Taif Summer Fruits Festival launches with markets, family activities

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Taif Summer Fruits Festival takes place in Al-Ruddaf Park. (Supplied)
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Taif Summer Fruits Festival takes place in Al-Ruddaf Park. (Supplied)
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Taif Summer Fruits Festival takes place in Al-Ruddaf Park. (Supplied)
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Taif Summer Fruits Festival takes place in Al-Ruddaf Park. (Supplied)
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Taif Summer Fruits Festival takes place in Al-Ruddaf Park. (Supplied)
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Taif Summer Fruits Festival takes place in Al-Ruddaf Park. (Supplied)
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Taif Summer Fruits Festival takes place in Al-Ruddaf Park, under the auspices of Taif Gov. Prince Saud bin Nahar. (Supplied)
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Updated 01 August 2023
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Taif Summer Fruits Festival launches with markets, family activities

  • Festival highlights the diversity of Taif’s seasonal agriculture and supports farmers through a range of activities
  • Event will also include a wild fig and green plum crop display, in addition to a market for local families to sell products

RIYADH: Taif Summer Fruits Festival launched on Aug. 2 in Al-Ruddaf Park, under the auspices of Taif Gov. Prince Saud bin Nahar.

The festival highlights the diversity of Taif’s seasonal agriculture and supports farmers through a range of activities held on the main stage for three days. The event will also include a wild fig and green plum crop display, in addition to a market for local families to sell products.

The director-general of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture branch in the Makkah region, Majid Al-Khalif, said that the festival is supervised by the ministry in Taif, with the participation of government and private agencies, in addition to more than 30 farmers, beekeepers and local family business representatives.

Hani Al-Qadi, director of the ministry’s office in Taif, highlighted the ministry’s keenness to support farmers and encourage production, in addition to promoting agricultural goods through festivals and events.

Agricultural crops are sold by farmers across local markets in the governorate, as well as in markets in Makkah, Jeddah and Riyadh.

Popular seasonal fruits farmed in Taif include apricots, peaches, prickly pears, pomegranates, quinces, berries and grapes.


Saudi student Mohammed Al-Qasim ‘stabbed by stranger on drink, drugs,’ UK court hears

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Saudi student Mohammed Al-Qasim ‘stabbed by stranger on drink, drugs,’ UK court hears

  • 20-year-old ‘posed no threat to anybody’ when he was attacked in Cambridge last year
  • Jurors watch CCTV video of attack by man in high-vis jacket, BBC reports

LONDON: Saudi student Mohammed Al-Qasim died after being stabbed in Cambridge by a stranger who had been drinking and using drugs, prosecutors told a court in the UK city on Tuesday.

According to a BBC News website report of the trial at Cambridge Crown Court, prosecutor Nicholas Hearn said that the 20-year-old was sitting outside student accommodation on Aug. 1 last year when he was stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife by Chas Corrigan.

CCTV cameras had recorded the attack along with Corrigan’s actions before and after the incident, he said.

Al-Qasim, a University of Jeddah student who had traveled to the UK to study at a language school during the summer, died just after midnight on Aug. 2.

Jurors watched CCTV video footage of the attack, which showed Al-Qasim running away after a confrontation with a man in a yellow high-vis jacket, the BBC report said.

The footage showed Corrigan, who was wearing the jacket, stabbing Al-Qasim, Hearn said.

“The reality is that, in this case, the footage speaks for itself,” he told the jurors.

Hearn said that Corrigan, 22, from Cambridge, had admitted being in possession of a knife at the time but denied murdering Al-Qasim.

Hearn said there was evidence that Corrigan had been drinking and taking drugs before the stabbing and had been “behaving crazily” in a pub.

“Mr Al-Qasim posed no threat to anybody. He was a student who had come to Cambridge to study from Saudi Arabia,” the lawyer said.

Hearn added that “the defendant was the aggressor here,” and that Al-Qasim had never met Corrigan.

Jane Osborne KC, Corrigan’s defense lawyer, said that her client had admitted he was the man in the CCTV video and that he had been carrying the knife, but had “no intention of using that knife,” the BBC report said.

Corrigan had aimed to wave the knife between himself and Al-Qasim, she said.

Corrigan denies murdering Al-Qasim and his trial is expected to last about two weeks.