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Iran promoting terrorism, taking over Iraq: KSA

Iran’s belligerent policies, which are hampering all plans for restoring peace and security in the Middle East, came under fire during talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and the foreign ministers of the GCC states on Thursday.Kerry also called on Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and discussed key regional issues, including the Iranian nuclear negotiations.Kerry’s talks with King Salman mainly focused on bilateral and regional issues, including an emerging nuclear deal with Iran, Syria and Iran’s role in Iraq.On the Iranian nuclear negotiations, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal categorically stated that Kerry had given full assurances that the US would continue to monitor Iran’s “destabilizing” actions and behavior.Referring to the Iranian nuclear negotiations, Prince Saud said that the Kingdom extended support to the negotiations between Iran and P+5 bloc o...

200,000 illegals deported in 120 days

More than 200,000 foreigners have been deported over the first four months of 1436 AH, which started...

Royal amnesty for Qat-smuggling convicts

Royal amnesty for Qat-smuggling convictsAll prisoners arrested in Jazan for smuggling qat, a kind of...

7 killed as Egypt train crashes into school bus

Cairo: A train crashed into a school bus east of the Egyptian capital on Friday, killing at least seven people including children, police and health officials said.The collision occurred at an unauthorized railway crossing on the Cairo-Ismailiya desert road, police said, adding that the bus had failed to stop at the crossing and was hit by the moving train.Health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told AFP that 26 pe...

Expats have right to keep their passports

The Labor Ministry has reiterated that it is the right of foreign workers to keep their passports and official documents.“Anybody violating this rule will face serious penalties,” said Taysir Al-Mofraj, the ministry’s spokesman.According to him, holding on to employees’ passports does not guarantee that the worker will not escape, as there are many cases in which runaway workers can register again with embassies without o...

SAUDI ARABIA »

Housing in Makkah ‘too expensive for families’

The SR500,000 home loan provided by the government for citizens is not enough to pay for a three-bedroom apartment with a living room in Makkah, developers and real estate experts said recently.The average family would need to take out an extra SR150,000 to SR200,000 just to buy an apartment built o...

Saudi women married to foreigners urge govt to solve their problems

Ali is sure that he will pack his bags to leave the Kingdom at the end of this year and head to the United States or a European country to enroll in the King Abdullah Scholarship Program, where the Ministry of Education will take care of his expenses for the whole period of his studies. His cousin Basem is packing too, but...

Terrorism prisoners get ‘top treatment’

Citizens held at Dhahban prison for terrorism offenses have access to top class services including gyms, swimming pools, food prepared by chefs, doctors and special laundry services, a local publication reported recently.The inmates’ laundry is cleaned every day using special sterilization processes, the supervisor of the s...

SFDA warns against counterfeit weightloss products

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has warned against a product named Paiyoujui natural slimming capsules, which is used for dieting and sold on social media websites. The product manufacturers claim that it is a natural product for losing weight, but it contains a harmful drug, said the regulatory agency.In an adviso...

Pakistani PM lauds KSA for support

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in the Kingdom at the special invitation of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, performed Umrah on Thursday, and thanked the Saudi leadership for their support over the years.Diplomatic aides accompanying the prime minister described Sharif’s meeting with King Salman...

Ministry shuts down 2 warehouses for fraud

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry shut down two warehouse in Riyadh for illegally storing flour belonging to the General Organization for Grain Silos and Flour Mills allocated for bakeries. Inspection teams from the ministry found 7,000 bags of flour, labelled as ‘“Patent Flour,” which was kept for sale to the local mar...

Jeddah launches massive recycling initiative

Jeddah Municipality has launched a massive recycling initiative that would see it transform waste into organic fuel, fertilizer and other raw materials.“For this purpose 6,000 tons of construction waste has been collected. With the help of special incinerators the paper waste will be burned at 1,200 degrees Celsius,” said S...

BMC pens cooperation deal with Canadian university

A delegation from the University of Manitoba in Canada recently visited the Kingdom to study a joint cooperation agreement with the Batterjee Medical College (BMC). The Canadian representatives were led by Dr. Emily Atfery, dean of the university’s faculty of medicine, and met with Dr. Khaled Batterjee, vice chairman of the...

