Saudi Arabia

Two women's rights campaigners detained in Saudi Arabia have been transferred to a special tribunal for "terrorism", activists said on Dec. 25 after the women appeared in court.
      
The ruling came at a hearing in Al-Ahsa, in the kingdom's Eastern Province, according to the activists who declined to be named.
      

Jordan executed 11 men convicted of murder by hanging on Dec. 21, the interior ministry said, as it ended an informal eight-year moratorium on the death penalty.

"Eleven criminals convicted in different cases of murder were executed at dawn," the official Petra news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.

Saudi football clubs warn that a Labor Ministry-imposed quota system for Saudi nationals will disadvantage clubs by preventing them from hiring foreign talent Mounting anger among Saudi football clubs at their subjugation to quotas - designed to encourage employment of Saudi nationals and reduce dependence on foreign labor - illustrates the problems encountered by wealthy Gulf countries in bal

Saudi political and business delegation to visit Serbia

BELGRADE -- A policial and business delegation from Saudi Arabia will pay a visit to Serbia, it has been announced.

The outcome of the debate about the invitation extended to Jordan and Morocco to attend the Gulf Cup will serve as one more indicator of the balance of power among the Gulf states Wealthy Gulf states have invited Jordan and Morocco to compete in future Gulf Cups as part of a bid to strengthen their fragile six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), at a time when they have - at best - papered

BELGRADE/RIYADH - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud agreed in Riyadh on Sunday for a Saudi political and business delegation to pay a visit to Serbia.

Saudi Arabia on Nov. 20 beheaded a Turkish man convicted of drug trafficking, the interior ministry said, in the latest execution in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom.

Ali Ağırdaş had been convicted of receiving a "large amount of drugs" and was executed in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the ministry said in a statement.

Gulf leaders agreed Nov. 16 on the return of Saudi, Emirati, and Bahraini envoys to Qatar after an extraordinary meeting in Riyadh, promising an end to eight months of tense relations.
      

Abdi Ä°brahim, a leading Turkish pharmaceutical company, signed a strategic licensing agreement on Nov. 13 with Saudi Arabian pharmaceutical distribution company Banaja Holding, as well as a marketing firm.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum's visit to Saudi Arabia is aimed at patching up long-strained relations between the two countries as Baghdad battles jihadist militants, a senior official said Nov. 12.
      
Masum arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and met with King Abdullah, the highest-level contact between the neighbouring countries in years.