Middle East

Riyadh, Sep 13: The Riyadh police department has urged local Haj pilgrims to deal only with registered companies to avoid losing their money to bogus operators. The government has said it would severely punish agents operating without Haj licenses. “Such agents, if caught, will be subject to the maximum punishment,” the police stated. According to the Ministry of Haj, it is obligatory for domestic

Jeddah, Sep 12: The world has come together in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terror group with the GCC led by Saudi Arabia, agreeing to join the US-led campaign. At a crucial meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on Thursday, foreign ministers of more than 10 countries vowed to crush the IS, which recently changed its name from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or the Levant). The

Madinah, Sep 11: Saudi Arabia won first place in the Seventh Arab Chemistry Olympiad with Egypt bagging the second place and Lebanon third. There was much praise for Madinah Gov. Prince Faisal bin Salman and Education Minister Prince Khaled Al-Faisal for their support of the event and education in the country on Wednesday. Nasser bin Abdullah Abdulkarim, director general of education in Madinah

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