MERS battle: Fakeih orders new measures

April 25, 2014

Jeddah, Apr 25: Saudi authorities reported 12 new MERS cases on Thursday, including two fatalities, as Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih appointed Dr. Tariq Ahmed Madani of King Abdulaziz University Hospital as his new medical adviser to combat the deadly diseases.

Fakeih, who is also the Labor Minister, also ordered the transfer of coronavirus cases to King Saud Hospital in north Jeddah.

According to the Health Ministry, Jeddah has recorded the largest number of infections (6) by the deadly coronavirus followed by Riyadh (five) and Makkah (one). A 68-year-old Saudi man died in Makkah, said the ministry statement. The other fatality, a 72-year-old Saudi woman, was in Riyadh.

Of the new infection cases in Jeddah, a 51-year-old Syrian doctor is in the ICU of King Fahd Hospital and a 28-year-old Indonesian woman is in King Saud Hospital. Other Jeddah cases were: Two Palestinians, an Egyptian and a Saudi national.

The cases in Riyadh include a 40-year-old Filipino nurse in addition to four Saudi nationals. A 34-year-old Filipino nurse, who was working at the ICU of Al-Noor Hospital in Makkah, is the only infection case in the holy city.

Officials are struggling to alleviate concerns that the virus is spreading amid a spike in infections over the past several weeks.

National Guard Minister Prince Miteb bin Abdullah said Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah advanced his visit to Jeddah to lead the campaign against the disease.

Speaking about the king’s concern toward his citizens, Prince Miteb said: “When the rift valley fever hit Jazan, King Abdullah cut short his visit to France and flew to Jazan to oversee the efforts to fight the disease.”

Minister Fakeih has set up two committees in the last 24 hours to consider the request of King Saud Hospital not to receive cases due to lack of isolation rooms, lack of enough medical and nursing staff to deal with number of these cases, as well as a shortage of beds at the hospital.

The hospital has 85 beds, including 25 in intensive care and 15 for deportation cases, leaving only 45 beds to accommodate other cases received by the hospital, such as tuberculosis, AIDS, dengue fever, and others.

Following reports of coronavirus found in camels from African markets, Saudi businessmen said they are exploring possibility of importing livestock from non-African sources.

Jeddah businessmen have urged Uruguay Foreign Minister Luis Almagro to sign an agreement with the Saudi Agricultural Ministry for the import of livestock and frozen meat directly to the Kingdom.

Fahd Al-Sulami, a member of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said livestock traders have expressed their desire to diversify import sources in order to avoid disease-carrying cattle.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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