Saudi to behead and then crucify child rapist 3, November 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Saudi Arabia.Tags: beheading, child rapist, curcifiction, Saudi Arabia, Saudi punishment
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Known throughout the world for their enlightened policies when it comes to punishment, the Saudi Arabian high court has upheld the conviction of a multiple child rapist and killer and has sentenced him to be beheaded and then crucified. Not too much I can add to that, really.
Iran to move its capital from Tehran? 3, November 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Iran.Tags: Bam, Fault lines, Iran, Iran chaging capital, Qom, Tehran
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The BBC reports that Iran is considering moving its capital city from Tehran to – it has been suggested – near Qom. The official reason for this mooted change is that Tehran sits atop countless earthquake-prone fault lines. Indeed, the devastating quake at Bam in 2003 may well ‘concentrate the minds’ as the reporter puts it.
There are, however, other motives afoot. Tehran is known as being something of a relatively liberal city where demonstrations are relatively easy to organise (i.e. wide boulevards and squares) and there is also something of a pedigree of demonstrations, offering tacit support to the dissenters. Moving the capital uproots the history of dissent and can make it simply harder to do, if, for example, it is away from a major population center. The flip side to this is, of course, that it is away from a major population center and staffing Ministries is problematic and the overall cost of moving a capital can be – predictably – astronomical.
Qatar doubles LNG output 3, November 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Qatar.Tags: LNG supertanker, Qatar LNG, Ras Laffan
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The Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah Al Attiyah officially opened Qatar’s latest and largest LNG plant at Ras Laffan. It is estimated that the plant will be able to produce around 7.8 millions tonnes of LNG per year. The sheer size of the plant helps it tremendously with economies of scale, producing each tonne of LNG at cheaply as possible. The site is also able to accommodate the latest and largest generation of LNG ships (roughly the size of an aircraft carrier) which, with a mobile cooling station on board, extends its span across the world and saves on the LNG dissipating into the ether.
The Gulf blog 