Bahrain this week ...

A NEW BD18 million state-of-the-art theme park will be built soon at the Grand Muharraq Garden, which currently has minimal facilities.

The Muharraq Municipal Council has already accepted the new bid presented by Kuwaiti company Salah Al Romaih Group.
The new project, to be named Little Jungle, was approved after the company presented its designs to the council. It will now replace a shelved BD5 million theme park bid made last year.

TWO hundred counsellors from various secondary public schools attended the first in a series of anti-smoking workshops designed to enable them help students quit the habit.
They are being conducted by the Bahrain Anti-Smoking Society in co-operation with the Education Ministry over the next few weeks at the Bahrain Medical Society, Juffair.
“The smoking menace is unfortunately spreading in our schools and our best efforts are not having the desired effect,” said Health Ministry primary care and public health assistant under-secretary and society president Dr Mariam Al Jalahama.

CENTRAL Municipal Council members blocked government plans to build animal quarantines in Buhair Valley.
They say they had already proposed turning the area into a new town and that they were stunned to hear that the Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry had already come up with blueprints for the project.
Council chairman and area councillor Ibrahim Al Hassan had already submitted a proposal for a new town to serve residents from West and East Riffa as well as neighbouring areas such as Isa Town, Sanad, Tubli and Nuwaidrat.

A BAHRAINI woman who is undergoing a sex change and has gone to the courts in a bid to legally recognise her status as a man is facing yet more hurdles.
The case of the 33-year-old, whose identity is being protected, will next be heard at the Third High Civil Court today.
However, her lawyer Fowzia Mohammed Janahi said that she is now facing a potential cash crisis, as well as ridicule from fellow Bahrainis.
She said her client was due to undergo her second major operation costing BD5,000 at the Yanhee General Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, in May following a mastectomy in September.
But she says the telephone operator, whose employers have allowed her to take a year off work, is struggling to pay for treatment because she is not earning and comes from a poor family.

Riffa Views Signature Estates is celebrating its title sponsorship of Bahrain International Garden Show (BIGS) where the residential development will be presenting its own stunning garden featuring landscape and horticultural effects that typify elements of the development itself. 
The Show takes place from 1st to 4th March at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre.
Riffa Views support is a first of its kind for the show, which in previous years has not held a title sponsor.

A BRITISH couple have driven more than 1,000km in 11 days in a last ditch attempt to find their lost dog before they permanently leave Bahrain.
Jack and Katrina Wall have been patrolling the streets day and night in the hope of coming across Jessy, a seven-year-old collie mix. They live in Juffair and have searched the surrounding area and as far as Saar and Isa Town in the hope of finding the dog.

Bahrain’s commercial trading activity is soaring with three new companies a day seeking licences. This was revealed at a Cabinet session chaired by Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.
Industry and Commerce Ministry figures show that local and foreign investments are rising steeply.
During 2006, 1,249 new firms joined Bahrain Investors Centre, with an overall capital of BD1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, the number of commercial licences issued went up by 35 per cent from 2005-2006.
At the same time, direct accumulative local and foreign capital recorded a 49pc increase to reach BD9.7bn against BD6.5bn the previous year.

Bahrain-based Shamil Bank’s net income soared to a record $61.6 million last year. This was up by 57 per cent over the 2005 net income of $39.1m (BD14.7m), making it the bank’s best ever year, it was declared after the board meeting at the InterContinental Regency Bahrain hotel.

A gang has been arrested for forging visas and documents. Those arrested include a Bahraini woman and three men. Police are also hunting for a fifth suspect. Fifty forged visas and seven CPRs were seized from them.

And finally … a Bahraini teenager who was arrested at Bahrain International Circuit for mocking a policeman and accusing him of giving him a headache has been fined BD20.
The 19-year-old was watching a race at the circuit with his friends when he was approached by the policeman and told not to stand too close to the track.
When he refused to move back he claimed he was bundled into a police car and taken to Zallaq Police Station.