Riyadh, Jun 6: Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has revoked the license of Qatar Airways and ordered its offices to to be closed within 48 hours, the regulatory body said said in a statement.
Any licenses granted to Qatar Airways employees would also be withdrawn, the statement said.
The move comes a day after GACA banned all Qatari planes from landing in the kingdom's airports, following the worst rift in years among the Gulf countries.
Saudi Arabia has initiated refund of work visa fee to foreigners unable to travel to the Kingdom due to the suspension of international flights in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic.
Several work visas were cancelled, following which the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced the refund. The cancellation and refunding of the stamped visas will be considered effective from the date of issuance of the royal decree on March 18, reported Saudi Gazette.
As a precautionary measure to curb the spread of coronavirus, the Kingdom suspended all international flight. The ministry of health in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced 1,325 new Covid-19 coronavirus cases and 169 recoveries. With this, the total number of cases in the Kingdom now stands at 21,402, while recoveries stand at 2,953, as on Wednesday reported KT.
Dubai, July 13: An explosion caused by a gas leak damaged a restaurant, and nearby shops at a residential building in Dubai on Monday morning.
According to Brigadier Abdul Haleem Al Hashemi, Deputy Director of Al Qusais Police Station, the incident took place at 4am when the restaurant was closed.
No injuries were reported, but two nearby shops, a pharmacy, a salon and three cars were severely damaged.
"Dubai Police patrols were immediately dispatched to the scene and worked with Dubai Civil Defense to evacuate residents of the two-storey building as a precautionary measure," Brig Al Hashimi explained.
Preliminary investigations showed that the blast was caused by a gas leak, the officer said. The Crime Scene Department of the General Department of Forensics and Criminology in Dubai is studying the evidence collected from the site and will be preparing the final report on the accident.
Brig Al Hashimi urged restaurant owners to ensure that all safety and security systems at their outlets are in good condition. Regular maintenance checks should also be conducted on all pipes and gas regulators, especially during the summer season.
Occupied Jerusalem, Jul 19: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial resumed on Sunday.
Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals in which he is alleged to have received lavish gifts from billionaire friends and exchanged regulatory favors with media moguls for more agreeable coverage of himself and his family.
Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, painting the accusations as a media-orchestrated witchhunt pursued by a biased law enforcement system.
The trial opened in May. Just before appearing in front of the judges, Netanyahu took to a podium inside the courthouse and flanked by his party members bashed the country’s legal institutions in an angry tirade.
Netanyahu was not expected to appear at Sunday’s hearing, which is taking place at an occupied Jerusalem court and is mostly a procedural deliberation.
The trial resumes as Netanyahu faces widespread anger over his government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
While the country appeared to have tamped down a first wave of infections, what’s emerged as a hasty and erratic reopening sent infections soaring. Yet even amid the rise in new cases Netanyahu and his emergency government — formed with the goal of dealing with the crisis — appeared to neglect the numbers and moved forward with other policy priorities and its reopening plans.
It has since paused them and even re-impose restrictions, including a weekend only lockdown set to begin later this week.
Netanyahu’s government has been criticized for a baffling, halting response to the new wave, which has seen daily cases rise to nearly 2,000. It has been slammed for its handling of the economic fallout of the crisis.
His trial thus comes at inopportune timing. Netanyahu had hoped to ride on the goodwill he gained from overcoming the first wave of infections going into his corruption trial, but the increasingly souring mood has affected his approval rating and may deny him the public backing he had hoped for. The anger has sparked protests over the past few weeks that have culminated in violent clashes with police.
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