Commercial building rents to be regulated

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is welcoming opinion of experts on regulating rent contracts for commercial real estate property and find solutions for rising real estate rents.Those interested can express their opinion by logging into the ministry’s website mci.gov.sa/lease. But the opinions should reach the ministry...

Best safety standards in schools ordered

Education Minister Dr. Azzam Al-Dakhil has directed all educational officials in different parts of the Kingdom to be vigilant in applying the best safety standards in schools. The minister also ordered safety and security departments in all regions to carry out field inspections within school playgrounds and related facili...

Attempt to smuggle 201 kg of hashish foiled

Border Guards foiled separate attempts to smuggle hashish and weapons into the Kingdom, orchestrated by infiltrators from Yemen at a hilly border village in Jazan.Maj. Hassan Al-Gosaibi, spokesman of the Saudi Border Guards, said security teams observed several persons attempting to infiltrate the country on foot, carrying...

Court halts lawsuits against SR400m dubious investor

The Riyadh General Court halted lawsuits filed by citizens against an investor accused of looting SR400 million he collected from more than 6,000 citizens and Gulf nationals.Sources close to the investigation told a local publication that according to a letter issued by the court last week, the judicial body asked the plain...

MoE stops electronic upgrading of scholarships

The Ministry of Education (MoE) recently stopped upgrading scholarships on its electronic portal, sparking fears among Saudis enrolled in the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program.The previous system allowed undergraduate students to continue their studies for Masters and Ph.Ds., a local publication reported...

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MIDDLE EAST »

Islamic State militants torch oil field near Tikrit

BAGHDAD: Islamic State militants have set fire to oil wells northeast of the cit...

Facebook rant lands US contractor in UAE jail

DUBAI: A hallmark of American life — griping about work — has landed a Florida m...

4,000 Filipinos still in Libya despite growing danger

MANILA: Around 4,000 Filipinos remain in Libya despite the North African country...

4,000 Filipinos still in Libya despite growing danger: govt

Manila: Around 4,000 Filipinos remain in Libya despite the North African country...

‘Gangster’ Israel irks Palestine

RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of “gangsterism” on...

WORLD »

2 German vandals to be caned in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Thursday sentenced two German men to three strokes of a...

Legal mess for doctor who helped CIA

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani doctor jailed after helping the CIA in the hunt for Osama...

India threatens action against BBC for airing rapist interview

NEW DELHI: India’s home minister said Thursday that the government would act aga...

US ambassador recovers from knife attack hailed by N. Korea

SEOUL: The US ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, was recovering fro...

Singapore sentences 2 Germans to caning for vandalism

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Thursday sentenced two German men to three strokes of th...

SPORTS »

India survives Windies scare to book quarterfinal spot

PERTH: Defending champions India survived a scare to beat the West Indies by fou...

Super Salah leads Fiorentina to end Juve’s unbeaten run at home

MILAN: Mohamed Salah struck twice as Fiorentina ended Juventus’ 42-game unbeaten...

GBEST-IT emerges champion in IDB Inter Entity cricket tourney

JEDDAH: Favorites GBEST–IT emerged champions in the Islamic Development Bank Int...

Peeran Warriors to clash with Old Students for title

JEDDAH: Old Students-XI scored a hard-earned four-wicket win over ICAD, while Pe...

PISR-Nasriya, IISR supreme in Inter-School cricket

RIYADH: Pakistan International School Riyadh-Nasriya (under-19) and Internationa...

ECONOMY »

Gold rises after ECB inflation forecasts, US data eyed

LONDON: Gold rose on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) lifted its 2016 inflation forecast and as the market awaited key US economic data.The ECB held interes...

China lowers growth target, promises to open industries

BEIJING: China set a lower economic growth target for this year and promised to open more industries to foreign investors as it tries to make its slowing, state-dominated economy more productive.The growth target of about 7 percent, down from last year’s 7.5 percent, is in line with efforts to create a “moderately prosperou...

Hackers threaten phone in your pocket, experts warn

BARCELONA: The boom in smartphones among often careless users has made happy hunting for hackers, whose virus attacks and hijacking of unprotected mobiles are multiplying, experts warn.Security analysts and companies at the Mobile World Congress, a top wireless telecom fair in Barcelona, Spain, said phone makers and users m...

