JEDDAH: Sheikh Osama Khayyat, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, described calls for protests in the Kingdom as “devilish temptations” and urged people of faith to be aware of such calls.
QATIF: People living in villages always maintain good neighborly relations. In fact, villagers are renowned for the friendly way they interact with each other. City dwellers, on the contrary, live in neighborhoods where people are simply too busy to even say hello to each other.
JEDDAH: A black market for fake health insurance cards is flourishing across the Kingdom ever since health coverage has been made mandatory for processing residence permits for foreign workers, according to industry sources.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has issued directives to speed up the effective implementation of Saudization in the private sector. In relation to this, I have some proposals.
JEDDAH: Thirteen Syrian pilgrims died and 16 others were injured in a road accident in Al-Jouf on Thursday. The pilgrims were on their way to Makkah to perform Umrah.
JEDDAH: A Saudi human rights activist is helping a Bangladeshi worker who was seriously injured in a traffic accident three months ago to get medical treatment.
JEDDAH: Marriage counselors in the Kingdom reveal that most men are unwilling to seek counseling or psychiatric help as scores of women suffer in silence.
RIYADH: The women's wing of the Human Rights Commission recently met with women consultants at the Shoura Council to exchange views on social development issues.
TUNIS: Two people were killed in clashes in Tunisia’s central town of Metlaoui on Friday, the official news agency TAP said, an indication of the insecurity in the north African country.
DAMASCUS: Syria on Friday said security forces seized a large shipment of weapons and explosives and night-vision goggles this week in a truck coming from Iraq.
RAS LANOUF, Libya: Ibrahim Salem clutches a half-century-old pistol — a tiny weapon with a single bullet left. If not for his helmet, the young man in jeans would look every bit the English student he was up until just a few weeks ago.
LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands: The war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, once among West Africa’s most powerful figures, ended Friday with judges expected to take months to reach a verdict on whether he can be linked to murders and amputations during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
MADISON, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker succeeded Friday in taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from the vast majority of the state’s public employees, quietly capping weeks of contentious debate and delivering an epic defeat to the labor movement.
WASHINGTON: The US Transportation Security Administration said on Friday it will start publishing radiation test results from airport passenger and luggage screening equipment in a bid to allay lingering fears about potential health risks.
MOGADISHU, Somalia: Pirates moved a captive Danish family onto a ship off the Somali coast on Friday and threatened to kill them if further attempts were made to free them.
TANGSE, Indonesia: Flash floods in western Indonesia have killed at least 12 people and sent hundreds fleeing for safe ground.
AMMAN: Arab stock markets scored strong gains last week after earlier week’s record losses, as investors became less wary of the fallout of political turmoil, financial analysts said Friday.
LONDON: Emergency shutdowns of Japanese nuclear plants due to an earthquake on Friday are likely to increase demand for liquefied natural gas by the world’s biggest LNG consumer, driving up gas prices around the world.
GENEVA: A quarter million people have fled Libya since the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi’s regime began last month, officials said Friday, as they warned they are having trouble getting foreign workers home.
RAMALLAH: Dozens of Palestinian, foreign and Israeli activists were injured after Israeli security forces used force to disperse protestors in East Jerusalem and West Bank villages, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
AMMAN: Jordanians demanding democratic reforms protested in the capital after Friday’s prayers, defying an edict by the kingdom’s religious leaders not to demonstrate.
SANAA: Fighting broke out between small groups of government supporters and protesters on Friday as record crowds of tens of thousands called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit, dismissing his offer of reforms.
OSLO: Norway on Friday rejected oil drilling in ecologically sensitive waters just above the Arctic circle, partly because of worries over a disaster like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
NEW DELHI: India has tested two versions of its short-range missiles capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads, a defense ministry official said Friday.
NEW YORK: Japan’s massive earthquake and deadly tsunami pounded commodity and equity markets worldwide and lifted the yen on Friday on expectations Tokyo will repatriate funds to pay for repairs.
SENDAI, Japan: A massive military search and rescue operation began Saturday for nearly 800 people reported missing after a giant, quake-fed tsunami turned Japan's northeastern coast into a swampy wasteland, while authorities braced for a possible meltdown at a nuclear reactor.
RIYADH/JEDDAH/DAMMAM: It was a normal Friday yesterday across the Kingdom despite worries that the calls on Internet social sites for a “Day of Rage” might be heeded.
