Saudi to mark Ramzan from Sunday: TV

RIYADH: Ramzan, the holy month of fasting, will begin on Sunday in Saudi Arabia, the state-run Al-Ekhbariya television channel reported on Friday.

Citing the authorities, it said that because the crescent moon was unable to be seen with the naked eye on Friday, Ramazan would begin on Sunday.

According to tradition, it is the sighting with the naked eye of the new moon that signals the start of Ramzan.

Other Gulf monarchies, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also said Ramzan will start in their countries on Sunday.

Yemen’s religious authorities said in a statement that fasting would begin on Saturday. (AFP)

Saudi king orders steps against "terrorist threats"

RIYADH: King Abdullah ordered all necessary measures to protect Saudi Arabia against potential "terrorist threats" after chairing a security meeting to discuss the fall-out from Iraq, the state news agency SPA said on Thursday.

The world´s top oil exporter shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with Iraq, where the militant Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other Sunni Muslim groups have seized towns and cities in a lightning advance this month.

Riyadh has long expressed fears of being targeted by jihadists, including some of its own citizens, who have taken part in conflicts in Iraq and Syria, and earlier this year decreed long jail terms for those who travel overseas to fight.

"Concerned for the national security of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia against any measures that terrorist organisations or any other groups might resort to ..., (the king) has ordered all necessary measures to protect the gains of the homeland and its stability, and the security of the Saudi people," SPA said.

King Abdullah acted a day before he was due to meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jeddah to discuss the crisis in Iraq and Syria, and a day after two Saudi men were involved in a suicide bombing in Lebanon.

The Saudi ambassador in Lebanon said on Thursday he was not able to rule out that Wednesday´s attack in a Beirut hotel, which killed one of the Saudis and injured three security guards, was intended to target the embassy, located nearby.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has been one of the biggest supporters of mainly Sunni rebels in Lebanon´s neighbour Syria fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Riyadh´s main regional adversary, Shi´ite Muslim Iran.

However, it has shied away from arming rebel groups like ISIL that it fears are connected to al Qaeda, which waged a campaign of attacks inside the kingdom a decade ago led by veterans of jihad in civil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Saudi Arabia´s envoy in Lebanon, Ali Awad Asiri, said it was important to find out who was behind Wednesday´s bombing in Beirut, in which local security forces said the Saudi bomber was killed and another Saudi wounded and then arrested at the scene."We want to know why a Saudi citizen was involved in such a criminal act," Asiri told television channel al-Hadath.

His comment that the attack may have been directed at the Saudi embassy came in a later interview broadcast on the al-Arabiya channel.

"We need to know how they were lured into this, who finances them, why they were in that place to carry out this criminal act. We have special ties with the security forces in Lebanon and the Lebanese government," he said.

Saudi MERS toll surges to 282: ministry

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia´s death toll from the MERS coronavirus has surged to 282, the health ministry said on Tuesday, following recalculations in the world´s worst hit country.

"A comprehensive revision" going back to 2012 has resulted in revising up the death toll, which had stood at 190 people, while the number of infected cases rose from 575 to 688 people, the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, the health ministry announced that acting minister Adel Fakieh had sacked one of his deputies, Ziad Memish, without giving reasons for the dismissal.

Fakieh, who is the labour minister, was assigned the health portfolio after former health minister Abdullah al-Rabiah was himself dismissed in April without official explanation.

Upon his appointment, Fakieh promised "transparency" in providing the public and media with information about the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Like SARS, it appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering coughing, breathing difficulties and a temperature. But MERS differs in that it causes rapid kidney failure.

Last month, Fakieh announced he was sacking the head of the King Fahd Hospital in the western city of Jeddah, where a rise in MERS infections among medical staff sparked panic among the public.

Most cases of the disease have been in Saudi Arabia, but the virus has been imported to more than a dozen other countries. All of those cases relate to people who became ill while in the Middle East. (AFP)

Saudi reports one more death from MERS virus

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s health ministry says one more patient who contracted the potentially fatal Middle East virus related to SARS has died and that 14 new cases have been detected.

