Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's women's national football team made history yesterday after playing their first ever international fixture on home soil.

The team known as the Green Falcons, led by German coach Monika Staab drew 3-3 with visitors Bhutan at the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Stadium in Abha with a late equaliser in the 90th minute by Noura Al-Ibrahim. The Saudi team will face the same opponents again on Wednesday.

23 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Saudi Monarch, King Salman, has issued a Royal Order appointing Hala Al-Tuwaijri as the Chief of the Human Rights Commission, the first woman to hold this position, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

RIYADH, Sept 23 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Arabia, yesterday, launched the kingdom’s first manned space trip programme, that aims to send two Saudi astronauts, a man and a women, next year.

The programme involves training Saudi qualified candidates, to undertake long-term and short-term space flights, and conduct scientific experiments and research, in areas of health, sustainability and space technology, at the same time, according to the Saudi Space Commission.

22 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's mission to the International Space Station next year aboard a SpaceX capsule will include a woman who would become the world's first female Arab astronaut, according to Axiom Space, the US company arranging the mission for the Kingdom, Reuters reports.

Neither Axiom nor the Saudi government provided the name for the female astronaut, who will be accompanied by another Saudi and two Americans as part of Axiom's second private mission to the space station, slated for early 2023.

22 Sep 2022; MEMO: Speaker of the Saudi Shura Council, Abdullah Bin Muhammad Al-Sheikh, has called on Iran to cooperate and stop meddling in the domestic affairs of others and stop "exploiting" the Houthis in Yemen

RIYADH, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday released 10 foreign prisoners of war captured in Ukraine following mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi foreign ministry said.

The freed prisoners were American, British, Croatian, Moroccan and Swedish nationals, the ministry said in a statement, adding that a plane carrying the prisoners landed in the kingdom.

"The relevant Saudi authorities received and transferred them from Russia to the kingdom and are facilitating procedures for their respective countries," the statement said.

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Head of Saudi state oil giant, Aramco, said on Tuesday Europe's plans to cap energy bills for consumers and tax energy companies were not long-term or helpful solutions for the global energy crisis, spurred largely by underinvestment in hydrocarbons, Reuters reports.

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at the highest rate in 10 years to 7.5 per cent in 2022, with an expected surplus in the state's budget of about 6.3 per cent, according to credit rating agency S&P.

S&P expects the Saudi economy's productive capacity to grow in the long run due to the development of general finances and significant economic reforms.

18 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has announced the discovery of new sites for gold and copper ore deposits in the Madinah region.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Thursday that the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), represented by the Survey and Mineral Exploration Centre said that the discoveries of gold deposits were within the boundaries of the Aba Al-Raha in the Madinah region.

The SGS also announced the findings of copper ore, located across four sites in the Al-Madiq area in the same region.

14 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has handed a 50-year prison term and a 50-year travel ban to two members of the Huwaitat, a large nomadic Bedouin tribe which lives on both sides of the Saudi-Jordanian border. The men have refused to be displaced from their ancestral homeland to make way for the $500 billion NEOM megacity.