Middle East

Riyadh, Feb 24: Philippine authorities have foiled a bid to hijack a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport. According to a Manila-based newspaper, the authorities thwarted the plan and seized secret documents that confirm the plot. The paper said a team that included 10 conspirators left Iran recently on separate flights and arrived in several countries in

Riyadh, Feb 15: Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said Sunday that Russia's efforts to support Syrian President Bashar Assad would not succeed in keeping him in power. Addressing a press conference with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, Al-Jubeir stressed that previous efforts to prop up Assad, including by Iran, had "failed." "Now, (Assad) has sought the help of Russia, which will fail to

Munich, Feb 13: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister defended his country’s treatment of women on Friday, saying it had made progress on female education but would take time to let them drive cars. “When it comes to issues like women’s driving, this is not a religious issue, it’s a societal issue,” Adel Al-Jubeir told an audience at the Munich Security Conference. He said it was unfair to fixate on the

New York, Jan 30: Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal mocked Republican candidate Donald Trump for his attempts to expose the ownership structure of Fox News by posting a digitally manipulated image of the Prince and his sister posing next to news anchor Megyn Kelly. The image, which is photoshopped, contained the words: "Most people don't know that the co-owner of Fox News is Prince Al-Waleed of

Muscat, Jan 29: Four people, including two Malayali children, were killed when a bus carrying school children met with an accident at Nizwa in Oman. The dead malayali children have been identified as Mohammed Shammas, a native of Pattannor in Kannur and Rooya Aman, a native of Kottayam. The deceased malayali children were studying in second standard at the Nizwa Indian school. Deepali Satheyi, a

Jeddah, Jan 28: Ten gallons of human urine kept in several containers shocked a municipality team when it raided a warehouse on Wednesday. The Hail municipality team also found wood covered with perfumed oil with the intention of selling them as Oud, said a media report. The team also seized unknown raw material, oils and perfume bottles. The team immediately informed the Ministry of Commerce and

Riyadh, Jan 27: Saudi Arabia’s oil giant expects oil prices to climb toward the end of the year, saying the current price of around $30 a barrel is not sustainable. Saudi Aramco’s CEO Amin Nasser, speaking Tuesday at the 9th Global Competitiveness Forum, said there are indications that demand for oil picked up last year and that the gap between supply and demand has been shrinking, which could

Riyadh, Jan 25: Customs officials at the King Fahd Causeway have foiled a man’s attempt to smuggle 14 bottles of liquor into the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency said on Sunday. The report said the contraband items were attached with adhesive tapes to the suspect’s upper and lower legs and hidden by the man's thobe. Despite the unusual way of smuggling, customs inspectors managed to detect the

Makkah, Jan 23: The food wasted in Makkah could feed 17 percent of hungry children in 18 developing countries, said a press report Friday. There are an estimated 4.8 million starving children in Africa, Asia and Latin American countries, said Ahmad Al-Matrafi, director general of a charity food project in Makkah. Al-Matrafi said that food wasted at an average wedding was sufficient to feed at

Hyderabad, Jan 11: Two sisters from Dubai made an unusual request on Saturday when they called on V Satyanarayana, deputy commissioner of Hyderabad Police’s south zone. Could the police help them find their mother, whom they hadn’t met for 27 years? The only lead they could provide the officer was a faded photograph and an Indian passport, issued in 1981 and barely legible. Ayesha and Fatima, 33