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JEDDAH: Saudi citizens in France were urged on Friday to be alert and take special care after three nights of rioting in Paris and major cities throughout the country.
The Saudi Embassy in Paris said Saudis should be aware of the protests and the curfew in place in several areas.
They were advised to “observe caution, and to stay away from sites of protests, and to follow the instructions of the French authorities.”
France asked all local authorities to halt public transport on Friday in a desperate attempt to restore order after rioters torched buildings and cars in riots sparked by the police shooting of a teenager.
Violence flared in the cities of Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille as well as Paris, where 17-year-old Nahel M. — of Algerian and Moroccan descent — was shot dead on Tuesday in the working-class suburb of Nanterre.
His death, caught on video at a traffic stop, has ignited longstanding complaints about police violence and racism directed at poor, racially mixed, urban communities.
“The next hours will be decisive and I know I can count on your flawless efforts,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told police officers and firefighters seeking to quell the unrest.
pic.twitter.com/StLTAfVRRx
— Arabie Saoudite en France (@KSAembassyFRA) May 26, 2021
With about 40,000 police officers deployed, more than 200 of them were injured and 875 people were arrested overnight into Friday. Buildings and vehicles were torched, and stores looted. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne described the violence as “intolerable.”
Videos on social media showed urban landscapes ablaze. A tram was set alight in the eastern city of Lyon and 12 buses gutted in a depot in Aubervilliers,
northern Paris.
In Nanterre on the capital’s outskirts, protesters torched cars, barricaded streets and hurled projectiles at police following an earlier peaceful vigil.
Looters ransacked shops including an Apple store in the eastern city of Strasbourg. Several supermarkets were looted.
In the Chatelet Les Halles shopping mall in central Paris, a Nike shoe store was broken into, and several people were arrested after store windows were smashed along the adjacent Rue de Rivoli shopping street.
President Emmanuel Macron left an EU summit in Brussels early to attend the second Cabinet crisis meeting in two days.
He asked social media to remove “the most sensitive” footage of rioting and to disclose identities
of users fomenting violence.
Mohamed Jakoubi, who watched Nahel grow up as a child, said the rage was fueled by a sense of injustice in the suburbs after police violence against minority ethnic communities, many from former French colonies.
“We are fed up, we are French too. We are against violence, we are not scum,” he said.
RIYADH: Saudi authorities recently thwarted two attempts to smuggle Captagon pills and other amphetamines into the Kingdom, according to statements released on Friday.
The first case was at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, where customs officials discovered 178,274 Captagon pills hidden inside boxes marked as containing beehives.
After informing the General Directorate for Narcotics Control two people were arrested for their roles in the smuggling attempt and are now awaiting trial.
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WATCH ARAB NEWS DOCUMENTARY – ABU HILALAIN: INSIDE THE KINGDOM’S CRACKDOWN ON CAPTAGON
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In the second case, an Ethiopian national was arrested in the Madinah region for attempting to smuggle amphetamines into the Kingdom.
The directorate urged citizens to report any activities related to drug smuggling by calling 911 for those in Makkah, Riyadh and the Eastern Province, or 999 for those living elsewhere. People can also contact Drug Control on 995 or via email at [email protected] All reports are treated in the strictest confidence.
The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority said it would continue to tighten controls over imports and exports and was committed to stopping drug smugglers in order to protect the public and society.
People with information about such matters can call ZATCA on 1910, the international number 00 966 114208417 or via email at [email protected]
JEDDEAH: Saudi tour guide Rehab Andijani has a passion for tourism and culture, along with helping visitors discover what is special about the Kingdom.
Andijani, who is a Saudi citizen, is a long-serving guide who fosters a close connection with international tourists.
She said: “It was a choice in following my destiny to select tourism over my studies in information science, because I wanted to help more people learn about Saudi Arabia’s rich culture — shaped by the diversity of its people — which has formed the basis of the cultural identity of the Kingdom.”
Andijani, who has been a guide in Jeddah recently, speaks fluent German and English, and offers guide services for tourists in the Western Region.
She has helped visitors over the years by offering both German and English-speaking tours.
She graduated from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah in 2011 before choosing to study further in Germany.
The 33-year-old told Arab News: “I went to the city of Cologne, where I was planning to pursue my master’s in marketing research, but due to the death of my mother I had to go back home.
“During my stay in Germany I got a taste of what it’s like to serve leisure travelers. So, I focused on learning German and English, especially in the light of a series of reforms and investments initiated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman which aimed at opening the country to international travelers while showcasing its diverse cultural heritage.”
