Women in Saudi Arabia have for the first time been able to register as candidates for the country's municipal elections in December. In 2011, the same year as the most recent polls, the late King Abdullah granted women in the kingdom the right to vote and run as candidates, saying: "We refuse to

RIYADH: A total of 43 warehouses were shut down in Jeddah for failing to take safety and health measures. Officials of the general department of Civil Defense in Jeddah carried out inspection at 165 industrial complexes in the industrial zone recently. The field campaign led by the director in cha

ALKHOBAR/JEDDAH: A fire at the Saudi Aramco residential complex in Alkhobar early Sunday killed at least eleven people and injured more than 200, civil defense officials said. Some of the injured were in “critical condition” and confined at nearby hospitals, the Civil Defense Department said. It

JEDDAH: A group of economic experts has warned that the Kingdom stands to lose SR795 million per day by using oil to generate electricity and for water desalination, and called for tapping renewable and alternative energy resources. According to statistics, the Kingdom’s current oil consumption s

Al Jazeera has described the verdict of an Egyptian court a deliberate attack on press freedom after it sentenced three of its journalists to three years in prison. Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Canadian Mohamed Fahmy are heading back to jail after a retrial found them guilty of broadcasting false n

JEDDAH: A total of 94,390 people, most of them Saudis, aged 15 to 59, are jobless because of their unwillingness to work, according to an online newspaper quoting the Central Department of Statistics and Information. Among them, 65.2 percent are Saudis and 72.7 percent women. The CDSI report, wh

The White House confirmed on Thursday that U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz in Washington on Sept. 4. "The president and the king will discuss a range of issues and focus on ways to further strengthen the bilateral relationship, including counter

JEDDAH: Officials from the Saudi Ministry of Haj have been holding meetings with their counterparts from Arab and South Asian nations in preparation for this year’s pilgrimage. Abdulrahman bin Ali Al-Nafei, assistant deputy minister of Haj and in charge of the ministry’s Makkah branch, had a meetin

RIYADH: Senior Indian police and intelligence officials interrogated two Saudis after they were detained following their suspicious movement in Trichy, a southern city in India’s Tamil Nadu state. Officials detained the duo — Rasheed and Abdul Rahman — after they received reports saying that one of

RIYADH: With the opening of the academic year, Riyadh Traffic Department has urged 4.8 million motorists in the capital to respect traffic rules and regulations while taking all measures to regulate traffic flow. They also called on motorists to comply with instructions which will contribute to t

RIYADH: The Ministry of Health has taken all necessary measures to control the rising incidence of MERS in Riyadh and a 24X7 epidemiological surveillance system is in place in Makkah and Madinah. This information was given to reporters here on Sunday by Deputy Health Minister Abdulaziz bin Saee

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates said Sunday that its military freed a British hostage who was kidnapped 18 months ago by Al-Qaeda in Yemen, which has expanded its reach amid fighting between Shiite rebels and their opponents. A statement carried by the UAE’s official WAM new

RIYADH: Indonesia’s first Haj group of about 3,500 pilgrims arrived in Madinah on Friday. Tuan Sunarko, charge d’affaires at the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, accompanied by senior officials from the consulate in Jeddah, welcomed the pilgrims, who arrived at Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz Internat

Saudi officials have confirmed the death of two pilots in a crash of Apache helicopter in Jizan province bordering Yemen, refusing to announce the cause of the incident. Meanwhile Houthi forces fighting the Saudi-led coalition claimed responsibility for the downing. The two Saudi pilots were ki

TANGIER — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman received at his residence in Tangier, Morocco, on Thursday Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashed Al-Maktoum, vice president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Muhammad Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deput

JEDDAH: Members of the public in the Eastern Province have launched a campaign to boycott fish in response to price hikes. The campaign, ‘Let it rot,’ was launched on social networking sites, a local publication reported. Users said that the campaign started on Tuesday and would last for four days.

Women in Saudi Arabia have begun registering to vote in municipal elections, the first time they are able to take part in the electoral process in the kingdom. Women will also be able to stand as candidates in the polls, slated for December. The ongoing voter registration and the planned vote

A case of official corruption involving SR22 million, allegedly committed by the chairman of a committee in Jazan, has been unearthed. The committee was tasked with finding reasons for the delay in salaries of workers whose company had contracts with the Directorate General of Health Affairs in the