Kingdom —General News

JEDDAH: Two more drones launched by Houthi "terrorists" from Sanaa toward Saudi Arabia were shot down early Monday, the ninth hit in a span of 24 hours, Coalition forces supporting Yemen's legitimate government said .

In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al-Maliki said the two drones were intercepted and shot down in Yemeni airspace by Saudi-led air defense forces.

LONDON: Putting small containers of liquids in plastic bags could soon be a thing of the past for airline passengers in Britain after the government announced plans Sunday to introduce 3D screening equipment for carry-on luggage at all major airports.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement that the new technology will improve security and could also mean “an end to passengers having to use plastic bags or rationing what they take away with them.”

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump suggested dropping nuclear bombs on hurricanes before they made landfall in the United States, Axios online news site reported Sunday.
During a hurricane briefing, Trump asked if it were possible to disrupt hurricanes forming off the coast of Africa by dropping a nuclear bomb in the eye of the storm, Axios wrote.
According to an anonymous source, meeting attendees left the briefing thinking, “What do we do with this?“
Axios did not say when this conversation took place.

CAPE TOWN: It’s old, doesn’t look like much and is located well out the way in an arid part of western South Africa.
But the Steenkampskraal Mine may be about to become piping hot mining property thanks to some of the world’s highest-grade deposits of rare earth metals.
“Steenkampskraal will become a very important source of rare earths for the global industry,” Trevor Blench, chairman of Steenkampskraal Holdings Limited, said during a recent tour.

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING: Global central bank chiefs know their job is to keep the economy out of the ditch. What became clear at the US Federal Reserve’s central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, over the past couple of days is that not only do other people hold the wheel, some seem intent on steering toward trouble.

VIENNA: It may sound like a strange thing to enshrine in a country’s constitution: The right to pay cash.
But a debate on whether to do just that has entered Austria’s election campaign, shining a light on the country’s love of cold, hard currency.
The Austrian People’s Party (OeVP) recently made the suggestion as part of its campaign for a parliamentary election in late September, for which it has a commanding poll lead.

ABIDJAN: The seaside resort offers visitors a cool drink or tasty meal, a dip in a pool, a karaoke session or an overnight stay, all with a view.
Nothing much new there, you may say — creature comforts like this are pretty much standard in tropical hotels.
The big difference, though, is that this mini resort is also a moveable island that floats on plastic bottles.
Riding on the laguna in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s economic hub, the unusual complex floats on a platform made from 700,000 discarded bottles and other buoyant debris.

SHANGHAI: The US retail giant Costco is diving into the thorny area of food retail in China with its first store opening this week, but analysts warn it faces a tough ride as it looks to succeed where a series of international retailers have failed. The move also comes at a challenging time with Beijing and Washington engaged in a tense trade war that has seen them swap punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of two-way trade.

JEDDAH: The Umrah Forum and Exhibition, organized by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, will commence on Monday in Jeddah under the sponsorship of Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal.
The event will last for three days at the Jeddah International Exhibition and Convention Center.

AL-KHAZER/IRAQ: Her tent is bare, she is unemployed and her family relies on food donations. But Nihaya Issa was forced to pick an Iraqi camp over the unlivable ruins of her native city Mosul.

The northern city was freed from Daesh’s grip more than two years ago, but tens of thousands of Iraqis who fled Mosul into sprawling displacement camps have yet to move back home. Many, like Issa, say they tried returning but were shocked by what they saw.

TEHRAN: An Iranian court has sentenced writer and satirist Keyomars Marzban to 11 years in prison after convicting him of charges including cooperation with the US, state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said Marzban had “collaborated” with Radio Farda and Manoto television — broadcasters that are based abroad and banned in Iran.