JAZAN: On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Jazan Gov. Prince Muhammad bin Nasser will launch next month the first phase of the massive housing project for Jazan’s displaced people.
RIYADH: A team of consular officials of Embassy of India, Riyadh, will visit Dammam from Feb. 8-10 to provide welfare and consular assistance to Indian nationals at Dammam Deportation Center with a view to issue emergency certificates to them. This will facilitate their hassle-free departure from the Kingdom.
MAKKAH: The administrative court in Makkah on Monday nullified a lawsuit by the Saudi Company for Industrial Development (SADAQ) against its former chairman Saleh bin Ali Al-Turki and former managing director Mazin Batraji.
RIYADH: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will arrive in the Kingdom Tuesday, the last stop in his Mideast tour that took in Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Korean Ambassador to the Kingdom Kim Jong-yong said.
RIYADH: The Saudi ADHD Society and Support Group AFTA organized a five-day leadership-training program for pediatricians and family physicians that started Saturday.
WASHINGTON/CAIRO: The US ambassador to the United Nations is keeping up the Obama administration’s pressure on Egypt to release 19 Americans facing trial on allegations of encouraging unrest in the country.
OSLO, Norway: The right-wing extremist who confessed to a bombing and mass shooting that killed 77 people goes before a Norwegian court Monday in the last scheduled detention hearing before his trial starts.
LANSING, Michigan: A coalition of black ministers called Monday for a US Senate candidate to apologize for his Super Bowl ad featuring a young Asian woman speaking broken English to describe the impact of his rival’s economic policies.
BUCHAREST, Romania: The Romanian prime minister on Monday announced the immediate resignation of himself and his government, saying he wanted to protect the stability of the country.
LAGOS, Nigeria: The burning inferno of what used to be a Chevron Corp. natural gas rig still stains the night’s sky orange more than two weeks after the rig caught fire, and no one can say when it will end as swarms of dead fish surface.
JEDDAH: Saudi shares retreated on Monday as retail investors opted to lock in recent gains.
RIYADH: SR300 billion is be allocated by Saudi banks to finance mini-projects as part of efforts to promote the Kingdom’s small and medium enterprises. This was stated by Nabeel bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak, general manager of small and medium enterprises in the Saudi Credit Bureau (Simah), at a seminar in Riyadh.
RIYADH: The Saudi Small and Middle Enterprises (SMEs) forum will be launched Tuesday with a presence of more than 500 economists and trade experts.
JEDDAH: Etihad Etisalat’s (Mobily’s) revenues achieved a major milestone in 2011. The 59 percent data sales growth propelled total revenues to over SR20 billion (25 percent Y/Y). The quality of revenue stream also improved as post-paid sales comprised 28 percent of the total, Riyad Capital said in its equity research report.
DUBAI: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) launched two main 400/132KV substations at Al-Aweer and Meydan at a total cost of AED883 million recently.
LONDON/ROME: Gas supplies to the frozen European Union from Russia improved at the weekend but have not fully recovered, the European Commission said on Monday, as Italy convened a crisis committee to handle what it called critical shortages of Russian gas.
KUWAIT CITY: Syria's central bank will intervene to prop up its currency — which has plunged under the mounting pressure of sanctions and violence — and has the reserves to back that strategy, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA cited Gov. Adib Mayaleh as saying on Monday.
TOKYO: Japanese companies are again venturing offshore, and this time a new breed of business is striking deals overseas.
ISTANBUL: Growth in Turkish bank loans slowed to less than 27 percent year-on-year at the end of January, adding to signs of an economic slowdown after a year of unorthodox monetary policy by the central bank aimed at preventing overheating.
SAO PAULO: Soldiers clashed with supporters of striking police in Brazil’s third-largest city on Monday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the feet of people trying to join officers occupying the Bahia state legislature building.
WASHINGTON: Congress went beyond its powers by requiring Americans to buy insurance under President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care overhaul, opponents told the US Supreme Court on Monday in arguing the law’s centerpiece provision should be struck down.
ATHENS, Greece: Greece’s coalition government caved in to demands to cut civil service jobs, announcing 15,000 positions would go this year, amid mounting international pressure to agree on austerity measures needed to secure major new debt agreements.
ROME: Catholic clergy must report paedophile priests to police, a top Vatican official told the Holy See’s first conference on the sex abuse crisis on Monday, but victims’ groups demanded the Vatican face up to its past and publish its files on abuse.
SAN DIEGO: A federal judge for the first time in US history heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine whether animals enjoy the same constitutional protection against slavery as human beings.
RIYADH: The Prince Salman Chair for Historical and Civilization Studies of Arabian Peninsula has set up an annual research award called “Prince Salman Award for Students of Higher Education in Historical and Civilization Studies of Arabian Peninsula.”
MAKKAH: The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah will implement a number of projects valued at over SR2 billion at the two holy mosques during the current financial year.
Stephen Harper views the Muslim world through Israeli prism
RIYADH: Many countries have benefited from fighting extremism and terrorism, and several of these countries claim to have arrested terrorist cells. Interestingly, some governments were instrumental in certain explosions to create the impression among people that were it not for their government’s intolerance of foreign immigrations, people’s lives would have been less safe.
JAZAN: Jazan Gov. Prince Mohammad bin Naser said Monday a project involving new dental clinics at Jazan University is one of the unique projects in the Middle East.
RIYADH: Allianz Saudi Fransi Cooperative Insurance Company’s customer base in Saudi Arabia expanded by more than 141 percent in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, according to a top executive.
JEDDAH: Siemens has received another major order for Saudi Arabia’s combined cycle power plant .
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's efforts to usher in the next stage of industrial development is set to receive a major boost as the 2nd edition of Machinex Arabia, the region's premier industrial exhibition, kicks off in Jeddah later this month.
RIYADH: The Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has announced the SR43.8 million expansion of Kingdom Center Company Ltd. (Trade Center).
MAKKAH/JEDDAH: Saudi gold traders in Makkah and Jeddah complaining about low demand for gold and difficulties they face are looking for ways to boost the market. The traders also object to the inequality between Saudi traders and foreign investors in the gold market.
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed at a meeting in Qatar on Monday to form a unified Palestinian government for the West Bank and Gaza headed by Palestinian President and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Palestinian official said.
