Middle East

Dubai, Dec 24: It’s not quite a white Christmas. Showers of rain, not snow, have lashed areas of the country causing flooding of some houses and roads. Rain was recorded at a high of 28.2 millimetres at Sharjah Airport — almost 10 times the rain recorded at the other weather stations across the country. Dubai Airport registered 3mm, Jess Mountain had 5.8mm, while Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Abu Dhabi

Dubai, Dec 24: An Indian national died on the spot when his jet ski collided with another in Mamzar Lake in Sharjah on Sunday evening. Major Khalid Al Kay of Sharjah Police said a rescue unit and an ambulance rushed to the scene of the accident soon after the police operations room was informed. The dead man’s body has been moved to a hospital. Major Al Kay urged beachgoers to follow instructions

Riyadh, Dec 23: The Special Penal Court in Riyadh sentenced a wanted man to 30 years in prison and fined him SR150,000 for participating in demonstrations in a governorate. He is also banned from traveling outside the Kingdom for 30 years. According to charges, the wanted person threw Molotovs at security forces and burnt tires to hinder security operation. He along with other protesters smashed

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Mecca, Dec 23: Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, who was hitherto governor of the Makkah region, has been appointed minister of education, replacing Prince Faisal bin Abdullah. Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah, who was the governor of Najran, will take charge as the new Makkah governor. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah made

Jeddah, Dec 22: The new Labor Law, which has been amended by the Shoura Council recently, offers a range of incentives to both Saudi and foreign workers in the private sector. The amended law insists that an employer should obtain written permission from the worker before transferring him to another place. The draft law, however, allows an employer to ask an employee to work in a different place

Riyadh, Dec 21: The crackdown on violators of visa and resident regulations in the Kingdom has unveiled a vast network of cover-up businesses commonly known as tasattur which is prevalent in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam and the cities in the south. More than 97 percent of small-scale enterprises come under tasattur which is posing a challenge as these businesses are a breeding ground for illegal

Jeddah, Dec 19: Officials at King Abdulaziz International Airport uncovered 60 cases of forged documentation last year at the facility, mostly involving entry visas to European countries, an official said. Mansour Al-Jifri, director of the airport’s document authentication unit, told Arab News there were cases of impersonation, passport forgery, and attempts to use stolen or illegally issued

Riyadh, Dec 15: More than 254,000 Saudi men and women have been employed in the aftermath of the status correction phase for foreign workers, Labor Minister Adel Fakeih announced at a meeting held recently to discuss the latest developments in the Saudi labor market. The minister pointed out that the rise in employment figures among Saudis is a result of a 25 percent decrease in foreign labor

Jeddah, Dec 6: Jobless young Saudis have called on the Ministry of Labor to increase Nitaqat quotas at private firms and fill positions left vacant by departing illegal workers to solve the country's unemployment problem. This comes as Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih recently announced that 250,000 Saudis have found jobs because of the rectification process. A survey conducted by Arab News showed

Berlin, Dec 4: Five Arab countries are ranked among the top 10 most corrupt nations, according to Transparency International’s newly released annual Corruption Perceptions Index, as instability in the region has profound effects on governance. The list, published on Tuesday, ranks countries on an index score that relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by country analysts and