A Quick Glance at News (22/01/2013)

The Bank of Japanannounced on Tuesday its most determined effort yet to end years of economic stagnation, saying it would switch to an open-ended commitment to buying assets next year and double its inflation target to 2 percent.

Asian shares rose on Tuesday amid optimism over the globalgrowth outlook, but bold easing measures from the Bank of Japanfailed to lift Tokyo equities and the yen rebounded from a brief sell-off as investors digested the central bank's actions.

U.S. safety investigators on Sunday ruled out excessvoltage as the cause of a battery fire this month on a Boeing Co (BA.N) 787 Dreamliner jet operated by Japan Airlines Co (JAL) (9201.T) and said they were expanding the probe to look at the battery's charger and the jet's auxiliary power.

The yen briefly fell against the dollar on Tuesday after the Bankof Japansurprised markets by adopting an open-ended commitment to buy assets, but later regained ground as the new scheme for additional purchases only comes into effect next year.

Shares of Research In Motion surged to a 13-month high on Mondayafter its chief executive said the company may consider strategic alliances with other companies after the launch of devices powered by RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Brent crude rose 0.3 percent to $112.07 a barrel as the BOJ's latest easing action added to the recent positive data from the United States and China, while growing confidence in the strength of China's economic recovery pushed London copper up 0.7 percent to $8,111.75 a metric ton.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have scheduled a vote on Wednesday on a nearly four-month extension of U.S. borrowing capacity, aimed at avoiding a fight over the looming federal debt ceiling and shifting their negotiating leverage for spending cuts to other fiscal deadlines.

Saudi deports expats for SIM violations

Expats warned against violating SIM card rules

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  Arab News - Expats warned against violating SIM card rules

A committee composed of the Office of the Emir of Madinah, the police, the immigration department and the municipal mayoralty of Madinah has brought charges against expatriates who are selling prepaid phone cards with their iqama (residency permits) numbers inside grocery stores.

"The Committee arrested the expatriates for violating The Communication and Information Technology Commission's (CITC) regulation for overseeing the sale and activation of pre-paid SIM cards by selling prepaid phone cards with their residency ID numbers to the Azizia Police Station in order to complete the investigation," Colonel Fahd Amer Ghannam, the media spokesman for the Police of Madinah, told Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper.
He emphasized that the violations required deportation, even though those arrested have valid residency and work permits, because the violations pose a threat to the country and its citizens.
He called on citizens and residents in the Kingdom to cooperate and make concerted efforts with security forces to report about persons who commit such violations.
Reports published by Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper indicate that, in spite of the CITC’s restrictions, expats succeed in creating illegal ways to obtain prepaid SIM cards.
The black market in pre-paid mobile SIM cards has exploded within peddlers and recruitments companies as soon as the announcement of the new regulation even before its implementation.
The CITC has announced new regulations that state, "No pre-paid SIM cards will be charged, recharged, or balances transferred, unless the subscriber enters his or her identity number."