Middle East

Riyadh, June 12: Saudi Arabia said it will limit registration for this year’s Hajj pilgrimage to citizens and residents of the Kingdom in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The ministries of health and Hajj announced Saturday that a total of 60,000 pilgrims will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage this year. It stressed that those wishing to perform Hajj must be free of any chronic diseases, and

Riyadh, June 12: Saudi Arabia has set new rules for those wishing to register for Hajj 2021. Due to pandemic, several stringent measures have been in place to contain the spread of infection during the annual pilgrimage season. According to a tweet shared by Haramain, “The health status of those wishing to register for Haj 1442 must be from the following categories: a vaccinated person, a

New Delhi, June 10: External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar arrived in Kuwait on a bilateral visit early on Thursday. According to diplomatic sources, the aim of the visit is to deepen India's ties with the oil-rich Gulf nation. It comes nearly three months after the two countries decided to establish a joint ministerial commission to formulate a framework to strengthen ties in sectors

Riyadh, June 7: Announcements about this year’s Haj could be made in the coming days as the Kingdom completes its assessments of the challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, said the acting Saudi minister of media, Dr Majid Al Qasabi. At a press conference held in Riyadh on Sunday, Al Qasabi said the Saudi authorities are following up on (the pandemic) updates and the ministers of Haj and Umrah

Tehran, June 2: The largest ship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, semiofficial news agencies reported. The Fars and Tasnim news agencies said efforts failed to save the support ship Kharg, named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran. The blaze began around 2:25 a.m. and firefighters tried to contain

Dubai, May 30: The suspension of carriage of passengers on India-UAE flights has been extended, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) has announced. This came as India's official count of Covid-19 cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. The suspension of entry for travellers from

Riyadh, May 24: By royal order, Saudi Arabia has extended the visas and iqamas (residence permits) of all those who have been stranded abroad amid travel restrictions. The validity of these documents will be extended until June 2, 2021, the Saudi Press Agency reported citing a royal order. “The extension issued by the Minister of Finance, falls within the ongoing efforts taken by the government of

Al Fujairah, May 24: A couple of minor earthquakes were felt in UAE’s Fujairah early Monday morning, according to the National Seismic Network of the National Centre of Meteorology. A statement issued by NCM on social media said: '3.1 magnitude earthquake on Richter scale is recorded in Dibba Al Fujairah on May 24 at at 4:54am' The quake occurred at a depth at 5km, the statement added. A second

Dhaka/Jerusalem, May 24: Bangladesh on Sunday made it clear that it has dropped the phrase "all countries except Israel" from passport to maintain international standards of the document and there was no change in its decades-long policy of travel ban to the Jewish state. Bangladeshi passports earlier had a clause written on them that said "This Passport is valid for all countries of the world

Tel Aviv, May 21: Scores of Palestinians were injured when the Israeli occupation forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque squares wherein thousands of people had gathered after Juma prayers today. The storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli police was unexpected and reflects how fragile the ceasefire can be, said an observer. “The Israeli police says that some of the youth that were at the