RIYADH (Reuters) – Gulf Arab leaders on Tuesday broadly endorsed Saudi King Abdullah’s call to form a “single entity” in what appeared to be an attempt to form a more united front against a perceived threat from Iran.

King Abdullah on Monday said the security of Saudi Arabia and its Arab neighbors was being targeted, in an apparent reference to Iran, and called on Gulf Arab states to “move beyond the stage of cooperation and into the stage of unity in a single entity.”

RIYADH (Reuters) – King Abdullah said on Monday the security of Saudi Arabia and its Arab neighbors was being targeted, in an apparent reference to regional rival Iran, and he called for Gulf Arab states to close ranks in a “single entity.”

“No doubt you all know that we are targeted in our safety and security. That is why we have to take responsibility,” he said, addressing the opening session of a meeting of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

DUBAI/JEDDAH, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s
central bank expects the kingdom’s real gross domestic product
to rise 5.1 percent in 2011, when the budget surplus is likely
to reach 9.1 percent of output, it said in its annual report on
Monday.

“The preliminary projections of the model show that GDP at
current prices could rise by 5.1 percent in 2011,” said the
report published on its website (www.sama.gov.sa).

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – The world’s largest Islamic body urged Syria on Wednesday to “immediately stop the use of excessive force” against its citizens to avert the threat of foreign intervention.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), told a news conference in the Red Sea City of Jeddah that foreign ministers attending an OIC meeting called on Damascus to quickly enter into a dialogue with its opponents and rejected foreign intervention in Syria.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Nov 16 (Reuters) – A prominent
half-brother of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has resigned from
the Allegiance Council, the body responsible for overseeing
succession in the world’s top oil exporter, according to his
website.

Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, father of billionaire Alwaleed
bin Talal, is considered one of the most vocal supporters of
reform in the ruling Al Saud family.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Future development in the Muslim sacred city of Mecca will be more in tune with traditional architecture, the mayor says, but for now residents worry that Islam’s holiest sites are disappearing behind skyscrapers.

The historic city, the birthplace of Islam, is studded with dozens of yellow and red cranes and metal scaffolding aimed at increasing hotel space and improving facilities to make the annual haj pilgrimage safer and easier.

ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Struggling to keep his footing in a throng of Muslims trying to reach a mountain top near Mecca, Omar al-Sharkasy says it is thanks to the downfall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi that he is able to make the haj pilgrimage.

Part of a government-sponsored group for relatives of fighters killed in the civil war to defeat Gaddafi’s forces, Sharkasy has joined up to 3 million people from around the world to perform the annual haj, which all able-bodied Muslims are enjoined to complete at least once in a lifetime.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – As Muslims from all over the world congregate for the annual haj pilgrimage, some are defying the edicts of Saudi Arabia’s strict Wahhabi school of Islam by climbing al-Nour mountain in the hope of attaining spiritual favor.

Tucked under slabs of granite near the top of the 660-meter mountain on the outskirts of the sacred city of Mecca, dozens of pilgrims jostle for a glimpse of the Hera’a cave where they say God first revealed the message of Islam.