The ministry said on its website Sunday that a Saudi man in his 70s died in Riyadh. It says this brings to 112 the number of deaths from the virus in the kingdom since September 2012.

The new 14 cases raise the number of those infected in Saudi Arabia to 411. Five of the new cases were detected in Riyadh, five in Jeddah and four in Makka — three women and a 14-year-old boy.

MERS belongs to the coronavirus family that includes the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which caused some 800 deaths globally in 2003. (AP)

MERS death toll in Saudi climbs to 107

 Health

 

RIYADH: Saudi health authorities announced Saturday two new deaths from the MERS coronavirus, raising to 109 the number of fatalities since the disease appeared in the kingdom in September 2012.

A 25-year-old man has died in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and a woman of 69, who suffered from tuberculosis and anaemia, died in Mecca, also western Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said.

At the same time, 35 new cases of the severe respiratory disease have been recorded, raising the number of sufferers in the Gulf state over the past two years to 396, the world´s highest tally.

On Friday, US health officials said the first case of MERS has been confirmed in the United States.

The person infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a health care provider who had travelled to Riyadh for work, they said.

And last week, Egypt recorded its first infection after a person who arrived from Saudi Arabia tested positive.

Public concern in Saudi Arabia over the spread of MERS has mounted after the resignation of at least four doctors at Jeddah´s King Fahd Hospital who refused to treat patients for fear of infection.

Some research has suggested that camels are a likely source of the virus.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for MERS, a disease with a mortality rate of more than 40 percent that experts are still struggling to understand. (AFP)

COAS witnesses Saudi military’s war exercise

RIYADH: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif has witnessed Saudi military’s war exercise “Shamsheer of Abdullah”.

The military experts and chiefs of army staff of Gulf States were also present in the concluding ceremony of the exercises.

General Raheel Shairf had left for two-day official visit to Saudi Arabia on the invitation of Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Saudi MERS deaths top 100 fuelling public fear

JEDDAH: The MERS death toll in Saudi Arabia topped 100 on Sunday as the authorities scrambled to reassure an increasingly edgy population in the country worst-hit by the infectious coronavirus.

Public fears have been fuelled by a rapid rise in the number of fatalities from the respiratory infection, with 39 people dying this month -- well over a third of the 102 deaths registered since the virus emerged in April 2012.

A nine-month-old infant was among eight new deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome announced by the health ministry on Sunday.

It said the total number of cases diagnosed since the virus was first recorded in the kingdom has reached 339, representing the bulk of infections registered worldwide.

Among them were four medical staff at a single hospital in Tabuk in the northwest, two doctors -- one Egyptian and one Syrian -- and two Philippine nurses.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in the western city of Jeddah led to the temporary closure of a main hospital´s emergency room.

At least four doctors at Jeddah´s King Fahd Hospital resigned earlier this month after refusing to treat MERS patients for fear of infection.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

It is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Riyadh dismissed the health minister earlier this month without saying why, and Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, appointed acting health minister, promised "transparency" over MERS.

Ailing King Abdullah himself travelled to Jeddah on Thursday to reassure the public and demonstrate that "exaggerated and false rumours" about MERS are false, said his son, National Guard Minister Prince Mitab.

Fakieh said on Saturday that three specialised medical centres have been set up in Jeddah, Riyadh and Eastern Province.

- Shortage of face masks -

But people are still not taking any chances.

"I´ve decided to keep my six-year-old daughter at home and not send her to school," said Umm Muntaha. "Prevention is better than cure."

Schools remain open despite rumours of possible closures, but many have asked parents to equip their children with face masks and disinfectants.

Pharmaceutical sources have already spoken of a shortage of masks in Jeddah because of rising demand.

"Demand for masks has grown 10 times during the past two weeks," said one pharmacist in Jeddah, who has now run out of stock.

