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In a remarkable feat, Saudi Arabia’s national team claimed a total of 19 medals at the recently concluded West Asian Table Tennis Championships in Jordan.
The wins were spread across the Saudi men’s and women’s teams and came in several different age categories.
The final tally was six gold, four silver and nine bronze.
Saudi Olympian Ali Khadrawi partnered Abdelaziz Bushulaibi to gold in the men’s doubles and there was also a first ever gold in the girl’s doubles under-11 category for Nihal Al-Qahtani and Fatima Al-Awami.
Three Saudi players — Khadrawi, Bushulaibi and Azzam Alem — qualified for the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships, to be held in South Africa, due to their performances in Jordan.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Saudi’s Ali Khadrawi (left) and Abdelaziz Bushulaibi top the podium in Jordan. (@sttf_ksa)
Dr Samiha Sinan worked as an internal medicine doctor for 43 years in several Saudi hospitals
Saudi Minister of Health Fahad Al-Jalajel has named 65-year-old retired doctor and volunteer Dr. Samiha Sinan the “Mother of Volunteers.”
“One retires from office work, not from serving pilgrims,” Al-Jalajel said, praising Sinan’s efforts in providing health care to pilgrims.
Sinan told Arab News that volunteering to serve pilgrims is a work of great honor if done sincerely and honestly.
She worked as an internal medicine doctor for 43 years in several Saudi hospitals, retiring four years ago.
As soon as the pandemic hit across the world, placing great pressure on the health sector, Sinan jumped back into the field to help out.
“I am still able to give, and I tried to think of how a person could serve their religion, country and king, so I submitted a request on the volunteer platform at the Ministry of Health. I was afraid I would be rejected given my age, but my instinct told me to apply because I wanted to give and serve. The Ministry of Health approved my request, and I immediately decided to get back in the field and fight the pandemic,” she said.
Sinan added: “The Makkah health authorities tried to put my comfort first and asked me to work in a small medical clinic in Makkah, but I refused since the pandemic was growing stronger. I headed directly to a COVID-19 center in an isolated area in Al-Masfalah, in Makkah. No one was allowed to enter or leave, but we worked in a comfortable environment thanks to the measures the state had taken to support citizens. I volunteered there for two years, 12 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Even though COVID-19 has witnessed a steady decline in the Kingdom over the past few months, Sinan still volunteers in one of the squares at the Grand Mosque by providing medical care to injured pilgrims.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Dr Samiha Sinan volunteers by providing medical care to injured pilgrims at the Grand Mosque. (Supplied)
The Jamarat Bridge project is a massive structure built to save pilgrims’ lives and facilitate a crucial Hajj ritual.
Pilgrims gather in this place to throw stones at the devil in a symbolic act as part of their Hajj. Without this act, their pilgrimage is incomplete and considered to be unaccepted.
The concept of stoning the devil began when Prophet Ibrahim intended to sacrifice his son Ismael upon Allah’s order. The devil tried to dissuade the prophet three times from carrying out the order.
On each of the three occasions, the prophet pelted the devil with seven small pebbles to drive him away, after which the devil disappeared. This act has become a symbolic ritual and an integral part of Hajj.
It takes place over two or three days, from the 10th day of Dhul Hijjah until before sunset on the 13th.
The three pillars were previously built of stone and mud with low barriers surrounding them. They were then covered with cement, with the size of the pillars remaining unchanged for years.
However, the increasing number of pilgrims called for a project to help manage the hundreds of thousands of worshippers gathering in one place.
According to Mohammed Idris, former vice dean of The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research, the three pillars were surrounded by circular walls until 1975.
“A substantial enlargement of the area took place in 1987, and other expansions followed to upgrade the Jamarat area’s capacity to ease pilgrim movement and avoid accidents. The exit points and entrances to the pillars were amended, and the curved paths to the Jamarat were made straight,” he told Arab News.
