Fareed Zakaria thinks that nobody should blame Saudis for the high oil prices. What do you think?

Well, I did not see that coming. The owner of the pharmacies chain said yesterday that he has nothing to do with the bribery and he will sue the MOH for libel! Close sources to the owner told the press that the employee who offered the bribe does not represent the owner and he knew nothing about it.

However, insiders from the MOH told Asharq Al-Awsat that the same owner has offered a bribe to another government body before, but no details were revealed then. I have this feeling that the owner will not be charged with anything. We’ve seen this before, and this time will probably be no exception.

Two men were killed and 30 other persons, including women and children, were injured yesterday. No, it’s not another bombing by Al-Qaeda, it is the grand opening of the new IKEA center in Jeddah.

IKEA was promoting the whole week in papers and the streets that the first 50 customers will get 500 SR shopping coupons while the next 200 customers wil get 100 SR shopping coupons. What IKEA did not expect that people will wait from the early hours of dawn to get some free stuff.

In Riyadh, where the other new branch of IKEA was opening at the same time, there was police officers, the National Guard and even the Religious Police to keep everything under control.

Read Arab News for further details.

While I was in Riyadh and all that bombings were happening, I wasn’t scared as much as my parents who kept on calling me after every major event to make sure I’m all right and to tell me not to go out! But two days ago I was really scared when I heard about some chasing to the terrorists here in my hometown, Hassa.

The thing started when four terrorists refused to stop at a checkpoint, so the police started to chase their green Camry until they got to some crowded neighborhood in Mubarraz. The police surrounded them there and they killed two terrorists while the other two were wounded.

The owner of the largest group of pharmacies chain here in the Kingdom was arrested after he tried to bribe an official in the Ministry of Health to help him to get possession of 200 pharmacies illegally.

According to Arab News daily newspaper, the official immediately called the minister Hamad Al-Mann’a who told the police to handle it. The owner was ready to give 10M SR to settle the deal with the official. The deal was supposed to help the owner to expand his network in the capital mainly, while in other regions he already was taking control of the pharmacies market.

The owner also hoped that this bribery would help him to get rid of the regulations of the MOH on the employment of Saudis. This is good news to pharmacy students like me that we could find a job in the next few years.

I’m just wondering why none of the papers or TVs has revealed the name of the briber. I heard early this year that the owner of that group is a member of the royal family but I really can’t tell if this is true or not. Anyway, only time will tell, or maybe it won’t? who knows?