MADINAH: Madinah Mayor Khaled Taher said that the municipality’s preparations for this year's Haj have been completed as scheduled. The municipality’s action plan aims at offering pilgrims and visitors optimum services which will last until Nov. 8. The round-the-clock services include cleaning th

JEDDAH: Security forces have arrested more than 15,000 foreign workers during the past few months for allegedly violating the Kingdom’s residency and labor regulations, said Lt. Col. Aati bin Attiyah Al-Qurashi, spokesman for Makkah police. He said the arrested individuals included beggars and st

Dubai: Dubai Police arrested 6,840 people between January and August this year who were wanted locally and had a total of 8,700 arrest warrants issued against them. Most of the wanted people were incriminated in money-related crimes, such as bounced cheques and breach of trust cases, and some w

In a bid to prevent workers’ rights violations in the Kingdom, the Ministry of Labor has launched an exclusive Web portal to educate workers about their rights and how to avail them. The Web portal www.laboreducation.gov.sa launched on Tuesday aims to boost awareness about workers’ rights and the

The first project includes improvement on parallel streets of Godolphin and Zaabeel neighbourhoods and the second is Al Ittihad Bridge which will replace the present Floating Bridge. The Floating Bridge will be shifted to Sheraton crossing connecting Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Street in Bur Dubai and

JEDDAH: Saudi contractors have lost 40 percent of projects because of a lack of experienced foreign manpower in the past two years, said Fahd Al-Hammadi, chairman of the contractors committee at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Sunday. “Saudis contractors have suffered a lot due to

JEDDAH: Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar said his ministry will reduce occupancy rates of camps at the holy sites from 85 percent to 75 percent with the aim to reduce the cost of the annual pilgrimage. Hajar revealed that the ministry is considering the re-evaluation of Haj companies and allowing them to

JEDDAH: A total of 200,118 private sector companies in the Red Zone of the country's Nitaqat program, out of 1.8 million in 2013, have closed down, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Labor recently. According to the ministry, 58.6 percent of these firms are classified as micro an

RIYADH: The Riyadh police department has urged local Haj pilgrims to deal only with registered companies to avoid losing their money to bogus operators. The government has said it would severely punish agents operating without Haj licenses. “Such agents, if caught, will be subject to the maximum pu

Dubai: More than 2,100 cars were seized by Dubai Municipality till the end of August this year. They were taken after warnings to move or clean them were ignored by car owners. In the same period, the municipality issued more than 17,400 notices to offending cars. It marks a r

A total of 1,400 Muslim leaders from more than 70 countries will perform Haj this year as guests of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, said Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh Al-Asheikh on Tuesday. “King Abdullah has instructed us to make arrangements for hosting 1,400 pilgrims from dif

The Ministry of Labor (MOL) recently posted an advisory on its official social network account stating that a newly recruited foreign worker can look for another sponsor without permission if his company fails to issue a work permit as a result of being in the Red or Yellow zone category. If a comp

Volunteers hold banners warning people against performing Haj without a permit. (Photo by Arab News) JEDDAH: Saudi authorities have developed a new electronic system to track down people with fake Haj permits during the upcoming pilgrimage, a source at the Interior Ministry said on Monday. “Se

Madinah: Large convoys of pilgrims have started converging in Madinah for their journey to Makkah for the Haj 2014. Among them are two Indian pilgrims, Rayeesuddin Ansari and Liyaquat Ali. They came to Madinah from Lucknow, India. “This is my first Haj,” said Ansari. “I am very happy to be in Ma

Jeddah: Indian expatriates from the state of Tamil Nadu launched a blood donation campaign for Haj pilgrims recently. Jamal Gafoor of the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ), Jeddah region, said that over 250 expatriates showed up at the King Fahd Hospital in the city recently to donate blood meant t

Dubai: Just like previous years, Dubai’s population has consistently grown by five per cent over the past year. However, what might come as a surprise to many people is that a little over three-quarters of Dubai’s population is male. Statistics collected by the Dubai Statistic Centre s

Dubai: One in three motorists in the UAE admit to being distracted while driving, a survey released on Tuesday revealed. Thirty-four per cent of 1,007 drivers surveyed in June said their concentration levels dip while driving due to various distractions on the road and inside vehicles, accordin

Jeddah: The Haj Ministry will expand low-cost services to more than 41,000 pilgrims this year by allocating some of the vacant tents for the service, a senior official announced Wednesday. “Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar has instructed authorities to allocate the tents returned by some companies to p