The Jamarat Bridge was originally a pedestrian structure built in 1963 to facilitate the stoning ritual. Since then, it has been expanded several times to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims.
A substantial enlargement of the bridge took place in 1974, and other expansions followed to upgrade the bridge’s capacity to ease pilgrim movement and avoid accidents.
Despite this, the structure witnessed several deadly incidents owing to actions of pilgrims who violated instructions, thereby sparking stampedes and deaths.
In 1990, over 1,400 pilgrims were killed by trampling and suffocation in Al-Ma’aisim pedestrian tunnel, which led from Makkah to Mina. Between 1994 and 2006, more than 1,030 pilgrims were killed in stampedes while trying to stone the pillars. Around 470 others were injured.
The worst stoning-related incident in recent memory occurred on Sept. 25, 2015, when more than 700 pilgrims died and another 800 were injured when pilgrims surged toward the intersection of Street 204 and Street 223.
A doctor at an emergency department of a Mina hospital told Arab News at the time that most of the pilgrims died of asphyxiation.
A Saudi interior ministry spokesman had blamed the stampede on “unprecedented high numbers of pilgrims” as compared to previous years, plus the fact that a majority of the victims had descended onto a pathway during a time that they were not allowed to enter it.
Witnesses to the tragedy had confirmed that a large group of Iranian pilgrims passed through Souq Al-Arab Street and refused to return, ignoring Hajj guidelines.
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FASTFACTS
• Stampedes and surges caused thousands of deaths at the Jamarat Bridge before the infrastructure was upgraded.
• The project, to alleviate overcrowding and avoid tragedies, cost $1.12 billion.
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Regardless of the causes of the tragedies, they prompted the Saudi government to devise a solution that could save lives. After the 2015 incident, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman offered condolences and immediately ordered an urgent review of the Hajj plan.
Over four years, Saudi authorities studied and researched the site before the old structure was completely removed and replaced by the existing engineering marvel known as the Jamarat Bridge.
The new project details were approved by top engineering and architectural committees consisting of local experts and highly experienced US, German, and British engineers. The opinion of senior Muslim scholars was taken into consideration for the religious position on the project details.
“In 2005, the circular walls around the pillars were reshaped, making them elliptical to facilitate the movement of the pilgrims,” Idris told Arab News.
“ In 2007 the old Jamarat project was discarded, and work on the new project began. A year later, one floor as per the project was fully constructed. In 2009, the second floor was made ready to serve pilgrims. By 2010, the entire planned construction was fully complete.”
The bridge, which was constructed over three years by more than 11,000 workers, is 950 meters long and has six floors, including the basement, with a height of 12 meters per floor. Each floor can absorb up to 120,000 pilgrims per hour.
Its foundation was constructed to withstand 12 floors to accommodate 5 million pilgrims by 2030.
On the fifth level, umbrellas cover the site of the three Jamarat to enhance the comfort of pilgrims and protect them from the sun and heat.
The Hajj infrastructure showpiece, which has won several local and global awards, was built at a cost of over SR4.2 billion ($1.12 billion).
It has 12 entrances, 12 exit roads from four directions, two tunnels, 19 ramps, escalators, emergency exits, helipads, six service buildings, and an air-conditioning system with water sprinklers to cool the atmosphere and reduce the area’s temperature to 29 degrees Celsius.
The building also contains three electric stations and a standby generator that automatically supplies electricity in case of any temporary power cut.
Unlike the old circular shape of the walls around the three pillars, the new oval design has contributed to a better pilgrim flow. It has also assisted in increasing the bridge’s capacity for pilgrim numbers.
The new bridge was designed by Dar Al-Handasah and constructed by the Saudi Binladin Group. It features a wider and column-free interior space, longer Jamrah pillars, additional ramps and tunnels for easier access, large canopies to cover each of the three pillars to protect pilgrims from the sun, and ramps adjacent to the pillars to speed up evacuation in the event of an emergency.
