Middle East

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

Jeddah, Jan 10: Saudi Arabia has come third in a poll for the world’s happiest countries – in a list which features almost no European. The research was carried out by WIN/Gallup International, a polling association which interviewed 66,040 people from 68 countries. The kingdom has only been pipped to top position by Fiji and Colombia. At an average temperature of about 26C in January, the

Dubai, Jan 8: At least 23 Indians affected in the New Year's Eve fire at the Address Downtown Hotel have left the country on emergency exit papers issued by the Indian Consulate in Dubai after they lost their passports in the blaze. The belongings of hundreds of hotel guests and residents (including owners and tenants residing in the hotel apartments) in the 63-storey hotel were affected in the

Riyadh, Dec 26: Two Saudi millionaires have reportedly paid SR225,000 in blood money to free a Filipino man who had killed an Indian national in a car accident. The men donated the blood money requested by the victim’s relatives. The Filipino man was working for the firm of the Saudi citizens. A local court has sent a letter to the prison to release the Filipino and consider the case closed

Riyadh, Dec 19: Expatriate workers and their dependants with expired re-entry visas seeking to return to the Kingdom can now renew them in their home countries, according to a directive issued by the Saudi Foreign Ministry. “A re-entry visa for all workers and their family members (wives and children) in both the government and private sectors can be renewed through Saudi consular departments at

Jeddah, Dec 18: An Indian expatriate has helped the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) over the past 20 years uncover 1,300 violations, mostly related to the production and sale of alcohol, according to a local publication. Mohnish, 52, who has spent about 10 years living in Al-Ahsa, said he was a Hindu who became Muslim after arriving in the Kingdom. He had

Jeddah, Dec 8: Two Grade 6 female students who had disappeared from one of the primary schools in the Bawadi neighborhood of Jeddah at the end of the school day on Sunday were found in a mall on Monday, reported Al-Riyadh daily. Aiman Momina, uncle of one of the girls, confirmed it. The case was handled by security authorities. Earlier, the school management said the two attended the last school

Riyadh, Dec 5: Major Talal Al-Shalhoob, spokesman of the directorate general of Jawazat, has said a video clip has gone viral on social media about a person in civilian dress talking to an Arab expatriate and threatening him by “giving him a final exit.” There is also a comment on the clip relating to Jawazat. He said that after analysis of the video clip, it was found that it has no relation to