The use of radars has led to a reduction in the number of traffic accidents compared to previous years. Around 52,000 traffic violations were caught on radars, including the newly-installed Al Burj radars, in the past 11 months from across the emirate. According to the General Department

JEDDAH: Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar has said that 250,000 Umrah visas have been issued since the season began a month ago. He said that last year a total of 6 million visas were issued. The number was made possible due to the sheer speed of issuing visas which resulted from single visa’s taking only

TAIF: The Ministry of Education has said that it will not oblige schools to install close circuit cameras at their entrances and exits to monitor suspicious movements that may pose danger to pupils. The ministry also denied receiving such instructions from the Ministry of Interior. Spokesman for t

JEDDAH: There were 35,500 foreign nationals without work in the Kingdom at the end of June 2015, making up 5.2 percent of all unemployed individuals in the Kingdom. There were a total of 682,300 Saudis and expatriates without jobs at the end of the same period. The number of unemployed expats incre

The 44th UAE National Day in Abu Dhabi was a people's celebration. Although the festivities started with a traditional dhow race at the Abu Dhabi Corniche with not much crowd in the morning, the streets and parks of the Capital were inundated with people and cars - one more creatively decorated

JEDDAH: The Ministry of Education has issued an alert warning school principals that they must intensify safety measures to prevent children from being kidnapped. This comes in the wake of the kidnapping of two-year-old Juri Al-Khalidi from inside a clinic in Riyadh last week. The child was found

RIYADH: Experts at the International Fair for Cooling and Energy held in Riyadh on Tuesday said that the Saudi consumption of electricity is three times that of the international average. Given that households are responsible for 65 percent of national consumption, the experts noted that this pla

RIYADH: The police found kidnapped two-year-old Juri Al-Khalidi in Ishbiliyah district in Riyadh on Tuesday. This comes after police teams had launched raids in several parts of the city in their search for her. The child was kidnapped by a citizen, who then took her to a housemaid in an apartment,

JEDDAH: The General Directorate of Passports is continuing its efforts to fight fraud and attempts to circumvent visa regulations, said director Suleiman Al-Yahya. “We are implementing the directives of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, deputy premier and interior minister, to overcome all difficulti

Emirati martyr Yousof Salem Ali Al Kaabi's last wish before leaving for Yemen was to build a mosque in his hometown of Madhab in Fujairah. He instructed his family to sell his car and use the money to build the mosque, his sister, Aidah Salem, has said. "My brother was a very compassionate person

JEDDAH: Around 250,000 Umrah pilgrims have booked hotel rooms in Makkah and Madinah through the new “Sijjil” electronic system, Abdullah Qadi, deputy president of the National Committee for Haj and Umrah, has said. Reserving hotel accommodation through the system, introduced by the Ministry of Haj,

JEDDAH: Violators of traffic regulations will soon have their licenses withdrawn and be sent back to driving school, according to the Traffic Department. Brig. Gen. Ali Al-Rashidi, the department’s spokesman, said the new regulations would come into force after procedures are completed with the Nat

JEDDAH: The General Directorate of Passports has announced that fingerprints are mandatory for Saudis to acquire or renew passports and national identity cards, a local publication reported Wednesday. The rule will apply to both male and female nationals aged 15 years and above, a spokesperson of t

DOHA: Qatar was hit by heavy flooding on Wednesday causing gridlock on the desert country’s roads as well as closures of schools and offices. Overnight rain made many roads near impassable for commuters amid reports on social media that even Doha’s Hamad International Airport was affected, due to l

JEDDAH: The first group of Umrah pilgrims has arrived from Malaysia through Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz Airport in Madinah, Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar said, adding that top priority is given to security of pilgrims. The embassies of Saudi Arabia do not charge any fee for issuance of Haj and Umrah

ABHA: Empty gas cylinders are being sold fraudulently at a number of shops, creating an uproar among consumers in the governorates of Khamis Mushayet and Rafida. Citizens have called for the immediate intervention of the Ministry of Commerce through its branch in the area to stop this. They complai

JEDDAH/ABHA: A whopping 92 percent of Saudis reject the Daesh terrorist group according to new research conducted by an American think tank. The study was conducted by the Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum, an online blog in Arabic and English focusing on Middle East issues. One thousand people, h

Saudi Arabia says two police officers have been shot and killed in the country’s east. The state-run Saudi Press Agency says the shooting happened around 1 am on Wednesday in the eastern region of Al Qatif. The report, quoting an unnamed Interior Ministry spokesman, says the of