Middle East

Jeddah, Feb 16: The Nitaqat nationalization program was successful in bringing down the Kingdom’s unemployment rate to 11.7 percent — 5.9 percent among men and 32.5 percent among women, said the Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI). In a statement issued on Sunday, the department put the total number of unemployed Saudis at 650,000, including 258,000 men and 392,000 women. The

Riyadh, Feb 14: Saudi Arabia, Italy and Germany shut down their embassies in Yemen on Friday amid growing political uncertainty as Yemen’s top UN envoy warned that the Arab world's poorest nation is at a crossroads between civil war and disintegration. “Due to the deteriorating security and political situation in the Yemeni capital, the Saudi government has suspended all embassy operations in

Jeddah, Feb 13: Two pilgrims — an Egyptian woman and a Filipino child — died and 37 others injured when their bus collided with a huge truck in Dhalam near Taif on Thursday, said Siraj Al-Humaidan, spokesman of the head department in Taif. The early morning accident occurred while the bus carrying pilgrims belong to different nationalities including Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis was heading

Riyadh, Feb 12: Saudi Arabia plans to deport 27,000 Indonesian workers, who overstayed their work permits, over the next few weeks. Government agencies are working with the Indonesian diplomatic missions in Riyadh and Jeddah to deport the workers in groups. “Most of the workers awaiting deportation are in Jeddah,” said Ahrul Tsani Fathurrahman, spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy, here Tuesday

Jeddah, Feb 10: The two new councils set up by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman last month have been given stringent mandates to formulate and implement the country’s political, security and economic policies, the Cabinet announced on Monday. The Council of Political and Security Affairs and the Council of Economic and Development Affairs would “identify various trends, visions and

Jeddah, Feb 9: The Labor Ministry has softened its Saudization drive in favor of businesses by canceling a previous decision that demanded 13 weeks for confirmation of a Saudi’s appointment as a full employee under Nitaqat. Under the new decision, a Saudi would be calculated in the Nitaqat system soon after his registration with the General Organization for Social Insurance, provided the company

Riyadh, Feb 8: The number of smokers among Saudi secondary schoolgirls reached 65 percent, while the rate among intermediate schoolgirls stands at 45 percent, a recently-published survey said. The survey, conducted by the Faculty of Medicine at the Jeddah-based King Abdulaziz University, said the phenomenon poses a real threat to the health of Saudi women in the long term. In a similar study

Jeddah, Feb 6: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has ordered all Saudi banks not to touch the two-month salary bonus granted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to all Saudi government and military employees, retirees and students. According to Talat Hafiz, secretary-general of Media and Banking Awareness Committee of Saudi Banks, this procedure will protect Saudis who are

Jeddah, Feb 5: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman on Wednesday called the burning alive of a Jordanian fighter pilot "inhuman and contrary to Islam." In a message of condolence to Jordan's King Abdallah, he said Saudi Arabia “learned with profound sadness of the martyrdom of Lt. Maaz Al-Kasaasbeh.” King Salman condemned the “heinous crime,” which he said was against all values of

Riyadh, Feb 3: Chairing his first Cabinet meeting as monarch and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques on Monday, King Salman said that Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy would remain in place. Saudi Arabia’s policies in relation to Arab, Muslim and international countries “will remain unchanged,” the king said during an address to the Cabinet. “We will work hard in the service of Islam, for the betterment