Andijani is currently helping visitors at the House of Islamic Arts museum in Jeddah Park, while also volunteering to host special tours around the city’s historic areas and famous tourist spots.
She enjoys sharing her immense knowledge of local history and great Islamic art with visitors, and added that being a tour guide requires a mix of intellectual knowledge and personality.
The job has also called on Andijani to be an avid reader and learner, in order to gain more knowledge.
She has even started to host tourists in her house so that they can observe how Saudis live.
She said: “It is a form of hospitality, quite popular these days, which is offered by locals to tourists.
“I understand that we have very conservative traditions and not all Saudi families will agree to do this, but for me it is OK because it is a great experience to show them our house, how we live, and what food we eat.”
In addition, she has also launched her own website in both German and English, to help tourists.
Andijani has hosted families from the US, Germany, Australia, and Russia, and she was looked upon by her guests as an ambassador for her country.
She said: “My job is to answer questions. I spend my time with my groups, and it’s my responsibility to show the best version of myself as a Saudi, and my country.”
Andijani has never regretted her move into tourism. She looks forward to welcoming more visitors to Saudi Arabia and hopes to become a professional tour guide to show tourists the beauty of the country.
She added: “I hope my little tours can play a part in improving relations and people’s knowledge of the importance of Saudi Arabia.”
MAKKAH: The libraries and cultural affairs department of the General Presidency for the Two Holy Mosques is showcasing seven rare manuscripts in the women’s section of the Grand Mosque’s library in Makkah.
The rare manuscripts on display in the gallery include Qur’anic scripts written during the reign of Caliph Uthman bin Affan, paintings that feature Qur’anic verses by calligrapher Mohammed Ibrahim, and a rare copy of “Musnad Al-Muwatta,” the first legal work to incorporate hadith and fiqh.
Umaima bint Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, head of women’s activities at the department, said that the gallery aims to serve as a platform for people — from researchers to pilgrims — to broaden their historical and cultural knowledge.
The gallery also contains a mural documenting the stages of development the library went through, copies of the Holy Qur’an, and old newspapers and photographs of Makkah’s Grand Mosque, Al-Sudais added.
The gallery receives visitors from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday to Thursday.
PARIS: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to France has participated in a seminar, organized by the French Institute of International Relations, on the Kingdom’s foreign policy, achievements, and challenges, Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday.
Opening the seminar, institute founder and CEO Thierry de Montbrial commended the Kingdom’s role in the international arena and the developments and progress it is witnessing at all levels.
During the panel, ambassador Fahd bin Mayouf Al-Ruwaili underlined the importance of the recent official visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to France in enhancing Riyadh-Paris relations and joint partnerships.
Al-Ruwaili highlighted the Kingdom’s comprehensive development endeavor as part of the strategy outlined in the Saudi Vision 2030.
He also presented a briefing on the central pillars of the Kingdom’s foreign policy, international relations, and efforts to achieve peace and stability at the regional and international levels through its effective membership in international conventions and organizations.
He highlighted the Saudi role in the G20, where the Kingdom has submitted several initiatives to combat radicalism and terrorism, protect the environment, fight poverty and address debt crises.
Several ambassadors to France, political and economic figures, and journalists also attended the seminar.
RIYADH: A Saudi delegation is taking part in the fourth G20 Space Economy Leaders Meeting, which began on Thursday in Bengaluru, India.
Mohammed Al-Tamimi, CEO of the Saudi Space Agency, is leading the Kingdom’s team at the two-day gathering, during which participants will discuss ways to enhance the role of the space economy and its tangible contributions to efforts to address global challenges and achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The delegates include representatives of space agencies and related organizations from G20 member states, along with invited guests from other countries and the heads of international and regional organizations.
Speaking during the meeting, Al-Tamimi said the spirit of cooperation and optimism that is entrenched in the annual gathering has become the shared trait of global space activities and endeavors. It is a trait that will continue to shape humanity’s long-term future in terms of how it makes use of the space sector and its applications, he added.
He also extended thanks to authorities in India and officials from the Indian Space Research Organization for hosting the important meeting.
The Kingdom is working to promote the cooperative goals of the meeting, in line with its commitments as a signatory to the Artemis Accords, which serve as a guide for sustainable civil space exploration, and its contributions to efforts to implement the practical aspects of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, Al-Tamimi said.
The annual meeting is one of the results of the Kingdom’s presidency of the G20 in 2020, during which it was placed on the group’s agenda for the first time in an effort to enhance space-related cooperation between countries to maximize the benefits of the space economy and the utilization of associated data to support sustainable development, food security and global health.