First woman editor-in-chief appointed in Saudi Arabia

(excerpts from The Guardian)

A woman in Saudi Arabia has been appointed editor-in-chief of a national newspaper, the first female journalist to be promoted to such a public position in the country.

Somayya Jabarti, a former deputy editor, has become the new boss at the helm of the Jeddah-based English daily Saudi Gazette, the paper’s departing head has announced.

“There’s a crack that has been made in the glass ceiling. And I’m hoping it will be made into a door,” Jabarti said after starting her new job, according to quotes carried by Al Arabiya News. She added: “Being the first Saudi woman [editor-in-chief] is going to be double the responsibility … One’s actions will reflect upon my fellow Saudi women.”

According to Jabarti, of around 20 Saudi Gazette reporters only three are male but the paper’s senior editorial positions are mainly held by men.

News of her appointment was made public by the departing editor-in-chief, Khaled Almaeena, who had held the position for over a decade.

“Today I proudly leave my nominee, a female journalist — Somayya Jabarti — who will take the helm of the paper,” Almaeena wrote in an article published on Saudi Gazette’s website on Sunday. Almaeena will become the paper’s editor-at-large. “She has been associated with me for almost 13 years, and I’ve had the goal almost as long of wanting to see a Saudi woman enter the male-dominated bastion of editors-in-chief.”

Almaeena said Jabarti’s appointment was based on merit and described her as a dedicated journalist.

“It was not a question of gender but of merit that decided and earned her this opportunity. I am proud to have played a role in her career,” he wrote. “She is determined and dedicated, and I can assure her and the team that I will be there to assist and advise, so that Saudi Gazette further advances as a media unit in a highly competitive and digital age.”

Before joining Saudi Gazette, Jabarti worked for a rival newspaper, Arab News. There, she rose from being a local desk editor to become the deputy national editor and finally the executive editor and managing editor.

Last chemical weapons destroyed in Libya

(Reuters) – Libya has destroyed with the help of Western countries the last known large stockpile of chemical weapons from the era of Muammar Gaddafi, officials said on Tuesday.

Western countries had been concerned that the weapons might fall into the hands of Islamist militants and regional militias as the North African state grapples with widespread disorder more than two years after the uprising that ousted Gaddafi. Militia groups and armed tribesmen control parts of a vast OPEC-member country awash with arms where the Tripoli government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has struggled to enforce its authority much beyond the capital Tripoli.

Libya began dismantling its poison gas program after signing the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2004 but the operation ground to a halt in 2011 when the NATO-backed uprising against Gaddafi broke out.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdelaziz told reporters that U.S., Canadian and German experts had helped destroy the chemical weapons stockpile in a region of southern Libya.

“The destruction in the region of al-Rawagha was conducted with utmost precision,” he said, without giving details.

Libyan officials at the news conference said there were no other known batches of chemical weapons left.

Andrew Weber, the U.S. assistant defense secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said that among the Libyan chemical stocks destroyed were 507 shells filled with mustard gas.