Middle East

East Jerusalem, Oct 13: Angry Palestinian students today protested against India's growing friendship with Israel at a university campus here today while President Pranab Mukherjee was there, forcing cancellation of one of his engagements. Hundreds of students shouted slogans and carried placards critical of India's ties with the Jewish state while Mukherjee was being honoured by Al-Quds

Riyadh, Oct 13: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, during Monday’s Cabinet meeting, urged the international community, including the United Nations to take action against Israel, to ensure it stops its violations against the Palestinian people, and ensure their rights are recognized. The Cabinet valued the decision taken by the extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

Jeddah, Oct 12: Exchanging the Muqeem card with the iqama is not required for those who still have valid iqamas, and is only needed for those whose iqamas have expired and have to be renewed, said the General Directorate of Passports. The directorate is ready to launch the Muqeem card from the beginning of Muharram 1437H. Workers’ iqamas will be sent by Saudi Post to the directorate to change them

Riyadh, Oct 11: A unified visa for the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) may be available from the middle of next year, said GCC officials here. The GCC General Secretariat is working on the ambitious proposal to introduce the visa that would allow foreigners to visit all GCC states, more or less similar to Europe’s Schengen visa. “The unified GCC visa could soon become a

Riyadh, Oct 9: Saudi Arabia and Oman have completed the construction of a mega road project linking the two countries. “The new road, which will cut the distance between Saudi Arabia and Oman by about 800 km, will be opened soon for public,” said Ahmad Hilal Al-Busaidi, Omani ambassador, Wednesday. Al-Busaidi said the two countries were currently building the administrative infrastructures

Jeddah, Oct 8: Security forces have seized a huge cache of weapons, including machine-guns, at an agricultural farm in Awamiya, Qatif, the Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday through its Twitter account. An AFP report, quoting a resident, said the police sealed off the area with armored vehicles. The resident said he saw black smoke rising over a farm when police moved in mid-afternoon. He

Jeddah, Oct 2: Iran’s health minister has praised Saudi Arabia’s rescue and medical efforts after the stampede in Mina last week. Hassan Hashimi, at a meeting with his Saudi counterpart Khalid Al-Falih in Jeddah on Wednesday, said that the Kingdom’s ambulance and other teams had done well to transport the injured to hospitals in the region. Hashimi said the incident was out of human control and

Madinah, Sep 29: The Agency of General Presidency for the Prophet’s Mosque Affairs has appointed six interpreters to translate Friday sermons into French, English, Urdu, Chichewa, Turkish and Hausa. The translated version of the sermons would be broadcasted on various FM radio frequencies, including English (105.5FM), Urdu (105FM), Chichewa (99FM), French (99.5FM), Turkish (107FM), and Hausa (107

New York, Sep 28: Saudi Arabia firmly rejected Iran’s criticism of its handling of the Haj pilgrimage Saturday after Tehran demanded an inquiry into the Mina stampede. “I believe the Iranians should know better than to play politics with a tragedy that has befallen people who were performing their most sacred religious duty,” Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said, according to AFP. Al-Jubeir

Mina, Sep 26: The Kingdom will continue to play its role at the regional and international level for Arab and Muslim unity and will not allow anyone to drive a wedge between them or disrupt the harmony, said Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman on Friday. He was speaking at an annual reception in Mina in honor of the leaders of Islamic countries and other dignitaries. The king said Saudi