Live in Saudi Arabia can be troublesome. Sometimes it can even be a zoo!

Here, Saudi Gazette reports on an invasion of a school by ‘monkeys’ (actually, Hamadrayas baboons) in the Khamis Mushayt area.

Credit: www.northwestwildlifeonline.com

Monkeys create chaos in girls’ school
Abdul Rahman Al-Qerni

ASIR – A group of monkeys has been wreaking havoc on Al-Ajer Intermediate and Secondary School for Girls in Tandaha in eastern Khamis Mushayt. The monkey scare has forced panicky students and teachers to stay away from the school altogether.

The school’s principal has sought the help of municipal authorities to restore order after piles of monkey waste were found in the school’s courtyard a day after the initial attack on Saturday.
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There’s also a problem with Rift Valley Fever affecting the same Asir Province in Saudi Arabia’s south. The disease, while primarily one that affects animals, can be transmitted to humans with fatal effect.

RVF detected in Asir region
Al-Hasan Aal Sayyid

ABHA – Asir Region governorate has banned the transportation including the entry and exit of livestock to and from Mahayil Governorate especially in areas and rural centers where positive samples for antibodies of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) virus were detected.

The region’s governorate issued directives to Mahayil to prevent the movement of livestock to and from the governorate and to coordinate with the concerned authorities.

It directed the security authorities to implement these measures and asked the Ministry of Agriculture branch to pinpoint the locations of afflicted herds and to cooperate in vaccinating livestock and spraying animal sheds, to report new RVF cases immediately and to monitor veterinary pharmacies. Earlier, the region’s governorate set up an operations room to monitor any RVF cases.
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And then, you have to worry about your neighbors, too. It appears that close to 200 families have been penalized for illegally tapping into Jeddah’s sewage system. It’s not just a matter of stealing valuable city services. The problem is that the work is both shoddy and damaging to the rest of the city’s waste disposal network. Jeddah, which is already trying to deal with lakes of raw sewage and flooded streets, is taking harsh measures to curtail the abuse.

198 encroachers on canal network fined in Jeddah
Muhammad Hadhadh

JEDDAH – Jeddah Mayoralty has penalized 198 citizens for connecting the sanitary drainage of their homes to the underground canals network, blocking it and causing overflows in several districts in Jeddah.

Engineer Ibrahim Kutubkhana, Deputy Mayor for Construction Projects, said the fine had reached over SR2.5 million at the rate of SR10,000 for each violation. He said the mayoralty would double the fines effective from next month against the violators who connect their buildings to the drainage network without the consent of the authorities concerned.

The fines may be increased to SR100,000 and services will be disconnected from the violators, he warned.
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