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Politics at Haj won’t be tolerated

August 20, 2013

Riyadh, Aug 20: Saudi Arabia has warned foreign Hajis against politicizing the annual pilgrimage, saying it would not tolerate any move to violate the event’s sanctity and security.

“We have signed agreements with all foreign Haj missions to make sure their pilgrims strictly follow the Kingdom’s regulations,” said Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar.Minister_of_Haj_Bandar_Hajjar

“Exploiting Haj for political purposes will be a violation of this agreement,” he added.

The minister’s statement is significant as it comes at a time when political disturbances are taking place in many parts of the Muslim world including Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.

The Saudi regulations strictly ban any type of demonstrations during Haj as such activities disturb the event’s peaceful atmosphere.

Saudi authorities have decided to cut the number of foreign pilgrims by 20 percent and domestic pilgrims by 50 percent this year because of ongoing expansion work at the Grand Mosque in Makkah.

The first groups of Haj pilgrims are expected to arrive by the end of this week. “We have made arrangements to receive these pilgrims who are scheduled to arrive between Aug. 22 and 27,” said Hatim Al-Qadi, spokesman of the ministry.

The majority of foreign pilgrims will come by air while the remaining by land and sea. The annual pilgrimage comes following a successful Umrah season, which drew more than five million foreigner pilgrims.

According to Al-Qadi, 70,000 of these Umrah pilgrims still remain in Makkah and Madinah. The Kingdom has decided not to give Haj visas to the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases this year in order to prevent the spread of MERS.

“This new rule will be applicable to the forthcoming Haj and the subsequent Umrah seasons,” Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Al-Mirghalani told Arab News.

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KT
April 14,2020

Dubai, Apr 14: Saudi Arabia reported 435 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 5369, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.

According to the ministry of health the number of recoveries today are 84 cases, making total of recoveries in the kingdom 889.

The ministry also confirmed 8 deaths bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 73.

Saudi Arabia imposed a 24-hour curfew and lockdown on the cities of Riyadh, Tabuk, Dammam, Dhahran and Hofuf and throughout the governorates of Jeddah, Taif, Qatif and Khobar. This week the curfew was extended until further notice.

Containment efforts
Saudi authorities are racing to contain an outbreak of coronavirus in the Islamic holy city of Mecca.

The total number of coronavirus cases reported in Mecca, home to 2 million people, reached 1,050 on Monday compared to 1,422 in the capital of Riyadh, a city more than three times the size. Mecca’s large number of undocumented immigrants and cramped housing for migrant workers have made it more difficult to slow the infection rate.

Saudi Arabia has reported one of the lowest rates of infection in the region, with around 5,000 cases in a population of over 30 million.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) (ADCB.AD) is letting go hundreds of employees, sources said, the latest in a round of lay-offs by regional banks as pressure mounts to cut costs amid lower oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.

The UAE’s third-biggest lender is laying off 400 employees, two sources familiar with the matter said, after it had committed to not cutting staff because of the crisis.

In a statement, a spokesman said ADCB had pursued efficiency over the last decade by managing out its lowest underachievers after regular reviews, while ensuring talent was deployed in high-growth areas, such as digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.

The sources said the cuts would involve ADCB’s consumer business and several in top management were among those being let go. One source said the bank was looking to close 20 branches.

In March, ADCB had declared, “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

UAE banks have been hit by government measures to rein in the spread of the virus, forcing many businesses to shut temporarily.

Last week, Dubai’s largest bank, Emirates NBD, reported a slump of 58% in profits. In June, sources told Reuters the bank started a new round of hundreds of lay-offs.

In May, ADCB reported a fall of 84% in first-quarter net profit as it took impairments of $292 million on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr.

It was a major lender, with an exposure of about $981 million, to NMC Health, which went into administration this year after months of turmoil following questions over financial reporting.

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Agencies
July 22,2020

Riyadh, Jul 22: Saudi King Salman held a cabinet meeting via video call from hospital in the capital Riyadh on Tuesday, a day after the 84-year-old monarch was admitted with inflammation of the gall bladder.

Three Saudi sources said the king was in stable condition.

A video of the king chairing the meeting was broadcast on Saudi state TV on Tuesday evening. In the video, which has no sound, King Salman can be seen behind a desk, wordlessly reading and leafing through documents.

The king, who has ruled the world’s largest oil exporter and close US ally since 2015, was undergoing medical checks, state media on Monday cited a Royal Court statement as saying.

Three well-connnected Saudi sources who declined to be identified, two of whom were speaking late on Monday and one on Tuesday, said the king was “fine”.

An official in the region, who requested anonymity, said he spoke to one of King Salman’s sons on Monday who seemed “calm” and that there was no sense of panic about the monarch’s health.

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