Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, Sept 14 (NNN-SPA) – Under the patronage of Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), the second Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit, organised by SDAIA, kicked off yesterday, under the theme “Artificial Intelligence for the Good of Humanity,” with the participation of more than 10,000 policymakers, specialists and concerned figures with AI.

RIYADH, Sept 13 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Arabia announced yesterday, three projects in the iron and steel sector, with a value of 35 billion Saudi riyals (9.3 billion U.S. dollars).

The kingdom is working with local and international investors, to establish a variety of investment opportunities in the sector, announced Bandar Al-Khorayef, Saudi minister of industry and mineral resources, at the second edition of the Saudi International Iron and Steel Conference.

RIYADH, Sept 11 (NNN-SPA) – The International Conference on the Future of the Desalination Industry, organised by Saline Water Conversion Corporation, kicks off today and will end on Sept 13.

Taking place in Riyadh, it is participated by policy makers, innovators, financiers, marketeers, operators, contractors, developers and technology suppliers around the world.

120 local and international speakers, including water ministers from different countries of the world, will participate in the conference.

RIYADH, Sept 8 (NNN-SPA) – The Saudi Arabian energy minister said, the decision of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, to reduce oil production, is aimed to promote market stability.

The decision showed that the organisation was attentive, pre-emptive and proactive in supporting the market’s stability, to the benefit of the industry, Abdulaziz bin Salman was quoted as saying.

06 Sep 2022; MEMO: Gulf Arab states have demanded that US streaming giant, Netflix, remove content deemed offensive to "Islamic and societal values" in the region, Saudi Arabia's media regulator said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

It did not specify the content but mentioned that it included content aimed at children. Saudi state-run Al Ekhbariya TV, in a programme discussing the issue, showed blurred-out animation clips that appeared to show two girls embracing.

02 September 2022; MEMO: A Saudi app that lets ordinary people "play the role of a police officer" may have alerted authorities to the tweets of a student whose sentencing to 34 years in jail has drawn international condemnation.

Just weeks after the verdict against Salma Al-Shehab – a doctoral candidate at Britain's Leeds University – rights groups say another woman was given a 45-year sentence for her social media posts – highlighting a crackdown targeting women online.

25 August 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Education has announced that children of illegal residents will be able to enroll in schools during the new academic year.

The ministry stated that schools should provide the parents of children residing illegally in the kingdom with admission forms and direct them to the relevant offices in the regions where they are residing to complete the application process.

24 August 2022; MEMO: An Egyptian physician who worked for Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health has been sentenced by a Saudi terror court to 20 years in prison, according to the Freedom Initiative.

Dr Sabry Mus'ad Ibrahim Shalaby was convicted after a colleague and fellow detainee said he had voted for the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and was sympathetic towards the Muslim Brotherhood.

23 August 2022; MEMO: The Saudi Court of Appeals has sentenced Sheikh Saleh Al-Talib, a prominent imam and preacher at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, to ten years in prison, a human rights organisation said yesterday.

The organisation said the Court of Appeal overturned the Specialised Criminal Court's decision acquitting Sheikh Al-Talib of the charges against him.

19 August 2022; MEMO: Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Friday, met Iraqi Shia Cleric, Ammar Al-Hakim to discuss the lingering political crisis in Iraq, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The meeting came after the leader of Iraq's Hikma Movement, a political coalition, arrived in the Kingdom on an unannounced visit, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Agency reported that, during the meeting, Saudi-Iraqi relations alongside a number of issues of common interest were discussed.