Excerpts: India supprts PLO financially/politically.Saudi citizen's
concern.Gulf property-boom over October 08, 2008

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 8 Oct.'08:"India gifts embassy to Palestinian
govt",Nilofar Suhrawardy
EXCERPTS:NEW DELHI: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh attended a ceremony yesterday inaugurating the
Embassy of Palestine that India has gifted the Palestinian government.
"You know how good relations we have, between India and Palestine since
great Indira Gandhi and great Yasser Arafat," said Abbas..... . .At the
ceremony, Singh said, "India will continue to do all it can to assist
Palestine in all its endeavors, including capacity building."
. . .Singh also announced $20 million in Indian aid to Palestine. "I have
great pleasure in announcing a grant of $10 million as budgetary support to
the Palestinians National Authority to help meet its immediate requirements
and a further $10 million as assistance for development projects," he said.
During their meeting, the two sides signed an agreement under which India
will build a school, named after India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru, in Abu Dis in East Jerusalem.. . .The Palestinian Embassy, said
Singh, would "serve as a symbol of our friendship and solidarity." Abbas
expressed hope to achieve independence so that an Indian Embassy could be
built in East Jerusalem, which is where a future, viable Palestinian state
would have its capital. . . .

+++ARAB NEWS 8 Oct.'08:""Subcontracting: Everyone gets a piece of the pie
Abdulaziz Al-Suwaigh , Al-Madinah"
EXCERPTS:. . .I cried when I read a report in the online newspaper wakad.net
about the huge disparity between the initial budget for work on King
Abdullah Street in Riyadh and the actual cost of the work itself.
According to the report, SR698 million was approved for the project. The
main contractor, Saudi Oger, subcontracted the project for SR400 million.
This subcontractor subcontracted the work for SR75 million. Finally, a third
subcontractor was commissioned to actually do the work for SR18.2 million.
Wakad.net caught wind of the story only because the three sub-contractors
got into a row over their allocations. My question here is: Was such conduct
a familiar practice in all the government projects in the past?
. . .In the case of King Abdullah Street. . .Will the concerned bodies
investigate what is happening with the work on one of the major roads in our
beloved capital?

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 8 Oct.'08:"Arab stock markets plunge",By Saudi Gazette
Staff
QUOTE:"speculation intensified that a five-year Gulf property boom was
over"
EXCERPTS:JEDDAH - Arab stock markets slumped to multi-year lows on Tuesday(7
Oct) as speculation intensified that a five-year Gulf property boom was over
and that developers would be forced to merge as financing conditions
deteriorated.
Gulf developers have unveiled $100 billion in new projects in the past two
days, but investors were focusing instead on Europe's spreading banking
crisis and falling global markets.
Shares in Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab equity market, fell 7.03 percent to
their lowest level since the index was reformulated in 2007, while Egypt's
main index fell 16 percent to erase all gains since mid-2006.. . ."Central
banks must pump funds into the banks and show that we are not facing a
liquidity problem. That will help restore investor confidence," Abu-Dahesh
said. . . .
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA