JEDDAH: A Saudi Arabian Airlines flight carrying 128 passengers to Riyadh from Dammam was grounded last week after black smoke was seen billowing from the aircraft, causing panic at King Fahd International Airport (KFIA) in the Eastern Province city. No injuries were reported.
JEDDAH: A Saudi businessman has spoken of his experience after witnessing the terrifying tsunami in Japan firsthand on March 11.
TAIF: The issue of whether English should be taught in Saudi elementary schools continues to be the topic of a hot debate, with some experts saying fluency in the language is necessary to gain employment in the Kingdom’s job market.
JEDDAH: Iraqi authorities have announced that Saudi terrorist Battal Ameesh Al-Harbi was among 25 Al-Qaeda suspects arrested in Iraq over the past three months, Al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday.
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JUBA, Sudan: Six weeks after Southern Sudan voted for independence in a widely praised referendum, security agents stormed the region’s first printing press and arrested a top journalist, the latest assault on reporters fighting to create a free press here.
DUBAI: More than 130 international artist and writers vowed Thursday to boycott a branch of the Guggenheim Museum that is being constructed in Abu Dhabi unless authorities do more to protect workers on the site.
BEIRUT: Human rights group Amnesty International condemned a violent crackdown by Syrian security forces against a peaceful protest held in Damascus by people calling for the release of political prisoners.
CAIRO: The brother of Al-Qaeda’s second in command Ayman Al-Zawahiri was released in Egypt on Thursday after a decade in jail on charges of conspiring against the government, a lawyer representing him said.
KUWAIT: Kuwait will not send forces to Bahrain to help put down anti-government demonstrations but may try to mediate, an Arabic newspaper reported on Thursday.
TEHRAN: Iran has test launched the latest version of a rocket capable of sending satellites and carrying living creatures into space, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.
NEW YORK: Four New York Times journalists covering the fighting in Libya were reported missing Wednesday, and the newspaper held out hope that they were alive and in the custody of the Libyan government.
ROME: Italy marked the 150th anniversary of its national unity with a public holiday on Thursday and joyful celebrations in cities such as Rome and Turin.
KATMANDU: Nepal’s Supreme Court has upheld a former minister’s conviction on corruption charges and sentenced him to 1 1/2 years in prison, an official said Thursday.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia’s main Christian grouping accused the government Thursday of desecrating 5,000 imported Bibles seized by custom authorities in this Muslim-majority country.
NAIROBI: Somali pirates hijacked an Indonesian-flagged ship off the coast of East Africa then used it to launch a second failed attack, the European Union’s anti-piracy task force said Thursday.
MANILA, Philippines: China will proceed with the executions of three Filipino drug convicts delayed last month, and its decision is unrelated to a recent territorial spat, the Chinese ambassador said Thursday.
ROME: Italy marked 150 years as a unified nation on Thursday with muted celebrations that underlined divisions between the prosperous north of the country and the stagnating south.
DUBAI: The Qatar stock exchange moved a step closer to acquiring emerging market status from influential index compiler MSCI by adopting a standard international settlement system for stock trading.
RIYADH: A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, pediatricians and nurses led by Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah successfully separated four-month-old conjoined twin girls at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh on Thursday.
MANAMA/ALKHOBAR: A day after Bahraini security forces cleared anti-government protesters from the landmark Pearl Roundabout, life seems to be slowly returning to normal in most parts of the Bahraini capital on a day when six prominent opposition figures were arrested by the security forces.
RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official on Thursday said that the Palestinian leadership did not receive an official response from Hamas movement with regard to the visit of President Mahmoud Abbas to Gaza Strip.
TOKYO: Japanese military helicopters and fire trucks poured water on an overheating nuclear facility on Thursday and the plant operator said electricity to part of the crippled complex could be restored in a desperate bid to avert catastrophe.
TUNIS: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Tunisia on Thursday to carry out economic and political reform as it emerges from authoritarian rule and praised the country for aiding refugees from fighting in Libya.
KUALA LUMPUR: Japan's earthquake adds to the aviation industry's challenges for 2011 even though its impact won't be as severe as last year's Icelandic volcano eruption, the managing director of Malaysian Airline System (MAS) said.
ISLAMABAD: A “blood money” deal to free a CIA contractor who killed two Pakistani men removes a major thorn in relations between the United States and Pakistan, but bruising from the incident and disagreements over Afghanistan mean the alliance will likely remain stormy.
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council voted on Thursday to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and authorize “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from attacks by Muammar Qaddafi’s forces, hours after the Libyan leader vowed to crush the rebellion with a final assault on the opposition capital of Benghazi.
JEDDAH: Saudi and Kuwaiti environmentalists have expressed serious concern about the safety of Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr, some 250 km on the other side of the Gulf from the Saudi-Kuwait border. This follows the explosions at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor as a result of earthquake and tsunami damage last Friday.
