INTERVIEW: KAPSARC’s Adam Sieminski on a ‘voyage of discovery’ in Saudi energy industry One year on from his appointment as president of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), Adam Sieminski has a clear verdict: “It’s been great. Riyadh is actually kind of a fun place,” he said. When not at the organization’s…
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's president is banning two groups allegedly linked to the Easter bombings under emergency powers that came into effect on Tuesday. The office of President Maithripala Sirisena said in a statement Saturday evening that National Thawheed Jammath, or NTJ, and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem, or JMI, would be banned by presidential decree. Presidential spokesman…
BEIJING, BEIRUT: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he did not rule out Syrian forces, backed by Russian air power, launching a full-scale assault on militants in Syria’s Idlib province, but that such an operation was unpractical for now. Speaking in Beijing, Putin said that Moscow and Damascus would continue what he called the…
BOSASO, Somalia: A US airstrike killed three Daesh militants in the Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region on Friday, a US military official said, two weeks after the group’s deputy leader was killed in a strike.A witness said missiles struck two wells on the outskirts of Timirshe village, some 60km southeast of Puntland’s commercial capital Bosaso. The…
ALGIERS: Abassi Madani, founder of Algeria’s banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was buried in the capital Algiers on Saturday days after his death in Qatar where he lived in exile, a security source said.Madani had called for armed struggle in 1992 after Algeria’s military scrapped the country’s first multi-party parliamentary election which the FIS had…
KHARTOUM: The organizers of the protests that drove Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir from power said they met Saturday with the ruling military council for talks on forming a transitional government.The protesters had agreed on Wednesday to resume talks with the military after a temporary break. The announcement to set up a joint committee to tackle…
ISTANBUL: Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Saturday to confront opponents inside his own party weeks after he suffered shock election defeats in the capital Ankara and commercial hub Istanbul.Erdogan and his supporters have up to now blamed the losses on electoral fraud by unspecified groups and launched a string of legal challenges against the…
RIYADH: When you think of cities around the world famous for their art, Riyadh does not instantly spring to mind, but with Saudi Arabia’s cultural revolution beginning in earnest, all that will change. Last month, King Salman announced four projects for the capital, one of which is Riyadh Art, which will feature the distribution of…
TUNIS: A pan-Arab cybersecurity unit is to be set up for greater regional cooperation in the fight against digital crime and money laundering, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.Mohammed bin Ali Kouman, secretary-general of the Arab Interior Ministers Council, said steps were being taken to prevent such crime in the region and to better hold…
RIYADH: The general supervisor of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) on Saturday met the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen at the center’s headquarters, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah met Lise Grande in Riyadh, where they discussed ways to enhance cooperation and support relief and humanitarian work in…
It is never easy to entrust your beloved cat to strangers, yet grooming is important for feline health and looks, and is best done by professionals. There are none so professional as the staff at Jeddah’s Cat Chic. The staff are helpful and accommodating, and the exclusive salon provides vital services such as bathing, flea…
‘Kid was depressed’: Osaka in first clay quarter-final after ‘rough months’ STUTTGART, Germany: World number one Naomi Osaka defeated Hsieh Su-wei 6-4, 6-3 in Stuttgart on Thursday to reach her first career clay court quarter-final and admitted she had been left “depressed” after a “rough few months.”US and Australian Open champion Osaka, who lost to…
From near-death in Libyan desert to Saudi Arabia in 40 years: A history of the Dakar Rally LONDON: A new and exciting chapter in the prestigious history of the Dakar Rally is ready to be written as the world’s biggest and most challenging rally confirmed it will debut in Saudi Arabia in January 2020. 1977:…
SEOUL: South Korea will likely return to a familiar game plan to replace Iranian oil it will no longer have access to after May now that the US intends to tighten sanctions on Iranian exports.South Korea is the biggest buyer of Iranian condensate, an ultra-light oil prized by the country’s refiners as a raw material…
SEOUL: South Korea will likely return to a familiar game plan to replace Iranian oil it will no longer have access to after May now that the US intends to tighten sanctions on Iranian exports.South Korea is the biggest buyer of Iranian condensate, an ultra-light oil prized by the country’s refiners as a raw material…
SEOUL: South Korea will likely return to a familiar game plan to replace Iranian oil it will no longer have access to after May now that the US intends to tighten sanctions on Iranian exports.South Korea is the biggest buyer of Iranian condensate, an ultra-light oil prized by the country’s refiners as a raw material…
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police are trying to track down 140 people believed linked to Daesh, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 253, as shooting erupted in the east during a raid.Muslims in Sri Lanka were urged to pray at home after the State Intelligence Services warned of possible car bomb…
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police are trying to track down 140 people believed linked to Daesh, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 253, as shooting erupted in the east during a raid.Muslims in Sri Lanka were urged to pray at home after the State Intelligence Services warned of possible car bomb…
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday it is possible that the United States and Japan could reach a new bilateral trade deal by the time he visits Tokyo in May, but he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cited areas where they differ on trade.Trump and Abe held one-on-one talks in the Oval Office…
JEDDAH: Two-day talks on Syria concluded on Friday in Astana, Kazakhstan, without notable progress on forming a constitutional committee to drive a political settlement in the war-torn country. A joint statement by the three cosponsors — Iran, Russia and Turkey — said the meeting had broached the issue of the constitutional committee with the UN special…
