A court in Saudi Arabia has fined the Saudi Binladin Group 20 million riyals ($5.32 million) after finding it guilty of negligence and safety breaches in the Makkah Grand Mosque crane crash case.
The verdict on Tuesday came more than seven years after at least 109 people, including foreign pilgrims, were killed in September 2015 when a crane crashed into a courtyard of the mosque as a result of high winds.
The crane was one of many the construction company had erected as part of a multibillion-dollar expansion plan to accommodate the growing numbers of pilgrims.
The Criminal Court of Appeal in Makkah ruled that the company was not required to pay blood money to the relatives of those killed in the accident.
Seven people were found guilty, with three sentenced to six months in prison and fined up to 30,000 riyals while four received three-month jail terms and were fined 15,000 riyals.
In 2017, the appeals court ordered a new trial involving about a dozen people accused of negligence, after a Saudi court cleared the Saudi Binladin Group of responsibility.
The company, which has developed famous buildings in the kingdom, was founded more than 80 years ago by the father of former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
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Electric scooters: some rules to remember
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
