Prince Abdul Aziz discusses preparations By Khaled Al-Shalahi MADINA – Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Madina, chaired a meeting here Monday night to discuss preparations for the pilgrimage season. The committee looked at the updated pilgrim housing regulations, reports from agencies working in Haj services, and previous Haj statistical reports. Prince Abdul Aziz asked the committee to get ready for increased effort over the coming days as the influx of pilgrims to Madina reaches its peak. – Okaz/SG Families of prisoners to receive financial help By Fares Al-Qahtani RIAYDH – Families of Saudi prisoners will receive SR100 million from social security funds provided by the Ministry of Social Affairs, said Yousuf Al-Othaimeen, Minister of Social Affairs, on Tuesday. The ministry will take care of the prisoner's family from day one of imprisonment till six months after prisoner's release, he said. The minister's statement came during the second meeting of the heads of prisoner's care committees across the Kingdom held at the Officers' Club in Riyadh. The meeting urged immediate activation of social re-entry program of prisoners after their release including job availability, in addition to creating channels of revenue to fund those prisoner's care programs. – Okaz/SG 153 Tajik pilgrims found with forged visas By Abdulaziz Al-Onizi and Shayesh Al-Rokayyan QURIYAT/TUREIF – Passports Department officials at the Al-Hudaitha land border crossing discovered Sunday 153 Tajikistani pilgrims with forged visas. The pilgrims, on a14,000-km trip, were discovered to be carrying the forgeries by the electronic fingerprinting system that is linked to the Kingdom's embassies abroad. Col. Ahmad Bin Miklif Al-Sultan, Director General of the Passports Department in the province of Al-Jouf, said that not all of the visas were complete forgeries. “On others names and other information had been changed,” he said. – Okaz/SG Missing teacher's suitcase raises hopes By Sulaiman Al-Nahabi ONAIZA – New hope has been raised in the search for the missing schoolteacher Ahmad Al-Ra'ouji who was swept away along with his car in floods in Wadi Al-Romah in Onaiza about three weeks ago after search teams found his suitcase. It was found close to where his car was located last week. Search teams now hope to find conclusive evidence of his fate once waters in the valley and lakes formed by the rains dry up. – Okaz/SG Ideas to be fought with ideas By Sa'eed Al-Bahis DAMMAM – Dr. Mohammad Yahya Al-Nojaimi, a member of the Advisory Committee at the Interior Ministry, has said that preventative methods are the right way to deal with the thought of Takfeer (labeling others as infidels). Al-Nojaimi said the dangers of that type of thinking and its contradictions with Shariah should be simply explained by teachers. “We have succeeded in countering such deviant thought with our scholars,” Al-Nojaimi said. “Thought depends basically on theorizing, and, as the Minister of Interior said, ideas can only be fought with ideas,” Al-Nojaimi said. “The practical side should be carried out by parents and schools.”