The health ministry has not taken any "additional measures" at airports apart from the "usual preventive measures", a ministry official said. (AFP)

Saudi announces 11 new MERS infections

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced 11 new cases of MERS, including a 13-year-old child, as its acting health minister vowed to keep the public better informed about the coronavirus.

The new cases bring to 272 the total number of MERS infections, including 81 deaths, registered across the kingdom -- worst hit by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome which was first detected in eastern Saudi Arabia in September 2012.

Most of the latest cases are in Riyadh and the commercial hub Jeddah, with one case in the holy city Makka, visited each year by millions of pilgrims from around the world.

Three of the new infections were of health workers, while a 13-year-old Saudi girl is among cases recorded in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

A spike in MERS cases and public fears prompted the Gulf state to dismiss its health minister, Abdullah al-Rabiah, on Monday without an official explanation.

Rabiah last week visited hospitals in Jeddah to calm a public hit by panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff that triggered the temporary closure of the city´s King Fahd Hospital emergency room.

Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, who has taken over as acting health minister, said on Twitter late Tuesday that he had visited the Jeddah hospital.

Fakieh promised "transparency and to promptly provide the media and society with the information needed" on the virus.

At least four doctors at King Fahd Hospital reportedly resigned last week after refusing to treat MERS patients.

The virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

A recent study said the virus has been "extraordinarily common" in camels for at least 20 years, and it may have been passed directly from the animals to humans.

The World Health Organisation said it had been informed of 253 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 93 had been fatal.

The WHO in a statement issued in Cairo on Wednesday expressed concern about the rising number of cases, especially in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Its Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office said it has offered to help Saudi Arabia and the UAE investigate the current outbreaks "in order to determine the transmission chain of this recent cluster". (AFP)

Saudi announces 11 new MERS infections

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced 11 new cases of MERS, including a 13-year-old child, as its acting health minister vowed to keep the public better informed about the coronavirus.

The new cases bring to 272 the total number of MERS infections, including 81 deaths, registered across the kingdom -- worst hit by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome which was first detected in eastern Saudi Arabia in September 2012.

Most of the latest cases are in Riyadh and the commercial hub Jeddah, with one case in the holy city Makka, visited each year by millions of pilgrims from around the world.

Three of the new infections were of health workers, while a 13-year-old Saudi girl is among cases recorded in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

A spike in MERS cases and public fears prompted the Gulf state to dismiss its health minister, Abdullah al-Rabiah, on Monday without an official explanation.

Rabiah last week visited hospitals in Jeddah to calm a public hit by panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff that triggered the temporary closure of the city´s King Fahd Hospital emergency room.

Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, who has taken over as acting health minister, said on Twitter late Tuesday that he had visited the Jeddah hospital.

Fakieh promised "transparency and to promptly provide the media and society with the information needed" on the virus.

At least four doctors at King Fahd Hospital reportedly resigned last week after refusing to treat MERS patients.

The virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

A recent study said the virus has been "extraordinarily common" in camels for at least 20 years, and it may have been passed directly from the animals to humans.

The World Health Organisation said it had been informed of 253 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 93 had been fatal.

The WHO in a statement issued in Cairo on Wednesday expressed concern about the rising number of cases, especially in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Its Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office said it has offered to help Saudi Arabia and the UAE investigate the current outbreaks "in order to determine the transmission chain of this recent cluster". (AFP)

Saudi health minister sacked as MERS toll rises

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia dismissed its health minister on Monday just days after he visited a hospital at the centre of growing concerns about the kingdom's handling of the MERS virus.

Abdullah al-Rabiah was named adviser to King Abdullah and replaced by Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, said a royal decree carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia has registered by far the largest number of infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since the disease's discovery in September 2012.

Of 243 confirmed cases across the planet, 231 have been in Saudi Arabia, according to the World Health Organisation.

Of those, 81 people have died, most recently two foreigners in the commercial capital Jeddah where there have been mounting fears of a potential surge in infections.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in Jeddah triggered the temporary closure of a hospital emergency room in the city earlier this month.