Dubai hotel income soars 9.8% in best return since crisis

DUBAI: Dubai’s hotels posted a 9.8 percent rise in revenues to $6.5 billion in 2014, the tourism authority said Tuesday, in the sector’s best annual result since the 2009 financial crisis.The Department of Tourism and Commerce and Marketing said in a statement that more than 11.6 million guests stayed in Dubai hotels and ho...

Emirates eyes 50 to 70 long-haul jets

BERLIN: Emirates Airlines is considering the purchase of up to 70 twin-engine Airbus A350s or Boeing 787s, the company president said in Berlin, which would bolster the carrier’s long-haul fleet.Tim Clark remained vague on the number and maker of twin-engine wide-body planes, but said the acquisition was part of Emirates’s...

Brent oil hovers under $61, WTI falls

LONDON: Brent crude futures pared early gains on Thursday to hover just under $61 as the euro slipped to an 11-year low against the dollar, offsetting concerns about tensions in Iraq and Libya.The euro fell against the dollar, making commodities priced in greenback more expensive for holders of other currencies, after Europ...

Lessons for US oil production from the gas industry

NEW YORK: The US produced a record 25.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2014, according to preliminary estimates published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Feb 27.Gas production has risen 27 percent since 2008 even though the number of rigs employed drilling for gas has declined by more than 80 percen...

Watches, robots suitcases: Mobile gadget highlights

BARCELONA: Tech companies showcased countless connected gadgets at the world’s biggest wireless telecom fair, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here is a selection of highlights:CURVY SMARTPHONESThe world’s biggest phone-maker, South Korean firm Samsung, stole the show for handsets, moving to compete against Apple’s i...

Build-your-own Google handset reconstructs smartphone

BARCELONA: With a smartphone that slots together piece by piece like Lego, US Internet giant Google is trying to reinvent the mobile as most phone makers are honing sleeker handsets.The company aims to challenge its rival Apple’s thin iPhones with the Google Ara project, giving smartphone aficionados the option to build the...

SEOUL: A consumer survey showed the popularity of the iPhone 6 has driven Apple’s market share in China to its highest ever while Samsung has continued to lose ground.Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said its latest survey of 15,000 people living in Chinese cities showed Apple’s market share reached 25.4 percent in the November-Ja...

Auto giants welcome Silicon Valley players but battles loom

GENEVA: It could be the battle of the titans. Auto giants at the Geneva Motor Show say they welcome the potential move of Silicon Valley players into their sector but experts warn of major disruptions.Google has long made headlines with its plans for a self-driving car, but Apple is now also reportedly readying for a plunge...

ICD and Afreximbank agree to cooperate in private sector development

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), has signed an agreement with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to cooperate in the development of the private sector in ICD member countries in Africa.Under the terms of the...

Ambani loses India rich list top spot to pharmaceutical tycoon

MUMBAI: A fall in oil prices saw Mukesh Ambani cede his status as “India’s richest man” on Thursday to pharmaceutical tycoon Dilip Shanghvi, who edged to the top of Forbes’ list of billionaires in the country.The “real time” list of the richest Indians on the business magazine’s website showed Shanghvi with a net worth of $...

OPINION »

Nadeem Mumtaz Qureshi

Taking on the brainwashed

People who are ready to take their own lives are very difficult to stop. This le...

Jamie Metzl

Japan’s military normalization

SOON after the Islamic State’s brutal murder in January of the Japanese hostages...

Aijaz Zaka Syed

Rahul’s sabbatical and Delhi lessons

Shivam Vij of Scroll has got a cute solution to the existential crisis facing th...

Mario Alberto Conteras

Mexico angry at US police shootings

The family of Ruben Garcia Villalpando, one of three Mexicans killed by US polic...

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ART & CULTURE »

3-D art fest kicks off in Dubai

DUBAI: The Middle East’s first three-dimensional pavement art festival, starring works by international artists that appear to rise from the ground, kicked off this week in Dubai, its organizers said.
The Dubai Canvas Festival features 3-D artworks in chalk or paint, many of them depicting eye-catching images of the Emirati city.
Kurt...

Ba9ma Banat: Reviving the Prop...

Dubai gets its first taste of...

Saudi steals show with his art...

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY »

Fossil jaw sheds more light on early hum...

NEW YORK: A fragment of jawbone found in Ethiopia is the oldest known fossil from an evolutionary tree branch that eventually led to modern humans, scientist reported Wednesday.
The fossil comes from very close to the time that the early human branch split away from more ape-like ancestors best known for the fossil skeleton Lucy. So it giv...

