Kingdom Fears Shortage Of Sand--Saudi Arabia/ New World Media Watch [View All]

[Gloria]

Full excerpts, links up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR NOVEMBER 5, 2003

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--AFGHAN ALLIES TURN ENEMIES (Almost two years since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai's writ barely runs in the country. While in the Pashtun-dominated south his government remains under pressure from a resurgent Taliban, the situation in the north, though less reported by the media, is far from secure. In the northern provinces it is not the Taliban who are stirring trouble, but militias, which in some cases are nominally loyal to the government.)



2//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea--DELEGATES OFF TO U.S. FOR DISPATCH TALKS (A high-level South Korean delegation left for Washington on Tuesday for talks with U.S. officials regarding Washington's request that Seoul send additional forces to Iraq…Reportedly, Seoul plans to propose during the meeting that it send 3,000 soldiers, comprising infantry, medical, engineering, communications and transportation personnel. But the figure could change according to the results of the consultations.)



3//The Moscow Times, Russia--PRESIDENT FLIES INTO FIRESTORM IN ROME (President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday moved to calm growing unease in Europe over the jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, saying he considers the tycoon "innocent until proven guilty" and that he is "categorically opposed" to overturning the privatizations of the mid-1990s. Putin, speaking to Italian journalists before flying off to Rome to meet with Pope John Paul II and attend the EU-Russia summit, admitted that some officials may have been a little over-zealous in their attack of Khodorkovsky and his Yukos empire…Reiterating his dictatorship-of-the-law line, Putin said the Yukos investigation was "nothing extraordinary" and likened it to the recent corporate scandals in America, including Enron. He also hit back at the United States for what the Foreign Ministry has called Washington's "double standards.")



4//The Independent, UK--MURDOCH SEEKS TO CALM INVESTOR FEARS (James Murdoch was today preparing to meet key investors in BSkyB in an effort to quell the growing storm of protest surrounding his appointment as chief executive of the company. The 30-year-old former Star TV chief takes over from Tony Ball as head of the pay-TV giant today with major investors in the company furiously claiming they "can't live" with the prospect of a father and son management team with Rupert Murdoch as chairman…"He is now in charge of a £13bn plc which Mr Murdoch does not own. He owns 35% of it. The rest of us own the majority of it and although he may do quite a good job because his father's going to hold his hand all the time, what it means is that no matter how smart you are, no matter how good you are at BSkyB - if your name is not Murdoch you don't get the top job."



5//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--KINGDOM FEARS SHORTAGE OF SAND (Perhaps surprisingly, Bahrain is short of sand. Very short. So dire is its need that the country’s construction industry is casting around for sources to import the rare commodity. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia has banned export of sand and started strict checks on the borders. Increased construction activity in the Eastern Province has already put several construction materials on the endangered list, and the authorities fear that if sand continues to trickle into foreign markets, very soon a shortage will be felt here as well.)