And in the "how in the heck do you manage THAT category" goes this article:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/10/content_1307979.htm 790 Pakistani pilgrims missing in Saudi Arabia
www.chinaview.cn 2004-02-10 19:04:44
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- About 790 Pakistani pilgrims are reported missing in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, during Hajj-2004, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported Tuesday.
The "lost and found" section set up in the Hajj Directorate, Makkah, and mobile teams have started survey of buildings to ascertain their exact position.
According to information received here Tuesday from the Saudi Hajj directorate in Makkah, as many as 132 Pakistani pilgrims haveso far died owing to various illnesses, stampede and road accidents during the Hajj season.
Over 80 pilgrims died due to different ailments, 40 in the stampede at Mina while 10 died in road accidents.
A control room set up in the Hajj Directorate, Makkah, is also facilitating Pakistani pilgrims round the clock.
Meanwhile, about 11,770 Pakistani pilgrims have returned from Saudi Arabia after performing Hajj by 36 flights since the start of post Hajj operation from Feb. 5. The post-Hajj operation will continue upto March 6. Enditem
And from Reuters, in the "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors category.
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=821513&tw=wn_wire_story Saudi Arabia Defends Yemen Border 'Screen' Plans
Monday, February 09, 2004 5:04 a.m. ET
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Monday it was building a security "screen" on its southern border with Yemen aimed at curbing the flow of militants and weapons, but rejected any comparison with Israel's West Bank barrier.
Talal Anqawi, head of Saudi Arabia's border guard, told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that workers were laying a pipeline to prevent vehicles crossing the porous frontier, which cuts through mountainous tribal territory.
Saudi Arabia is battling a wave of violence, blamed on militants linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Tons of weapons, ammunition and explosives have been seized, many of which are believed to have been slipped across the border from Yemen.
The two countries, who only recently ended a long-running border dispute, have stepped up security cooperation since suicide bombings in Riyadh killed more than 50 people last year.
But Yemeni newspapers have reported that the Yemeni government has complained about the route of the barrier, saying it was being built in a 20-km (13 mile) zone designated as an open area under a 2000 border agreement.
Anqawi said the barrier was being built on Saudi soil.
"What is being constructed inside our borders with Yemen is a sort of screen...which aims to prevent infiltration and smuggling," he told Asharq al-Awsat. "It does not resemble a wall in any way."
Saudi Arabia has condemned Israel's construction of a barrier, part fence and part wall, inside the West Bank. Israel says it is a security barrier to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians say it is a pre-emptive landgrab.
The newspaper showed a picture of what it said would be a model for the Saudi-Yemeni barrier -- a section of raised, concrete-filled pipeline which it said had already been built on Saudi Arabia's northern border with Kuwait.
Diplomats say Saudi Arabia is urgently stepping up border controls after the surge of militancy last year, fueled by weapons smuggled across thousands of kilometers (miles) of desert of mountain borders.
It is close to awarding a contract worth up to seven billion euros ($8.7 billion) to French defense electronics company Thales to supply a border surveillance system, sources in Paris said last month.
Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.