Middle East

Manama, Sep 9: A second causeway linking Bahrain with Saudi Arabia and providing a route for a regional railway network being built by Gulf kingdoms will cost about $5 billion, a minister said. “The cost of the causeway will be roughly $5 billion,” Bahrain’s Transport Minister Kamal bin Ahmed told AFP on the sidelines of a two-day business conference, adding that it will be “part of the GCC

Jeddah, Sep 9: A Shoura Council member has urged the Labor Ministry not to allow major companies to circumvent Saudization laws by signing accords with subcontractors run mostly by expatriates. “Cutting down on the number of jobs at big national companies and giving their positions to contracting and small firms will have a negative impact on qualitative nationalization of jobs,” said Fahaad Al

Riyadh, Sep 7: The Kingdom’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, who is also president of Council of Senior Scholars, has warned couples against publicizing their marital problems on social networking sites, saying such publicity could complicate court cases and create scandal. “Marriage is a sacred matter in Islam since it has been decreed by God,” said Al-Asheikh. “Going public at times of crisis

Riyadh, Sep 7: The Labor Ministry in coordination with the Public Security Directorate decided recently to intensify its efforts to apprehend illegal workers who are still evading the long arm of the law. The decision was made at a joint forum co-chaired by Gen. Othman Al-Mohrej, director of Public Security, and Moufarrej bin Saad Al-Haqbani, deputy minister of labor. The meeting, which was

Jeddah, Sep 5: The Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques has strongly denied reports that surfaced in Western media outlets claiming that the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Madinah may be removed. “This is the personal opinion of a researcher, who had expressed his views in a study, and it does not reflect the views of the presidency or the Kingdom,” said Ahmed Al-Mansouri, the

Riyadh, Sep 4: As part of its strategic health program for Haj, the Ministry of Health has set up a Central Command Center to monitor the health conditions of Haj pilgrims coming from all parts of the world, a senior MoH official said here on Wednesday. This year, the center will focus on the Ebola virus and MERS coronavirus during the pilgrimage. “We are monitoring the movement of all incoming

Palestine, Sep 3: The popularity of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has risen in the war-torn Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank following 50 days of Israeli bombardment on the coastal enclave. On Tuesday, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research released the results, which indicates that 61 percent of Palestinians would elect senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh if

Jeddah, Sep 2: The Haj Ministry website has started accepting applications from Saudis and expatriates who wanted to make use of the low-cost Haj scheme. More than 40,000 pilgrims are expected to benefit from the low-cost Haj scheme this year, said Abdul Hameed Al-Sinani, secretary general of the Coordination Council for Domestic Haj Service Firms. Speaking to Arab News, Al-Sinani said 53

Jeddah, Sep 1: The Labor Ministry has slapped fines worth more than SR10 million on companies after its inspectors found 62,762 labor rule violations during raids carried out over the past nine months. In a report published Sunday, the ministry said its officials conducted more than 200,000 raids to nab violators of labor regulations. The ministry caught 9,597 people working with employers other

Jeddah, Aug 30: Health authorities in Makkah have begun training their personnel, including nurses and doctors, in dealing with prevention of infection of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) during the Haj season. The infection control management and effective preventive measures are needed for such a massive gathering, said Dr. Abdul Salam Noorwali, director of the