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RIYADH: A culture and music festival organized by the embassies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries will kick off on Thursday with the objective of promoting camaraderie and culture of the region and to stimulate talents of the ASEAN expatriates in Saudi Arabia.

The event at the Indonesian Embassy will feature colorful programs presented by all member states, said Iman Persada, a spokesman of the Indonesian Embassy.

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RIYADH: About 200 mostly elderly Indonesian pilgrims passed away during their Haj pilgrimages, jolting the Indonesian officials once again to find out solution to an ever-increasing number of deaths reported every year especially among Indonesian pilgrims. The final death count has yet to be determined. The death toll is likely to increase once a final accounting has taken place. Indonesia, the worlds largest Muslim country, sent 208,000 Muslims to perform Haj this year.

The deaths were mainly related to heart disease, respiratory failures, liver failure, hypertension, heart attacks and suffocation because of crowds and congestion with most of the deaths (being persons) aged above 55 years old, said Budiarto Kurniawan, the spokesman of the Indonesian Embassy.

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RIYADH – Indonesian authorities have confirmed that the suspect held for financing terrorist attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in mid-July is a Saudi, but withheld his full name.

“The man suspected of financing the terrorist attacks in detention with us is a Saudi national named A. Aal Kh.” Al-Hayat daily reported the head of Indonesian police as saying Saturday. The police had suggested last Wednesday that the suspects identity documents might be forged leading them to postpone the announcement.

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RIYADH: A Saudi court has authorized the payment of SR200,000 in blood money to the family of Suryati Bint Dulbari Nurisman, an Indonesian maid in her 20s the authorities say was tortured and beaten to death by a Saudi housewife.

“This is a case of brutal murder because Dulbari’s sponsor and his wife have been periodically beating her,” said Wishnu Krisnamurthi, a spokesman of the Indonesian Embassy.

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RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has handed over post-tsunami and earthquake reconstruction projects worth $12.88 million to the government of Aceh, a special territory of Indonesia, where more than 226,000 people were killed following an Indian Ocean earthquake a few years back.

The projects include two Saudi-funded orphanages and education centers in Aceh region.

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RIYADH: A Saudi employer whose wife tortured the familys Indonesian housemaid to death has been sentenced to nine months in prison for failing to intervene and save the maids life.

The man has already served six months in prison awaiting trial, while his wife, who has been in an Abha prison for the last 11 months, is scheduled to be sentenced for manslaughter on July 14 by a court in Khamis Mushayt.

There is another case of cold-blooded murder from Eastern Province in which a Saudi employer is being tried for beating his maid to death, said Wishnu Krishnamurthi, vice consul at the Indonesian Embassy. The police have found the sticks used in the assaults and the blood-stained clothes of the maid, Suryapi Dulbari, 31, he added.

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RIYADH: The Indonesian government has stepped up efforts to save the lives of 14 of its citizens who are on death row in Saudi Arabia for being convicted of involvement in a range of criminal cases, including murder.

Our missions in Riyadh and Jeddah will provide legal assistance to these people and help them get a royal pardon or their sentences commuted, said an Indonesian diplomat while reacting to a recent report on the cases. He refused to divulge more details about the cases.

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JEDDAH: An Indonesian housemaid has been hospitalized with severe injuries, allegedly inflicted by her employer and his wife. My sponsor struck me with an electric wire and then burned various parts of my body and broke my front teeth, Naser Al-Dandani, an attorney at the Indonesian Embassy, quoted the maid, whose name was not revealed, as saying in a statement. She is currently in the Riyadh Medical Complex hospital.

The maid, 20, working in the house of a Civil Defense officer in Riyadh, was hospitalized three weeks ago, Al-Dandani said.

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JEDDAH: Indonesian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia have started making arrangements for Indonesian expatriates to vote in the country’s parliamentary elections next month.

“Ensure that each eligible voter participates in the national elections on April 9,” Indonesian Consul General Gatot Abdullah Mansyur told a community meeting at his residence on Friday.

“You must take part in voting in an orderly manner. It is our common responsibility and mission to demonstrate to the international community that our country is maturing into a healthy democracy,” he said, emphasizing that voting should be conducted without any untoward incident.

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JEDDAH: A DNA test has proved that the child born to an Indonesian maid who claimed she was raped is that of her alleged 18-year-old Saudi attacker.

The 25-year-old maid alleged that the youth, who was 17 at the time, raped her in early 2007 while she worked for his family, a claim that was previously rejected by the family and the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP) in Riyadh.

Nasser Al-Dandani, a lawyer representing the Indonesian Embassy, said he now hopes the case would be reopened.

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