The now fired minister visited the facility last week in a bid to reassure the public but on Wednesday at least four doctors at the King Fahd Hospital reportedly resigned after refusing to treat MERS patients.

MERS was initially concentrated in eastern Saudi Arabia but it now affects other areas.

The virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

Saudi health minister sacked as MERS toll rises

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia dismissed its health minister on Monday just days after he visited a hospital at the centre of growing concerns about the kingdom's handling of the MERS virus.

Abdullah al-Rabiah was named adviser to King Abdullah and replaced by Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, said a royal decree carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia has registered by far the largest number of infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since the disease's discovery in September 2012.

Of 243 confirmed cases across the planet, 231 have been in Saudi Arabia, according to the World Health Organisation.

Of those, 81 people have died, most recently two foreigners in the commercial capital Jeddah where there have been mounting fears of a potential surge in infections.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in Jeddah triggered the temporary closure of a hospital emergency room in the city earlier this month.

The now fired minister visited the facility last week in a bid to reassure the public but on Wednesday at least four doctors at the King Fahd Hospital reportedly resigned after refusing to treat MERS patients.

MERS was initially concentrated in eastern Saudi Arabia but it now affects other areas.

The virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

Saudi companies’ food mandatory for Pakistani pilgrims

ISLAMABAD: The Saudi Arabian government has made for Pakistani pilgrims mandatory to buy food from Saudi companies, Geo News reported.

Sources in the Ministry of Religious Affairs told Geo News that food will be provided to Pakistani pilgrims at Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah for six days in return of advance payment.

Meanwhile, the sources said, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, in a letter to Saudi officials, stated that Pakistani pilgrims should not be forced to buy food from particular companies as they take meal of different taste.

He demanded of the Saudi government to lift this ban on Pakistani pilgrims as buying of food from these companies would further increase financial burden on them.

The sources added that Sardar Yousuf had also held a meeting with Saudi Ambassador to resolve the issue.

Saudi reports new MERS death

JEDDAH: A Saudi man has died of MERS in the western city of Jeddah, where authorities have sought to calm fears over the spreading respiratory illness, the health ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry said five more people were infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, including two medics, all in Jeddah.

The latest death of a 52-year-old brings to 71 the total number of people to have died from MERS, out of 205 infections in Saudi Arabia, it added.

Health authorities on Tuesday reported the death of a 59-year-old, also in Jeddah, as well as four other infections in the same city, including three medics.

Last week panic over the spread of MERS among medical staff in Jeddah forced the temporary closure of an emergency room at a major hospital, prompting Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabiah to visit the facility in a bid to calm the public.

"The situation concerning the coronavirus is reassuring," said a government statement.

The MERS virus was initially concentrated in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia but has now spread across other areas.

The World Health Organisation said Friday it had been told of 212 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 88 have proved fatal.

The MERS virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

A recent study said the virus has been "extraordinarily common" in camels for at least 20 years, and may have been passed directly from the animals to humans. (AFP)

IOC welcomes Saudi end to girls´ sports ban

GENEVA: The International Olympic Committee on Sunday urged the Saudi government to push forward with moves to lift a ban on sports in girls´ state schools.

The conservative Muslim kingdom´s consultative Shura Council last week recommended an end to the ban, which was relaxed in private schools last year, state media reported. "We welcome this development and look forward to approval by the Education Ministry," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said in a statement.

The ministry must officially lift the ban as the council is influential, but only advisory. Adams noted that IOC president Thomas Bach had raised women´s involvement in sport when he visited Saudi Arabia. "On the IOC President´s visit to Saudi Arabia last week the National Olympic Committee outlined plans to increase women´s participation in sport in the kingdom at university level, which we fully support," Adams said. "And following participation by female athletes from Saudi Arabia at the Olympic Games in London and the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this would be a further step towards full participation by girls and women at all levels of sport in the country," he added.

