Saudi Arabia’s suggestion last month that it will try to limit how much money expatriate workers send home showed concern about the cost of having foreigners make up nearly a third of the population. An estimated nine million foreign workers and their dependents remitted SR26.8bn ($7.1bn) out of the country in the second quarter of [...]

Residential rents in Jeddah have increased by an average of 14 percent so far this year, real estate consultants Jones Lang LaSalle said on Sunday. Its Jeddah Real Estate Market Overview for Q3 2011 said the city’s residential sector had seen an “robust upward trend” between July and September. Soraka Al-Khatib, co-head of Jones Lang [...]

GE has announced the appointment of Dr. Manar A Al-Moneef, a Saudi Arabian national and experienced healthcare professional, as the Managing Director of Imagination Breakthrough in the Middle East and Pakistan. Dr. Al-Moneef will be responsible for leading the business development of GE Healthcare, the healthcare operations of the company in the region, and providing [...]

The Saudi higher court in Riyadh announced on late Thursday that Friday is the first day of Dhu al-Hija Islamic month and that Eid al-Adha will be on Sunday November 6th, 2011. Dhu al-Hija or “the one of pilgrimage” is the twelfth and the last month of the Islamic calendar. The higher court decided on [...]

JEDDAH, 24 Dhul Qadah/22 Oct (IINA)- To prevent overstaying in the Kingdom, airlines will have to provide financial guarantees that they will transport Hajj pilgrims to their home countries by Muharram 15, 1433H (approximately Dec. 10, 2011), Dr. Fuad Bin Abdulsalam Al-Farsi, Minister of Hajj, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. He said this measure will be implemented [...]

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia could shortly open its stock exchange to foreign investors, Deutsche Bank’s head of MENA equities said, a move which would allow international capital to own shares outright on the Middle East’s largest bourse for the first time. “I do see it happening very soon,” Ahmed Beydoun told Reuters in a telephone interview. [...]

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud died in New York, officials said Saturday, raising succession questions in the key oil producer amid turmoil in the region. No other details about his death were immediately available, but arrangements are under way to transport his body back to Saudi Arabia, officials said. Crown Prince Sultan, [...]

The inaugural Solar Arabia Summit, which aims to highlight possible challenges and examine the benefits of solar energy in the region, will take place in Riyadh on October 23 and 24. The initiative is co-organised by French business information group naseba and King Saud University in Riyadh. Both the Ministry of Water and Electricity, and [...]

When Saudi student Sarah Abdul- Mohsen asked the salesman for a nude, 32C padded bra, she didn’t expect an argument about her cup size. After all, Abdul-Mohsen was wearing the mandatory black cloak and veil that disguise her shape, in a kingdom where custom forbids men from looking intimately at women. “He told me, ‘No, [...]

(Reuters) – Long before it understood the value of oil, the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia knew the worth of water. But the leading oil exporter’s water challenges are growing as energy-intensive desalination erodes oil revenues while peak water looms more ominously than peak oil — the theory that supplies are at or near their limit, with [...]