a prominent
executive member of the National Society for Human
Rights, has urged authorities to appoint women to
the Shoura Council in the upcoming reshuffle and
give them a third of the seats. “I asked for a
third because 30 new members will be added to the
Shoura Council and 20 existing members will have
their membership extended, so why not have women
as the new members, and instead of extending the
term of the 20 men replace them with women,” Dr.
Suhaila told Arab News..”
Youth
Trying to Storm Al-Watan Office Shot Dead
”Security
officers shot dead a Saudi youth who tried to
storm the headquarters of Al-Watan Arabic daily in
the southern city of Abha ignoring warnings. The
man in his 20s was killed after he drove through
the building’s exit gate ignoring three warning
shots, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour
Al-Turki told Arab News. The driver’s motives
were not immediately clear..”
Turkey
Clears Qadi of Links With Al-Qaeda
”Turkey’s
chief public prosecutor has formally ruled that
there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that
Saudi businessman and philanthropist Yassin
Abdullah Al-Qadi has had contact with or has
assisted the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Al-Qadi’s
lawyers at Peter Carter-Ruck and Partners said
that the ruling followed an extensive and
prolonged investigation covering Al-Qadi’s
personal, commercial and charitable
activities..”
Candidate
Registration for Western Region Councils Begins
”Candidates
for seats on the municipal councils in the Western
Region will begin registering today. The final
voters’ lists were issued to election stations
all over the province yesterday. The first
candidates’ list will be published on March 27
and the final list April 9..”
Kingdom
Seeks US Trade, Investment
”With
Saudi-US bilateral trade on the downswing, the
Kingdom is spearheading a major drive to promote
trade with US and investment in the Kingdom, where
projects estimated at around $623 billion in the
water, power generation, communication, mining,
oil and gas, banking, railroad and other sectors
are waiting to be tapped. This was disclosed to
Arab News by Omar Bahlaiwa, secretary-general of
the Saudi Committee for the Development of
International Trade (CIT), who said a 50-member
multi-sectoral trade mission will leave for the US
in May to visit five major cities - New York,
Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco..”
Broken
in the Kingdom, Al-Qaeda Goes Gulf
”The
suicide bombing in Doha, Qatar took place three
days after the airing of the taped speech of
Al-Qaeda leader Saleh Al-Aufi. The target was a
Western institution. Some analysts say Al-Qaeda is
losing its strong image of power in Saudi Arabia
and is breaking up. Terrorism specialist and
researcher Faris ibn Hizam said that one could
sense from Aufi’s speech that he was not aware
of what was going on in the country..”
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President
Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz - The Meeting at
Great Bitter Lake: 
Overcoming
Mutual Apprehensions: Prince Saud Al Faisal on
Relations with the West