All education in Saudi Arabia is single-sex, but sports in girls schools remains a sensitive issue in a country where women have to cover from head to toe when in public.

The kingdom bowed to international pressure and sent its first ever female participants to an Olympics at the 2012 London Games.

The IOC agreed to allow the two Saudi women -- a judo player and a middle-distance runner -- to compete with their heads and bodies covered in deference to the Islamic dress code enforced at home.

Human rights campaigners say that millions of Saudi women remain effectively barred from sports. Saudi authorities shut down private gyms for women in 2009 and 2010, and women are effectively barred from sports arenas by strict rules banning men and women mixing in public.

The kingdom follows a strict interpretation of Islamic law, forbidding women to work or travel without the authorisation of their male guardians. It is the only country in the world that bans women from driving. "Saudi Arabia has a long way to go to end discriminatory practices against women, but allowing girls to play sports in government schools would move the ball down the field in ways that could have major long-term impact," said Human Rights Watch. (AFP)

Another Saudi MERS death raises kingdom toll to 67

JEDDAH: Saudi health authorities announced on Wednesday another death caused by the MERS virus in the capital Riyadh, bringing the nationwide toll to 67.

The 57-year-old Saudi national had been suffering from chronic illnesses, the health ministry said.

It also reported that another two Saudis had been infected by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome -- one a 51-year-old and the other a 90-year-old, both of whom are suffering chronic illnesses.

The latest figures bring to 179 the number of cases of MERS in Saudi Arabia since the virus first appeared in the kingdom in September 2012. The virus was initially concentrated in the eastern region but has now spread across more areas.

Eleven new cases were reported in the western port city of Jeddah in recent weeks, causing a wave of panic fuelled by rumours circulated on social networks.

Of the 11 victims, two died while six have recovered and another three are undergoing treatment, according to the health ministry.

Three of the patients in Jeddah were health workers, including one of the two who died, prompting authorities to close the emergency department at the city’s King Fahd Hospital.

Patients were transferred to other hospitals while the department was disinfected in a process expected to take 24 hours, the ministry said on Tuesday.

The MERS virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand the disease, for which there is no known vaccine. A study revealed that the virus has been "extraordinarily common" in camels for at least 20 years, and may have been passed directly from the animals to humans.

The World Health Organisation said at the end of March that it had been told of 206 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 86 had been fatal.

Obama in Saudi as changes test decades-long alliance

ROME: US President Barack Obama will aim Friday to reassure his Saudi hosts on the strength of their alliance, frayed by Washington´s diplomatic opening towards Iran and reluctance to use force in Syria.

Obama is expected late on Friday in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, the fourth and final stop of a tour this week after the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy.

The White House was late to announce Obama´s stop in Riyadh, following his European tour, fuelling speculation on the motives of the US president´s second visit since his election in 2009 to Washington´s decades-old ally in the Middle East.

Dating back to the end of World War II, the relationship was founded on an agreement for Washington to defend the Gulf state in exchange for oil contracts.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia is the world´s top producer and exporter of oil. In 2012, it was still the second largest exporter to the United States, after Canada.

But relations have soured, with Riyadh openly criticising US policy on regional issues, which are to be discussed at a meeting followed by dinner between King Abdullah and Obama.

At the Arab League summit in Kuwait on Tuesday, Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz accused the international community of "betraying" Syrian rebels, outgunned in their war against President Bashar al-Assad´s regime.

According to the Syrian opposition, Washington has imposed a veto on its allies against arming rebels with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, over fears they could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists.

And the Saudis were bitterly disappointed by Obama´s 11th-hour decision last year to back down from military action against the Syrian regime over chemical weapons attacks.

Saudi Arabia, long wary of Iran´s regional ambitions, is also sceptical of the interim nuclear deal reached by world powers and the Islamic republic in November, viewing it as a risky venture that could embolden Tehran.

The agreement would curb Iran´s controversial nuclear activities in exchange for limited sanctions relief, and is aimed at buying time to negotiate a comprehensive accord.