Dawn on Ceres: Nasa probe to v...

Solar plane passes new test ah...

Dress color debate: So, it is...

FASHION »

Wedding designers impress with innovativ...

Wedding is one of the most important events in a person’s life. It is the time when the air is filled with nothing but happiness and love. For the woman, the wedding day is usually a dream to make every single detail perfect for that one day or one night that would change her married life forever.
There are several wedding designers who al...

Warm up your feet in ‘The Moji...

All you need to know about hai...

Femininity gets a rethink duri...

TRAVEL »

Malaysia Muslim travelers’ top choice

SINGAPORE: Malaysia is the most preferred global destination in the fast-growing Muslim travel market, despite two catastrophic air disasters that hit the country’s flag-carrier in 2014, a survey showed Wednesday.
Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Indonesia followed Malaysia in the ranking of choice holiday destinations for Muslim tr...

Wonders of Arizona’s Red Rock...

Edinburgh: A city of history a...

Johannesburg: Heart of S. Afri...

FOOD & HEALTH »

Bridal beauty: How to work out a fitness plan

Planning a wedding can be a hectic time in every bride’s life. The mind is consumed with roses, tulips or peonies, the perfect shade of white, sequins or lace, short or long veil, pearls or diamonds, a day or night wedding, the guest list… the lists are endless. It’s a time consuming task until the day arrives and everything is perfect. Brides tend to lose themselves in the process and forget to take care of their mental and physical health as well, ironic actually since the most important people of the wedding are both bride and groom. A bride must find the serenity and balance in order for everything to go smoothly; exercise is always a great medication.We’ve all heard of these intense...

WHO declares war on hidden sugars in fight against obesity

Geneva: The World Health Organization on Wednesday urged a dramatic drop in the consumption of sugar, “hidden” in everything from sodas and ketchup, as it steps up the fight against obesity.The UN health agency had previously issued guidelines that sugars should make up less than 10 percent of a person’s total daily energy intake, but in a new twist urged countries to strive for half that.Setting the bar at five percent would mean people should consume no more than 25 grams, or the equivalent of six teaspoons of sugar a day — less than the 10 teaspoons in your average can of soda.Health-hazardous free sugars, in the form of table sugar, fructose or glucose for instance, are added to foods...

A taste of Lebanon in every bite

When I first heard that Em Sherif has franchised to Dubai, I couldn’t stop myself from booking a table there. The Lebanese restaurant will also open its doors in Jeddah soon. Located in the outdoor area of the Address Downtown hotel in Dubai and overviewing the Dubai Mall’s famous dancing fountain, the restaurant offers both indoor and outdoor seating for 300 diners at once. The outdoor seating area comprises white steel chairs and marble tables with romantic candlelight set up. Shisha is also served here. The inside decor features a Mediterranean touch, with silver blue walls, beautiful coral chandeliers and black wooden tables with velvet armchairs and black wooden chairs with blue...

OFFBEAT »

Harrison Ford survives brush with danger in crash landing

LOS ANGELES: When a man battles Darth Vader, Nazis and other evil-doers for work, what does he do for fun? Harrison Ford...

World Press Photo award withdrawn over ‘violation’

BRUSSELS: Organizers of the prestigious World Press Photo awards have revoked a major prize after receiving “misleading information” regarding the entry, which portrayed gritty industrial Belgian town Charleroi.World Press Photo said in a statement that the Contemporary Issue World Press Award 2015 granted to Giovanni Troilo for his photographic series “The Dark Heart of Europe” had been withdrawn.“The story was not in compliance with the entry rules and therefore the award must be revoked,” the statement said, explaining they had discovered that one of shots had actually been taken in...

‘Duang!’ Chinese poke fun at Chan with nonsense word

BEIJING: Jackie Chan might still be popular in China, but nowadays the pro-Beijing actor is as well-known as fodder for jokes as he is for his gritty martial arts and slapstick humor on screen. His latest contribution to the country’s mass culture and entertainment: “duang.”It’s not a word, but a sound he made in an old TV commercial meaning something like “ta-da!” A new mash-up video of the old ad has made “duang” a trending topic on China’s social media.The sound began circulating days before the rubberstamp legislature was called into session this week, and some observers see it as a way...