A1SaudiArabia.com

JEDDAH – Prince Mishal Bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah, will inaugurate the fifth Gulf International Congress for Womens Health here Monday under the theme “Innovative Approaches in Womens Health care”.

More than 500 specialists and doctors in the field of womens healthcare will participate in the six-day event which is organized by the Saudi Obstetrics and Gynecological Society in cooperation with a number of international organizations.

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Report broken, overfilled bins and dirty streets Online: Official

JEDDAH – Over 25,000 rubbish bins in all districts of this city are coded with letters and numbers that allow them to be tracked by the website set up by the municipality, according to Abdul Majeed Al-Batati, Assistant to the Deputy Mayor for Services in Jeddah Mayoralty. These codes have been provided so that Jeddah residents can register complaints with the municipality if the company contracted to collect rubbish does not empty the bins on time, if the bins are broken, or if there are not enough bins on a particular street. Currently three companies are contracted by the municipality to collect rubbish in the city.

Al-Batati encouraged members of the public to report poor service, broken rubbish bins and general dissatisfaction with street cleaning through the municipalitys website. He explained that complaints can be filed at www.jeddah.gov.sa.cleaning.aspx.

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JEDDAH – The Saudi Labor Market Exhibition kicked off Saturday with the signing of a contract to provide training and jobs for 1,588 young Saudi men and women in different sectors at a cost of SR51 million.

The contracts were negotiated and signed between the Human Resources Fund (HRF) in Makkah and 17 private companies.

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The Saudi royal family and the government are working extremely hard for the development of the Kingdom, and Canada wishes to strengthen its relations with Saudi Arabia, said Dave Levac, member of the provincial parliament (MPP) and deputy minister of energy, Ontario, Canada, on his recent visit to the Kingdom.

“We want to have stronger ties with Saudi Arabia – a country that cares a lot for its people – just like Canada does,” said the minister, who was accompanied to the Kingdom by Khalil Ramal, MPP and assistant immigration minister, Ontario Canada. The visit, organized by the Canadian Dawa Association (CDA) in cooperation with the Forum for Social Studies, United Kingdom, sought to promote a better understanding of Saudi Arabia and enhance bilateral relations between the two countries.

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Greedy landlords to blame for

renting out

historic buildings

MAKKAH – A senior Civil Defense Directorate official has defended his organizations recent firefighting efforts in historic Old Jeddah and has blamed greedy landlords who rent out historic buildings and careless businesspeople, who do not have proper fire-safety equipment.

The comments of Major General Adel Zamzami, Director General of the Civil Defense Directorate in the Makkah Region, come in the wake of the latest fire in Jeddah destroying a number of historic buildings.

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BEIJING – The United States should not make a political issue out of the yuan, a Chinese central banker said on Friday, as the two countries lurched towards a potentially serious clash about Beijings currency regime.

Peoples Bank of China Vice Governor Su Ning was responding to a question about remarks on Thursday by US President Barack Obama, who called on China to move to a “more market-oriented exchange rate”.

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JEDDAH – Prince Mishal Bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah, presented awards to the winners of the 7th Jeddah Mobily Marathon at Al-Bir charitable organization headquarters here Wednesday evening.

The 7th Jeddah Marathon, with 6,000 contestants and more than 2,000 observers, will be remembered as the citys first international marathon as many athletes from abroad participated in the event.

At the awards ceremony, Prince Mishal expressed his appreciation for the cooperation and efforts of all the sponsors and organizers of the charity marathon.

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SEOUL -South Koreas central bank left its key interest rate at a record low Thursday as the countrys economic growth slows and the institution prepares for a leadership change.

The Bank of Korea said it kept the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate at 2 percent. The decision came at the last monetary policy meeting chaired by outgoing Gov. Lee Seong-tae. The result was widely expected. Sixteen economists at 17 financial institutions surveyed by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap news agency, predicted that the banks monetary policy committee would vote to keep the rate frozen.The Bank of Korea slashed the rate six times from October 2008 to battle the global economic downturn. The bank lowered the rate to its current level in February 2009. – AP

JEDDAH/MAKKAH – The residence of late King Abdul Aziz, the historic Al-Saqqaf Palace in Makkah, has been taken over by the Supreme Commission of Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) for restoration and preservation, under an order from Crown Prince Sultan.

The palace will be open to the public when maintenance and renovation work has been completed. The Crown Prince has donated SR2 million to the cause.

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JEDDAH – Prince Mishal Bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah, has promised severe punishment for those who are found to have intentionally harmed the historic area of Old Jeddah.

He said that directives have been issued in this regard.

The governor was speaking during a visit to the area on Tuesday along with Prince Sultan Bin Salman, President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). The governor said that an inspection will take place next week and electricity will be cut off from all houses that have wiring flaws. “The houses here are not only for their legal owners but for everyone. We need to preserve them for our children and grandchildren so they can see the history of their city, and for that we need everyones cooperation,” Prince Mishal said.

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