Arab world

    Saudi women will for the first time be allowed to enter a sports stadium on Friday to watch a soccer match between two local teams though they will be segregated from the male only crowd with designated seating in the so-called family section. The move is Saudi Arabia's first social reform planned for this year granting women greater rights. The kingdom has also announced that starting in June, women will be allowed to drive, lifting the world's only ban on female drivers. To prepare for the change, the kingdom has designated family sections in the stands for women, separated by barriers from the male-only crowd. The stadiums have also been fitted with female prayer areas, restrooms and smoking areas, as well as separate entrances and parking lots for female spectat...

    Three Saudi nurses have been sacked after video of them squashing an ill baby's face as they laughed was shared online. The video, which was posted on YouTube, showed one of the women holding the baby's neck and forehead while squeezing its face. Her two colleagues watched and laughed. The baby had been admitted to the children's hospital in the Saudi city of Taif with a urinary tract infection. Abdulhadi Al-Rabie, Taif Health Affairs spokesman, confirmed the women had been fired for mistreating the baby. The baby's father told reporters that he had been shocked by the video, which racked up 57,000 views in two days. He called on the Ministry of Health to take tough action on the nurses and those who had circulated the video, according to a report in the Saudi G...

    Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) for the first time from Monday. It is a five per cent tax on most goods and services to boost revenue. The VAT will be applied on food, clothes, electronics and gasoline, phone, water and electricity bills, as well as hotel reservations, the BBC reported. Some outgoings were exempt from the tax or given a zero-tax rating, including medical treatment, financial services and public transport. The UAE estimates that in the first year, VAT income will be around 12 billion dirhams ($3.3 billion). The imposition of VAT will help to raise tax revenues of the Saudi government to be utilised for infrastructure and developmental works, said Mohammed Al-Khunaizi, a member of the Shoura (cons...

    A Cairo criminal court sentenced former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and 19 others to three years in prison on Saturday, and fined him 2 million Egyptian pounds ($112,700) on charges of insulting the judiciary. Others tried by the court in the same case including leading Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and lawmaker and television presenter Tawfik Okasha were instead given fines ranging from 30,000 to 1 million Egyptian pounds. The verdicts can still be appealed. Mursi, democratically elected after Egypt’s 2011 revolution, was overthrown in mid-2013 by then-general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, now the president, following mass protests against his rule. He was immediately arrested and is now serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of inciting the killing o...

    The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is about to enter a crucial few months that will show his true motives and the scope of his power. Almost two months into it, Saudi Arabia's crackdown on corruption is yielding at least some of the $100 billion the kingdom is targeting. Dozens of former officials and businessmen have exchanged part of their wealth for freedom. But in the increasingly drawn-out case of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the public face of the Saudi royal family to many foreign executives and investors, there's more at stake than taking over his global business empire and talks on a settlement have hit an impasse. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is about to enter a crucial few months that will show his true motives and the scope of hi...