Middle East

Riyadh, Apr 27: Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) is considering relaxing a 49 percent limit for foreign strategic investors in shares of listed companies due to increased demand, its chairman Mohammed Al Kuwaiz said on Thursday. Foreigners currently own 5.5 percent of Saudi equities but that could nearly double by the end of 2020, Al Kuwaiz said in an interview on the sidelines of a

Irbil, Apr 26: The children of Yazidi women raped by Daesh men will be welcomed into the minority faith, a community leader said Thursday, allowing women taken as slaves by the militant group to return to Iraq from Syria. Eido Baba Sheikh, son of the Yazidi spiritual leader Baba Sheikh, said the children of the formerly enslaved women will be treated as members of the faith, resolving one of the

Riyadh, Apr 22: King Salman and other world leaders have condemned a series of blasts in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners — with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them. The Saudi king sent a cable of condolence to the president of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena following the terrorist attacks in the country. “We are aware

Apr 21: Four heavily armed attackers were killed in a failed terrorist attack on an interior ministry building in Zulfi, north of Riyadh, Al-Arabiya TV said. Videos circulating on social media show the dead armed with machine guns, bombs and Molotov cocktails. The suspects who were on board a car tried to crash through the main entrance of the General Directorate of Investigation’s Center in

Dubai, Apr 19: Dubai attracted more than 1,000 millionaires from outside the country, surpassing major cities like Los Angeles, Melbourne, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Sydney, according to the 'Global Wealth Migration Report' for 2019, developed recently by AfrAsia Bank and New World Wealth. The report described Dubai as the most prominent financial centre in the Middle East, and one of the

Riyadh, Apr 18: Around 650 Rohingya refugees held in a Saudi detention centre on Wednesday went on hunger strike to protest against their indefinite detention in the Gulf country for the third time in recent months. The refugees, held inside Shumaisi detention centre in Jeddah since 2012 for not having valid documentation, initiated the hunger strike on Saturday, Ro Nay San Lwin, campaign

Riyadh, Apr 18: Saudi Arabia will host the annual G20 leaders' summit on November 21-22, 2020, in its capital, Riyadh, the Saudi press agency (SPA) said. "Saudi Arabia is fully committed to the G20's objectives and to the stability and prosperity of the international economic system," it reported on Wednesday. The G20 is made up of 19 of the world's biggest economies, as well as the European Union

Chandigarh, Apr 17: The foreign ministry has confirmed that two Indians, Satwinder Kumar of Hoshiarpur and Harjeet Singh of Ludhiana, have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia on charges of murdering a fellow Indian. The two were executed on February 28 this year. The Indian embassy in Riyadh, however, was not informed by the Saudi authorities before the executions. The families of the deceased may not

Dubai, Apr 16: A 33-year-old Indian man has been sentenced to three months in prison followed by deportation for hacking 15 websites, according to a media report. The Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday charged the man with hacking websites and issuing threats, Gulf News reported. He was also handed a three-month suspended jail term and will be deported immediately, the report said. According

London, Apr 14: Seventy-six people have been killed in Iran by floods in recent weeks, according to a new toll published Sunday with warnings still in place for large swathes of the country. “With the death of five people in the Khuzestan province flood and another person in Ilam province the death toll has now reached 76,” since March 19, according to a statement published online by the coroner’s