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

JEDDAH: Residents of Jeddah witnessed heavy rains in the city on Tuesday with many coming out on to the streets to watch the rare downpour. Inclement weather hit many parts of western Saudi Arabia early Tuesday as the Ministry of Education ordered a one day school closure in the Red Sea city and su

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia, a major economic power in the Group of 20, is a positive contributor to global growth and plays an important balancing act. The Group of Twenty (also known as the G-20) is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies. The membe

JEDDAH: Some government bodies have recommended the formation of a committee to monitors cooking gas outlets in Jeddah for environmental violations. Sources said the committee will be made up of the police, the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment and the Civil Defense. The sources said sub-m

People will be soon able to submit their applications online at the Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department's website, Brigadier Hussain Ibrahim Ahmed, Assistant to the Director General of the Corporate Support Sector, DNRD, said, noting the paper applications shall remain optional for ind

JEDDAH: The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has provided power to more than 10,000 houses here without title deeds in line with royal orders. Sources at the SEC quoted by a local publication said there are plans to provide a further 60,000 such homes in the city with electricity, according to a rep

JEDDAH: The Passport Department launched two additional services on its online Abshir system on Thursday, for multiple entry and exit visas, and single exit and re-entry visas. The department wants to provide a full online service so that people need not visit its offices in person, said Col. Khale

RIYADH: The Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) celebrated on Monday morning the arrival of the giant machine called “Jazlah” which is used for digging tunnels for the Riyadh Metro project “We celebrate today the arrival of the drilling machine Jazlah at one of the train stations in Riyadh in the

JEDDAH: A team from the Civil Defense in Makkah rescued a three-year-old girl from a water tank in Al-Faisaliyah district on Tuesday. Col. Said Sarhan, spokesman of the body, said the child was taken by the Red Crescent to a local hospital. An investigation is under way but no foul play is suspecte

JEDDAH: In a bizarre incident, a team of doctors in Madinah recently spent four hours surgically removing 14 lighters from the stomach of a prisoner who had swallowed them to avoid jail. The prisoner had apparently thought he would be able to spend his sentence in a hospital if he did so, according

RIYADH: A Saudi doctor has successfully performed a complex open-heart surgery live on air, while it was being broadcast live from the Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The surgery was performed on a 60-year-old patient whose case was brought to the attention of medical ex

JEDDAH: The General Directorate of Passports revealed on Saturday that nearly 10,000 people have corrected their postal addresses to benefit from the Wasel program. Under the new system, the Passport Department will deliver Muqeem and other IDs through the Saudi Post. The new system, launched on Mu

JEDDAH/RIYADH: The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) is preparing a lawsuit against two newspapers whose reports accused the body of using obscene photographs to lure suspected criminals online. According to a report in a newspaper, the Bureau of Investigation

RIYADH: On Tuesday, the High Commission for Riyadh Development (HCRD) cleared projects worth an estimated SR21 billion, which are expected to create over 8,000 jobs. At its first meeting this year, which was presided over by Riyadh Gov. Prince Faisal bin Bandar, the commission gave the green ligh