In the first series of reports on the third Saudi expansion of the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Makkah, Asharq Al-Awsat delved into the development of the subject with the issuance of the royal decree to form a team of experts comprised of Saudi university professors and other global specialists. This initiative was undertaken to scrutinize the proposed expansion project in the year 2008.
A team of US orthopedic surgeons is visiting the Gaza Strip to perform a series of joint replacement operations and provide training to local doctors. Khaled Saleh, president of the US-based non-profit Fajr Scientific, said the visit would help patients immobilized by joint problems and chronic pain, as well as those in wheelchairs or who use a cane to walk. The five-day mission aimed to operate on 150 patients, train local surgeons, and donate $4 million worth of vital equipment.
Can new central bank chief kick off Lebanon s long-awaited economic transformation? arabnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arabnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A fire at an electricity substation in southern Iraq triggered a nationwide power outage Saturday, the electricity ministry said in a statement, also noting that repairs are under way to return power back to normal within the next few hours amid the searing summer heat. Electricity is a sensitive issue in Iraq, where 43 million people live with frequent power cuts of up to 10 hours a day, worsened by temperatures of up to 50 degrees in summer.
One person was killed and six others injured in overnight clashes in south Lebanon's restive Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, a Palestinian official told AFP Sunday. Clashes inside the camp left "one dead and six camp residents injured, including children," said Mounir Makdah, a senior official in Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. "We are working. to end the clashes and hand over those involved in the incident," he added.