Middle East

Riyadh, Nov 3: The Kingdom slammed the Houthi rebels and their cohorts at the UN for planting 50,000 mines on the Saudi-Yemeni border at random. This came in the Kingdom’s address before the Fourth Committee on “the item on mine action” prepared by Manal Radwan, political coordinator and first secretary at the Saudi mission to the UN. Radwan said the Saudi-led coalition aiming to restore the

Riyadh, Nov 1: Saudi Arabia plans to start issuing tourist visas "soon", authorities said Tuesday, as the generous kingdom seeks to attract international visitors in a radical overhaul of its oil-dependent economy. Tourism is seen as a major driver of growth as the kingdom attempts to wean itself off its dependence on petrodollars amid a protracted oil slump. "Tourist visas will be introduced soon

Abu Dhabi, Oct 31: Saudi Arabia plans to extract uranium domestically as part of its nuclear power program and sees this as a step toward “self-sufficiency” in producing atomic fuel, a senior official said on Monday. Extracting its own uranium also makes sense from an economic point of view, said Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani, head of the Saudi government agency tasked with the nuclear plans, the

Jeddah, Oct 30: Women’s empowerment will take another step forward at the beginning of 2018 when families are permitted inside stadiums and other sports facilities. It was one of a raft of decisions announced on Sunday by Turki Al-Asheikh, chairman of the General Sports Authority, aimed at supporting and stimulating the sports sector. The authority “will start rehabilitating the main stadiums in

Dubai, Oct 29: Qatar’s Emir has warned against any military confrontation over the ongoing diplomatic dispute between his country and four other Arab nations. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani says: “I’m fearful that if anything happens, if any military act happens, this region will be in chaos.” Speaking to the American television network CBS’s “60 Minutes” news program, Sheikh Tamim also

Riyadh, Oct 28: Increasing numbers of Umrah pilgrims are finding their way to Makkah and Madinah as a result of an attractive Umrah fare which was brought down from SR180 ($48) to SR100 following the Hajj season. During the Hajj season, authorities did not allow local pilgrims to perform Umrah or visit the Holy Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. A round-trip fare from Riyadh to Makkah by a luxury coach

Riyadh, Oct 27: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become world’s country to grand citizenship to a non-human woman, making her world’s first robot to get ‘nationality’. Sophia is the name of the robot granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia. She looks a bit like Audrey Hepburn and gives facial expressions while talking. She has an answer for every question. Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hanson

Riyadh, Oct 27: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman recently announced an ambitious $500 billion independent economic zone, which would also offer a lifestyle that is currently non-existent. The new zone will come up in the form of a city named Neom. Earlier, the crown prince had sought global support to transform the kingdom of Saudi Arabia into an open society, where investors from

Riyadh, Oct 27: The war in Yemen is about preventing Houthi rebels from turning into another Hezbollah on Saudi Arabia’s southern border, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said. “We’re pursuing until we can be sure that nothing will happen there like Hezbollah again, because Yemen is more dangerous than Lebanon,” he told Reuters. Saudi Arabia made global headlines this week as a conference hosted

Riyadh, Oct 26: Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund wants to increase its financial clout to SR 1.5 trillion ($400 billion) by 2020 as part of the Kingdom’s efforts to boost private-sector growth and wean itself off oil export dependence. The assets-under-management goal, laid out by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) on Wednesday, came on the second day of an international conference in