Middle East

Makkah, Aug 17: The Makkah Clock Tower, the second tallest tower in the world, is to open for tourists after Haj 2014, according to officials. Tourists will have to buy tickets to visit the tower top. The gigantic Makkah Clock project was constructed on top of Tower No. 5 of the King Abdul Aziz Endowment Project, which consists of seven towers. The tower includes hotels on which the clock is

Riyadh, Aug 16: Four new passenger trains will join the current fleet between Riyadh and Dammam beginning November this year. Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) President Mohammed Al-Suwaiket said the Riyadh-Al-Kharj rail service would be commissioned during next year. The first of the four trains is to arrive in the Kingdom toward the end of November and the others would follow a month after, said

Jeddah, Aug 15: More than 20,000 seasonal jobs are available for Saudis during the upcoming Haj season, said Marwan Zubaidi, secretary-general of the General Syndicate of Cars and official spokesman for Haj transport companies. Zubaidi confirmed , however, that many Saudis are still reluctant to take on such jobs, which were announced by the union more than two months ago. “Drivers and technicians

Gaza, Aug 14: An extension of a ceasefire agreement between Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Israel is so far in place, despite its shaky beginning. Sources on both sides said early Thursday, the new ceasefire is still holding. The Israeli army said that there had not been any fighting for several hours. According to a Palestinian Interior Ministry official, Israel had fired four

Jeddah, Aug 14: The Ministry of Labor has said it will not make any exceptions to its decision not to allow private firms falling in the yellow level of the Nitaqat Saudization program to keep their foreign manpower for more than four years even as top industry officials questioned the viability of the decision, which they said will be difficult to implement. "Not even the manpower with

Riyadh, Aug 12: Haj operators in Riyadh have come up with competitive travel packages for domestic pilgrims for Haj 2014. Around 200,000 pilgrims from within the Kingdom are expected to perform Haj this year. The Passport Department is expected to begin issuing Haj permits to local pilgrims soon. The Dawah Center in Rawdah is offering an eight-day package for SR2,500 for singles, which includes

Jeddah, Aug 11: The “Umrah-plus” tourism program, which will allow pilgrims to visit the Kingdom’s tourist resorts, will be implemented following the end of the upcoming Haj season, said Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). He said pilgrims from more than 65 countries would benefit from the program, which would be introduced with the

Tehran, Aug 10: A civilian airliner crashed on take-off in a residential area near Tehran's Mehrabad airport today, Iranian news agencies said, with reports that almost 50 people were killed. The plane was headed to the eastern city of Tabas, the IRNA and Fars news agencies said, and crashed at 9.18 am (0448 GMT). The official IRINN television channel said the plane crashed in the Azadi

Riyadh, Aug 10: Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, who is also president of the Council of Senior Scholars, has warned young men against perverting the concept of “jihad” (struggle) and wreaking havoc in Muslim countries by killing innocent civilians in the name of Islam. Al-Asheikh also urged youth not to fall victim to such rhetoric propagated by terror groups. “We continuously witness ugly

Riyadh, Aug 10: The Ebola virus was not the cause of death of Saudi citizen Ibrahim Al-Zahrani, who died in Jeddah on Wednesday, the Health Ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) have announced. Preliminary post-mortem examination carried out on the body confirmed the findings, according to Rana Saydalani, an official spokesman from the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. “We