"The Middle East's leading newspaper, which can be identified anywhere in the world by its green cover, has become my fodder for updating myself with Saudi, regional and world news with my morning tea every day.

"In fact, I have become an addict of Arab News as much as of the cup that cheers," says Mohammed Luqman Al-Luqman, nicknamed Sheikh Luqman in community circles.

"I have been a regular reader of Arab News from the day the newspaper hit the stands on April 20, 1975," says 82-year-old Luqman, who came here from Pakistan more than 50 years ago.

"My first visit was for performing Haj in the late 1950s and then started visiting the Kingdom on a regular basis until I became a Jeddah resident. My hunger for news drew me to Arab News when it was first published on April 20, 1975. Since then, Arab News became the Kingdom and region's only newspaper that interested me for a variety of reasons," he told Arab News in an interview.

Aside from M. Kahil's editorial page cartoons that he enjoyed every morning, he found Adil Salahi's weekly commentary on Islam and answers to readers' questions interesting, informative and educative. "Kahil was outstanding as a cartoonist, as his drawings were self-explanatory. Salahi was equally outstanding as he was an authority on Islam and a walking encyclopedia. His writings became a textbook-like material for all Muslims and non-Muslims alike," he said. "I used to buy an extra copy on the days the pages on Islam appeared and compiled them."

The other factors that made his Arab News addiction strong have been its editorials that are "balanced, free, fearless and frank," and the letters to the editor. "I've all through enjoyed the opinions expressed by some of the newspaper's regular letter writers like Francis Andrew, Zafar Raja, P.B.V. Rajan and Ehsanul Haque," says Luqman. "I like the paper's dedicated pages for news from the Subcontinent. There is balanced coverage of the developments in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan."

"I like the way social issues are openly reported and discussed in Arab News. Some of its columnists like Tariq A. Al-Maeena, Samar Fatany and M.J. Akbar provide food for thought. The paper has served the cause of the poor who looked up to it whenever they needed help and they got them. 'Law and You,' a column by Muhammad Jaber Nader published every Saturday has provided information and guidance to those seeking legal remedy," he added.

Being a cricket buff, he turns to the newspaper's sports pages first thing in the morning. "The popularity of cricket in Saudi Arabia is mainly due to Arab News' extensive coverage of the game," says Luqman who has seen all the cricket World Cups since they began more than three decades ago.

"All these (the World Cup winners) are on my fingertips, because I love the game, especially its one-day format," he says. "The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup will be the 10th edition and hosted by three South Asian Test cricket playing countries - India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - and I will certainly not miss it," he says.

In the past, before the dawn of the Internet, Luqman had a knack of getting his newspapers wherever he traveled abroad. He had developed contacts with diplomats and airline crews who would oblige him with Arab News and his other favorite newspapers from different countries. "Although Arab News is regularly delivered at my residence every morning, I manage to read the newspaper at my overseas locations, thanks to my flying friends."

"Arab News also became a collector's item for me. After reading the paper, it would go into my library. I collected 18,000 copies over the years, compiled and bound monthwise and yearwise, but they were all destroyed when my apartment on Sahafa Street in Mushrifa district was engulfed in a fire last Ramadan."

He has also told his family of three sons and a daughter to continue collecting the paper and make the Arab News collection 25,000 copies strong in 68 years, by 2042, and seek entry into the Guinness Book of Records.

"These are the days of the Internet, but I prefer to read Arab News with my cup of tea rather than reading its online edition. It's not the same. Reading the print edition gives me utmost satisfaction, because I am used to it over the years," he summed up.