No casualties have been reported at the Jamarat sites in six years. However, both Saudi Hajj and health authorities are prepared for any scenario. This year, 17 emergency centers will be present at Jamarat Bridge to assist in any emergencies — from crowd surges and falls to illness — that pilgrims may face on their Hajj journey.
source/contents: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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The walkway leading to the symbolic stoning of the devil, the oval design has contributed to better pilgrim flow and boosted the structure’s capacity for accommodating people. (AFP)A substantial enlargement of the bridge took place in 1974, and other expansions followed to upgrade the bridge’s capacity to ease pilgrim movement and avoid accidents. (AFP/File Photo)
Saudi Aramco has been named one of the top 100 global innovators by American analytics company Clarivate.
In its report titled “Top 100 Global Innovators 2022,” Clarivate revealed that Saudi Aramco is the first-ever company from the Middle East and North Africa region to be placed in the list.
“The regional diversity continues to increase, with the first-ever Middle Eastern list entry via energy firm Saudi Aramco,” wrote Clarivate in the report.
Apart from Saudi Aramco, other new entrants to the list are China’s Alibaba, Germany’s Continental, US’ General Motors, South Korea’s Hyundai Motors and Kia Motors, US’s Philip Morris International, and UK’s Rolls-Royce.
Clarivate added that companies have been included in the list based on factors like influence, success, globalization, and technical distinctiveness.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited0
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Apart from Saudi Aramco, other new entrants to the list are China’s Alibaba, Germany’s Continental, US’ General Motors, South Korea’s Hyundai Motors and Kia Motors, US’s Philip Morris International, and UK’s Rolls-Royce.
Saudi Arabia’s first flight with an all-female crew took off this weekend May 2022, completing a short domestic journey and passing a milestone for women’s empowerment, officials said.
The flight was operated by flyadeal, the budget subsidiary of flag carrier Saudia.
“For the first time in Saudi aviation history,” the airline wrote on Twitter on Friday, “#flyadeal operated the first flight with an all-female crew, the majority of which are Saudis, by the newest A320 aircraft. Flight 117, flew from #Riyadh to #Jeddah.”
Most of the seven-member crew hail from Saudi Arabia, according to spokesman Emad Iskandarani, including the first officer, Yara Jan, who is also reportedly the youngest Saudi female pilot.
The country’s civil aviation authority, which confirmed the announcement, has been working towards expanding roles for women in the sector for years.
In 2019, Yasmeen Al Maimani , then 29, became the first female first officer to fly a mainstream commercial plane in the kingdom.
The Saudi woman piloted Nesma Airlines flight ATR 72-600 from Hail to Al Qassim on June 9.
“I thought it was going to be hard, being a female pilot based in Hail but it hasn’t been,” she said at the time. “I feel so comfortable with everyone else here, and the way they treat me. It’s like they are all my brothers, it’s a good feeling.”
Last year, figures showed female participation in the kingdom’s workforce rose to 33 per cent at the end of 2020, from 19 per cent in 2016, according to data from the General Authority for Statistics.
Saudi Arabia aims to generate 356 billion riyals ($95bn) of investment into its aviation sector by 2030.
Its National Aviation Sector Strategy is working to increase connections from Saudi Arabia to 250 destinations, reaching 330 million passengers.
The kingdom also plans to launch another airline to complement its existing national carriers, including Saudia, and to build a major international airport in Riyadh, in addition to eight more regional airports.
After a number of years of competing in various local autocross competitions, Afnan Almarglani recently became the first Saudi woman to hold an autocross and safe driving skills trainer license.
Her journey in the sport began when her motor sports-mad brother brought home a brand new PlayStation when they were growing up. The two competed in video games such as Gran Turismo 3, a racing title.
“From when I was young, I used to see my older brother Fahd interested in sports cars, modifying them and buying car parts from abroad. We used to race with each other in video games. I was so fascinated by cars, by the shape of the cars, the sound of engines and how they were driven incredibly fast. I played the game every day until it got to the point that I couldn’t beat my own fastest lap times,” she said.
