Share on Facebook
July 2010 - News
July 2010

Local News

Syrian man donates record amount of blood

A Syrian citizen has donated blood 170 times, making him the top blood donor in the country, Syria's official news agency SANA reported on June 16.

Ali Mahmoud Suleiman, 50, said he donates blood because he believes it is important in saving people's lives. He said he understands the significance of blood donations because he too has received transfusions.

Last year he needed blood when he had two surgeries stemming from a traffic accident in 2002 that damaged his spinal chord.

In addition to his professed altruism, Suleiman wants to donate enough blood to qualify him in the Guinness World Records.

Exams prompt student suicide

A high-school student from Jableh, a city north of Lattakia, committed suicide after she failed her high school's baccalaureate examinations, the privately-owned website Aksalser reported on June 16.

A note left by the young woman said she was upset with her poor performance in several literary examinations. It also asked for her parent's forgiveness.

According to the news report, the young woman's two brothers told police that their sister was home alone when she took a revolver belonging to one of the brothers and shot herself.

Local bureaucrats sacked

Syrian Minister for Local Administration Tamer al-Hijeh has fired four council chairmen from several towns and villages in Homs, the privately-owned news website Aksalser reported on June 9.

Other state-run newspapers said the local administrators were dismissed for allegedly failing to take proper actions against illegal chicken farms, failing to spend allocated budget funds, permitting construction violations and implementing development projects poorly.

On the same day, Aksalser also reported that Syrian Minister of Finance Muhammad al-Hussein had frozen the assets of Ahmad Musa al-Mutair, the general manager of the state-run General Organization for Sugar, and his wife, following an investigation of a complaint lodged against the couple by a company based in Cyprus.

The Central Authority for Audit and Inspection had previously sought to bring an action against Mutair, complaining he had violated the country's Economic Sanctions Law and Penal Code.