Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has given Lebanon's military $1 billion to help its fight against jihadists on the Syrian border, as the army's chief urged France to speed up promised weapons supplies.
      
After fighting in the eastern area Tuesday, where troops have been clashing with militants since Saturday, ambulances entered the town of Arsal amid reports of a truce.
      

Istanbul’s Sevda Tepesi (Love Hill), which has belonged to the king of Saudi Arabia since 1984, has returned to the agenda after the main opposition said a construction permit for the hill was granted only after Saudi Arabia sent $100 million to a charity that counts the prime minister’s son as one of the board members.

The ongoing Gaza crisis has proven once again that Turkey has lost its regional and global weight at the hands of this government, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, stressing that harsh statements issued by senior government officials were not enough to bring about concrete results.

Turkey and Qatar are forging a plan to produce a truce between Palestinian groups and Israel to end 10 days of violence in Gaza amid additional efforts from Cairo.

Meanwhile, an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his country and Hamas “have agreed on a cease-fire” that would begin on July 18, but Hamas denied the report.

Israel’s operation against Gaza is nothing but brutal and indiscriminate collective punishment against the Palestinians and is deplorable. The pictures we see in the press of celebrating Israelis as bombs fall on the people of Gaza are reminiscent of another era when the Jews were on the receiving end, but this appears lost on Israelis today.

Women’s passion for football in predominantly Muslim countries is not only for the passion of the beautiful game, but is also fueled by the fact that it fulfils a need to release energy and in a conservative society that severely restricts their freedom Women’s passion for football is not simply a love of the beautiful game.

The International Energy Agency cut its forecast for 2014 oil demand to 92.7 million barrels a day due to weaker than expected global economic growth.

The Syrian National Coalition, the main exiled opposition group seeking the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, on July 9 elected Saudi-based Syrian opposition figure Hadi al-Bahra as its new president.

“Why not leave the dark pages of history behind? I hope we can turn over a new page in our relations.”

Syrian warplanes bombed Sunni militants' positions inside Iraq, military officials confirmed Wednesday, deepening the concerns that the extremist insurgency that spans the two neighboring countries could morph into an even wider regional conflict. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned against the threat and said other nations should stay out.