Almarglani works in biomedical engineering. She previously took part in the first women’s race in Saudi Arabia during time off from her work at a project management office at the Ministry of Health.
Her blending of roles as a biomedical engineer and racer makes her unique, and her talent in both careers has allowed her to take opportunities that most women do not have.
Almarglani, who holds a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from a US university, told Arab News that her love and passion led her to work with sports cars, and that she chose to enter the field to gain experience.
“Alhamdulillah, we live in a great country with the decision to allow women to drive. So, I participated in the first women’s autocross championship and won second place in the qualifying round,” she added.
After her first foray into the sport, Almarglani took part in various local autocross championships held in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar. “After gaining experience and skills, I moved to a higher level in the autocross racing, which enabled me to take part in the Toyota Autocross Championship in Alkhobar, and I was able to win the best time in the women’s category.”
She also competed in the Speed Madness (Autocross) Championship in Riyadh’s Dirab Park, placing first.
The other biggest challenge for Almarglani is finding sponsorship opportunities. “Motor sports is an expensive sport and finding a sponsor is very difficult, so to maintain that training and to have a good team, and a good car, requires a lot of investment and you need both if you want to do well. The way to find sponsorship is through exposure and by winning races,” she said.
Almarglani is often asked how her parents feel about the dangers of her sport. She said: “Of course, at first, they were concerned about me, especially that motor sports has risks, so the level of safety in it is high, and it is expensive in terms of preparing the driver and the car. After I explained to my family all the means of protection and safety, and after they observed my passion and happiness after each race, they supported me and told me to continue, and they were always in the first ranks to encourage me.”
Recently, the official account of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation, via Twitter, congratulated Almarglani for obtaining a training license.
Almarglani’s goal is to support every woman who wants to enter motor sports and to build a professional women’s motor sports team to represent Saudi Arabia in the world championships. “To achieve this goal, I hope there will be sponsorships offered to me as well as other Saudi female drivers in order to participate locally and regionally, to represent our beloved country.”
Tabuk Gov. Prince Fahd bin Sultan honored Itizaz Alnefaie, the primary school pupil from Tabuk International Schools who won second place in this year’s Worldwide Mental Arithmetic Competition, recently held in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh.
Alnefaie broke the world record by solving 100 maths problems, testing herself against the clock.
He congratulated Alnefaie for this achievement, wishing her more success, noting the Saudi leadership’s support for outstanding students in all scientific fields.
“I’m pleased to meet you and everyone is proud of your achievement,” Prince Fahd said, praising the efforts made by Alnefaie’s parents and teachers, who created the environment for her to reach excellence, and who supported her talent. He also wished her and all of Tabuk’s students future success.
The prince then offered Alnefaie his personal pen as a gift. The head of Tabuk International Schools, Maram Al-Atwi, praised Prince Fahd for the achievement, which comes as a result of his great support for the education sector in Tabuk, noting that this success is an extension of the local and international achievements made by public school students from all Saudi regions.
Hundreds of talented pupils representing more than 25 countries, including Saudi Arabia, participated in this year’s competition.
Solving a math problem might take most people a few minutes. However, Alnefaie takes just a second or two.
source/content: arabnews.com (edited)
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Tabuk Gov. Prince Fahd bin Sultan honors Itizaz Alnefaie, the primary school pupil from Tabuk International Schools. (SPA)
A Saudi medical student has won a string of an international awards for an invention that opens up a new world for hearing impaired or deaf drivers by dramatically improving their safety behind the wheel.
Renad bint Musaed Al-Hussein, a student at the College of Medicine at King Saud University, developed special sensors that operate as soon as they detect sounds outside the vehicle.
Sound frequencies are sent to a device inside the car, which then identifies and displays a description, image and color of the sound source visually, alerting the driver to any possible risk.
Her innovation has won several global awards and medals, including best invention at the World Intellectual Property Organization Cup and a gold award in the international invention competition as part of the Korea International Youth Olympiad.
