By MAAYAN LUBELL | REUTERS ARABNEWS JERUSALEM: In its troubled peace talks with the Palestinians, Israel has demanded that it should be recognized as a Jewish state, but there is deep domestic division on what that means. Yoram Kaniuk, a rambunctious 81-year-old author, was hailed by Israeli secularists this week […]
By MUHAMMAD HUMAIDAN | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, who is also chairman of the Central Haj Committee, will launch this season’s national media campaign to enlighten domestic pilgrims on Haj regulations on Oct. 15. The logo of the campaign, which was first launched in the Haj […]
By BRADLEY KLAPPER BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic The Obama administration warned the U.N. cultural agency to stay out of the question of Palestinian statehood or face the consequences, as American lawmakers were threatening to withhold tens of millions of dollars in U.S. funding if the organization agrees […]
By AGENCIES ARABNEWS RAMALLAH, West Bank: A senior Palestinian official called Wednesday for the replacement of international Middle East envoy Tony Blair, saying the former British leader is biased in favor of Israel and is “of no use at all.” Mohammed Ishtayeh, a member of the Central Committee of the dominant […]
By GALAL FAKKAR | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: Most charitable societies in the Kingdom have shifted from traditional to electronic donation collection systems after finding out that donors prefer such methods to give money. Khaled Al-Serhttp://www.themuslimtimes.org/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=postaihy, director general of the International Research and Studies Center, said his organization had played a […]
By P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: The Mashair Railway will transport more than 500,000 pilgrims this Haj season when it operates at full capacity for the first time, a senior government official said. The service links the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah. “The railway will charge […]
GENEVA/DAMASCUS/BEIRUT (AFP) – More than 2,900 people have been killed in Syria since the start of a crackdown on anti-regime protests, the UN said on Thursday a day before its human rights body was to discuss the situation. “According to the detailed list of names of individuals we’ve been keeping, […]
IDF patrol vehicle near Shilo trapped by roadblocks; settlers and soldiers clash in what a senior officer calls ‘crossing a red line.’ By Anshel Pfeffer haaretz online. Dozens of Jewish settlers surrounded an IDF patrol vehicle on Wednesday evening near the Shilo settlement, setting up roadblocks and physically assaulting IDF […]
By ARAB NEWS MADINAH: Saudi female poet Mastoura Al-Ahmadi died on Monday at the age of 35 at King Fahd Hospital in Madinah after she suffered from a heart problem. Al-Ahmadi was a famous poet who participated in the popular reality TV show “Poet Of The Million,” aired from United […]
By MARIAM NIHAL, MARIAM.NIHAL@ARABNEWS.COM For centuries calligraphy has joined the dots between contemplation, opinions, perception of art and poetry with Islam. A beautiful depiction of the words of Allah is granted a blank canvas where artists with their dreams, intellect and born genius paint them to life. Arabic script has […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: There has been a growing tendency among pilgrims who lack correct knowledge of Islamic faith to do things against the creed out of belief that this would cure them of diseases or bring blessings. Arab News has noted that a number of […]
By Omar Obeidat JORDAN TIMES AMMAN –– As the Arab Bank continues to face allegations in the US that it provided banking services to terrorist groups, cables by the US embassy in Amman, revealed recently by WikiLeaks, defended the financial institution’s reputation. A few years ago, hundreds of Israelis filed […]
PARIS (AFP) – Palestine won a first diplomatic victory in its quest for statehood on Wednesday when the UNESCO executive committee backed its bid to become a member of the cultural body with the rights of a state. Palestine’s Arab allies braved intense US and French diplomatic pressure to bring […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: The General Presidency of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques has completed all arrangements for the execution of its Haj plan this year. The plan will come into effect on Oct. 13 and end on Nov. 25, Vice President of the […]
By ARAB NEWS RIYADH: Ministers of higher education and scientific research in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries began an extraordinary meeting here Tuesday to explore prospects of expanding cooperation among universities and research centers in the Muslim world. Opening the conference, Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari emphasized the […]
by JOHN FEFFER Foreign Policy in Focus. Institute of Policy Studies. It’s easy to make fun of Michele Bachmann: her history gaffes, her Christian extremism, her ludicrous political positions. Journalists, though, would be sad to see her leave the Republican primary race, since she can be reliably counted on to […]
By Paul R. Kopenkoskey, An estimated 275 Christian leaders are meeting in Indonesia this week (Oct. 4-7) to plot an ecumenical future in what one veteran of the ecumenical movement called a watershed gathering. Leaders of the fledgling Global Christian Forum will gather evangelical, Pentecostal, mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic and […]
LONDON, October 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Warning over Wahhabism, influence of internet and media focus on extremist groups at security and cohesion debate Politicians, think tanks, religious leaders and academics came together for a landmark conference at the European Parliament to highlight the threats posed by religious extremism and to […]
By ROBERTA FEDELE, LIFE.STYLE@ARABNEWS.COM Saudi Arabia is generally associated with the idea of a closed society, eager to preserve its own traditions from external cultural influences. For different reasons, Western countries too are starting to suffer from fear of cultural contamination. However, even in such peculiar context, it is possible to find […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: The Al-Zamazima Office, which serves Zamzam water, has started the implementation of this year’s Haj plan. The plan aims to provide the blessed water to pilgrims from the moment of their arrival in Saudi Arabia until their departure, the office’s head Sulaiman […]