RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has appointed women to a fifth of the seats in the Shura Council, which advises the government on new legislation, state media said on Friday.

The king said in 2011 that women would join the unelected 150-member body, which functions like a parliament but without formal powers. He did not then specify how many would serve.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Jan 9 (Reuters) – In the heart of
Saudi Arabia’s sprawling Red Sea port city of Jeddah,
centuries-old buildings tilt and buckle above the historic
district’s narrow alleys, withering away in the absence of
decisive action to protect them.

The seventh-century historic district, with its mud and
coral town houses adorned with ornate wooden balconies, holds
the only remnants of the traditional architecture of the Hijaz,
as the western Arabian Peninsula is known.

JEDDAH/DUBAI, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Foreign airlines may need
about three to six months to obtain operating licences letting
them enter Saudi Arabia’s domestic aviation market, a spokesman
for the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) said on
Saturday.

GACA announced on Friday that Qatar Airways and Bahrain’s
national carrier Gulf Air had become the first foreign
airlines to obtain carrier licences under which they would be
able to run local and international flights in the kingdom.

MANAMA (Reuters) – Six U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states demanded on Tuesday that Iran end what they called interference in the region, reiterating a long-held mistrust of their main rival.

The Islamic Republic denies trying to subvert Saudi Arabia and its wealthy Gulf neighbors.

MANAMA (Reuters) – Kuwait urged neighboring Iran on Monday to cooperate more with the U.N. nuclear watchdog to allay Gulf Arab concerns about the safety of an Iranian nuclear power plant that lies just across the waterway from the emirate.

The emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, said a recent shutdown at the Bushehr plant indicated Tehran had to work with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy (IAEA) to ensure the safety of the facility near the coastal town of Bushehr.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Glancing through the
newspapers one morning last month Saudi Arabian businessman
Ihsan al-Naeem was stunned by a government announcement that he
fears will threaten the survival of his family’s 30-year-old
contracting business.

In the latest and most aggressive of a series of labour
reforms, the government has started imposing fees on companies
that hire more foreign than local workers. The requirement
covers everyone from expat professionals to hospital workers and
labourers on construction sites and is in addition to quotas
already in place to limit foreign staff numbers.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Saudi King Abdullah has appeared on state television on Wednesday for the first time since his 11-hour operation to tighten a back ligament on November 17, helping assuage fears over his health.

In footage broadcast on state television, the monarch, who is in his late 80s, appeared to be in good health as he sat in a chair receiving members of the royal family and officials at the National Guard’s King Abdulaziz Medical City in the capital Riyadh.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s largest listed real estate developer, Dar Al Arkan 4300.SE, plans to buy assets in Asia as part of its strategy to diversify revenue streams, its chairman Youssef al-Shelash told Reuters on Monday.

Shelash said the company owned just under 35 million square meters (8,650 acres) of land, and in the past it has relied heavily for revenue on sales of land within Saudi Arabia.

RIYADH, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia-based bookstore
chain Jarir Marketing Co plans to expand the number of
its stores by at least 70 percent in the next five years to take
advantage of the Gulf region’s rapid population growth.

The kingdom’s largest listed retailer plans to spend 120-150
million riyals ($32-40 million) a year, or about 20 percent of
retained earnings, on the expansion, chairman Muhammad al-Agil
told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit on Monday.

RIYADH, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov condemned the bloodshed in Syria as “outrageous” on
Wednesday and urged opponents of President Bashar al-Assad
inside and outside the country to form a united front to end the
crisis.

Lavrov met with foreign ministers of the six-member Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) for more than two hours in Riyadh but
failed to reach common ground on how to end the bloodshed that
has claimed more than 38,000 lives in Syria.