The awards honor outstanding inventors, creators and innovative firms from around the world.
Al-Hussein said that her invention will reduce the risks facing hearing impaired drivers and may also help to save lives.
“One of the things that prompted me to come up with this invention is that some countries prevent hearing impaired or deaf people from driving because they are unable to hear important sounds. This invention will contribute to reducing the risks they face,” she said.
The Saudi inventor said that her invention could allow more than 466 million deaf people worldwide to drive, while also improving road safety by protecting their lives and the lives of others.
source/content: arabnews.com (edited)
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Renad Al-Hussein said that her invention will improve road safety by protecting the lives of deaf drivers. (SPA)
Saudi Arabia has been unanimously re-elected to chair the executive council of the Tunis-based Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization until 2024.
The decision was made by members of ALECSO’s executive council after the 26th session of the general conference, which concluded its activities.
Council members expressed their appreciation for the positive results achieved and the complementary work of the executive council during the past 10 months.
The Arab ministers praised the initiative of the Saudi representative and chairman of ALECSO’s executive council, Hani Al-Moqbil, to develop the council’s road map, which was put together with a transparent methodology based on the involvement of countries in building a common Arab vision to support and enable the organization to achieve its goals.
Al-Moqbil extended his appreciation to King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their constant support, empowerment, and care, which was reflected in the Saudi role and its presidency of the executive council to contribute to a beneficial impact and supportive action for the development of ALECSO.
He also thanked Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, who is also the chairman of the National Committee for Education, Culture, and Science, for his support, guidance, supervision, and harnessing of capabilities which gave direct and significant support throughout the Saudi presidency which helped it in serving its goals with all Arab countries.
Al-Moqbil also thanked the Arab countries and members of the ALECSO executive council for their re-election of the Kingdom and for renewing their confidence in the results that had been achieved during the past 10 months.
Al-Moqbil said: “Saudi Arabia, in its presidency of the executive council, worked to oversee the interests of the countries by listening to their proposals, observations, and visions to ensure that they are reflected on the ground and implemented in stages. The countries will work with greater effort and higher interest in taking care of the organization’s interests.”
source/content: arabnews.com (edited)
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The decision to re-elect the Kingdom came after the appreciation of the general conference for the efforts made by the executive council under the Kingdom’s stewardship. (SPA)
The Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has gained international recognition by winning the Public Water Agency of the Year Award, announced during the Global Water Summit in Madrid.
Deputy Minister for Water Abdul Aziz Al-Shaibani and Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs and Privatization Abdulrahman Alzughaibi accepted the award
Al-Shaibani told Arab News that the award was given in recognition of the Kingdom’s efforts in implementing a national water strategy, reforming the sector, enacting a new water law, integrating management of water resources, and engaging the private sector.
The Global Water Summit in Spain allows leaders and decision-makers to exchange ideas, and share information on progress and trends in the industry.
Industry leaders and investors from around the world, as well as government representatives, took part in the forum, considered among the most prominent events for the water industry worldwide.
Since 2006, the UK-based consultancy Global Water Intelligence has presented awards at the summit, recognizing achievements by water companies, high-tech firms, public agencies and project developers.
During the conference, leaders of the Kingdom’s water sector highlighted its initiatives and solutions in support of innovation and development in the industry.
They also discussed the summit themes aimed at achieving zero carbon emissions, ensuring the sustainability and reliability of freshwater resources worldwide, mitigating the impact of climate change, and increasing job opportunities and growth in the industry.
Conference sessions included extensive discussions on global best practices for ensuring efficient water use, the latest technologies for desalinating and reusing water, and the role of artificial intelligence in the sustainability of the water sector.
source/content: arabnews.com (edited)
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DM for Economic Affairs and Privatization Abdulrahman Alzughaibi, right, DM for Water Abdul Aziz Al-Shaibani, center, and Global Water Intelligence’s Christopher Gasson. (Supplied/MEWA)
