JEDDAH: A charity that paid the blood money to save a Saudi woman from being executed for murdering her husband has given her a furnished house to live in, the Shams newspaper reported on Thursday.
DAMMAM: An Alkhobar woman studying in the United States is taking credit for destroying 23 Danish websites that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Thursday.
JEDDAH: Banks in the Kingdom will be closed for Eid Al-Fitr holidays from Thursday, Aug. 25, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) said in a statement.
JEDDAH: The Director of the Cleaning Department at the Grand Mosque, Hamoud bin Saleh, has appealed to pilgrims and visitors to cooperate in the directorate’s efforts to maintain the cleanliness of the holy mosque’s floors and courtyards.
TUNIS: Tunisian Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi said on Thursday his government would take a tougher line on allies of the ousted president, responding to calls to put more of them behind bars.
ALGIERS, Algeria: Al-Qaeda’s North African offshoot has claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing at an Algerian police station that injured at least 29 people.
ABU DHABI: More than 475 candidates have filed their nominations to run in parliamentary election which is slated for Sept. 24.
TRIPOLI: Libya’s encircled capital is being painfully squeezed as rebel forces fight their way closer and battles along the coastal highway block the city’s chief link to the outside world.
CAIRO: The head of Egypt’s anti-graft authority, Assem el-Gohari, has ordered a top aide of ousted President Hosni Mubarak to be tried on charges of corruption and illegal profiteering, local newspapers reported on Thursday.
ISTANBUL: Turkish warplanes struck 60 Kurdish guerrilla targets in a “successful” operation in northern Iraq overnight, military headquarters said in a statement on Thursday.
MANILA: President Benigno Aquino III will make a state visit to China that will be dominated by trade and economic issues instead of the two countries’ simmering territorial dispute, officials said Thursday.
MANILA: Police say at least seven people have been killed and dozens injured after a truck fell into a ravine in the central Philippines after its brakes malfunctioned.
NEW DELHI: India’s beleaguered government caved in to popular fury over corruption on Thursday after thousands protested across the country, granting permission for a self-styled Gandhian crusader to stage a 15-day hunger strike in public.
MAKHACHKALA, Russia: Russian police say 13 insurgents have been killed in the country’s volatile Caucasus region, including four in an operation commanded by Chechnya’s president, himself a former rebel.
BERLIN: German politicians urged tough action on Thursday against a surge in arson attacks on cars in Berlin, blamed by some on the far right or far left, but by the police on common criminals.
BRUSSELS: Belgian media a storm has hit an open air music festival east of the capital killing at least 4 people.
KABUL: A roadside bomb killed at least 21 passengers traveling on a minibus Thursday in western Afghanistan, another example of civilians being caught in the crossfire of the fighting between Taleban insurgents and the US-led coalition.
SEOUL: As a growing number of North Koreans battle food shortages, the impoverished country’s leader has reportedly been sailing his luxury yacht in waters off his deluxe villa.
DUBAI/CAIRO: Oman’s Renaissance Services rebounded from a 2009 low on Thursday as investors picked up the battered stock. Shares in the oil services firm surged 7.8 percent following three days of large losses after saying it uncovered fraud at its unit Topaz, and saw a 77-percent drop in first-half net profit.
DUBAI: Fear that the days of global economic recovery and rising oil prices may fast be fading has sent shivers through Gulf stock markets. Those worries reduced the market capitalization of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) by around $11 billion in the first half of August to $326 billion. Elsewhere around the Gulf, the Dubai Financial Market’s main index has shed close to five percent in the last two weeks while Kuwait’s index reached a seven-year low on Sunday.
JERUSALEM: Gunmen killed seven people in attacks on vehicles in southern Israel on Thursday and a senior Israeli official said they had infiltrated from the Gaza Strip through Egypt's Sinai desert. Israel responded with an airstrike in the Gaza Strip that killed six Palestinians.
MADINAH: Serving iftar meals to help visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque break their fast is part of the rich tradition of the people of Madinah that dates back to the period of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
MAKKAH: As traffic conditions on the already crowded Makkah streets continue to worsen during Ramadan, local people increasingly depend on motorcyclists to reach the Grand Mosque area. The occasion offers a golden chance to young bike owners to earn good money.
ZAWIYAH, Libya: Libyan fighters took control of an oil refinery in the western town of Zawiyah and blocked the main highway north to the capital on Thursday, further isolating Muammar Qaddafi’s Tripoli stronghold.
MANILA, Philippines: A renegade commander said Thursday he has split from the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group and formed a new group with hundreds of fighters to wage a war for a separate homeland.
BEIJING: China and the US share a responsibility for boosting global market confidence, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping told visiting US Vice President Joe Biden in talks on Thursday that focused on shoring up trust between the two big powers.
NEW YORK: Oil fell more than $3 a barrel as a raft of weak US economic data provided a fresh blow to shaky investor confidence, extending US crude’s losses to 13 percent so far in August. Equities plunged, volatility jumped and gold hit a fresh record as traders said fears of a new recession were growing again, sparking another round of risk aversion reminiscent of the violent selloffs at the start of this month.
AMMAN: The United States and European Union called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down on Thursday and President Barack Obama accused him of "torturing and slaughtering" his people in what UN officials said may be crimes against humanity.
JEDDAH: Renewed worries about Europe's debt crisis and a raft of weak US economic data sparked a rout in global equities on Thursday and shot gold to new highs as investors sought safety.
