Middle East

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

Jeddah, Aug 29: Education Minister Prince Khaled Al-Faisal received an award of excellence from Makkah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah at a huge gathering of princes, ministers, elite and dignitaries from both the government and private sectors at the Jeddah Hilton on Tuesday. The education minister had been nominated for his work during his time as Makkah governor. “Prince Khaled played a

Jeddah, Aug 26: More than 1.3 million foreign pilgrims are expected to perform Haj this year, according to the Haj Ministry. South Asian countries will send the largest contingent of 410,000 Hajis followed by Arab countries with 250,000. About 228,000 pilgrims will come from Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia and Malaysia, while Turkey and European countries will send 190,000, non-Arab