Archive: saudi arabia
9th March 2016
As Saudi Arabia's economic problems worsen, thousands of construction workers are complaining about unpaid wages.
Among those affected are 38,000 employees of Saudi Oger – the kingdom's second-largest construction firm – who have not been paid for four months. Saudi Oger is chaired by Saad Hariri… Read more
17th February 2016
Saudi Arabia's recent claim that it is preparing to send ground troops into Syria is either a transparent (and therefore ineffective) piece of psychological warfare or the latest step towards the collapse of the House of Saud.
In an article for the American website, National Interest, headed "Saudi… Read more
9th January 2016
Is Saudi Arabia's Prince Muhammad bin Salman a reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady who reshaped Britain's economy in the 1980s? Or is he, perhaps, a reincarnation of Charles I, the seventeenth-century English monarch who lost his head in a civil war?
In an interview for the latest… Read more
16th December 2015
Five "top engineering and technical officials" are expected to go on trial in Saudi Arabia in connection with the world's worst crane accident last September, according to local media. More than 100 people died and several hundred were injured when a crawler crane toppled backwards during a storm… Read more
16th December 2015
Pakistan's foreign minister, Aizaz Chaudhry, was taken by surprise yesterday when he read in the newspapers that his country has joined the new Saudi-led military coalition against "terrrorism". He then contacted the Pakistani ambassador in Riyadh to try to find out more.
"This is not the first… Read more
1st December 2015
Magna Carta, Philip Hammond and the Saudi businessman
Did foreign secretary help sheikh meet the Queen?
Last summer Britain's foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, received a gift from a Saudi businessman – an Ebel watch priced at almost £2,000. Although government ministers are… Read more
24th September 2015
The municipal elections in Saudi Arabia scheduled for December will be the first in which women have been allowed to take part. Now that registration of voters and candidates has closed it is possible to get a clearer picture of the actual levels of female participation.
Across the kingdom, there… Read more
15th September 2015
A lot of misinformation is being circulated about the crane accident on Friday which killed more than 100 people at the Grand Mosque in Mecca during a storm. Several spurious claims have gained credence simply because no one bothered to check them against the abundant photographic evidence.
One… Read more
3rd September 2015
For the first time in Saudi Arabia's history, women will be allowed to take part in municipal elections scheduled for December. The big question, though, is how many will actually do so.
With only 11 days left in the voter registration process, it seems that women have not exactly been queueing up… Read more
20th July 2015
Recent night-time pictures of the White House illuminated in rainbow colours, plus millions of rainbow-tinted profile photos on Facebook, have alerted Saudi Arabia's religious police to a previously unrecognised peril in their midst: the discovery that "emblems of homosexuality" are on public… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
