Accompanying her husband on his first international trip, Mrs Trump stepped off Air Force One conservatively dressed in long sleeves and trousers to conform to the strict dress code that Saudi Arabia enforces for its female citizens.

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Saudi Arabia is taking an unprecedented hands-on role in housing finance and development as it seeks to re-energise a plan to build over 1m homes and make ownership more affordable.

Israeli police armed with stun grenades and tear gas clashed with rock-throwing Palestinian youths who had barricaded themselves inside Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque for a third day, police and witnesses said.

With much pomp and fanfare, Egypt yesterday unveiled a major extension of the Suez Canal billed by its patron, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as a historic achievement needed to boost the country’s ailing economy after years of unrest.

A Syrian opposition leader called on world leaders to take “immediate action” to end government attacks on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, amid reports that some 150 people have been killed in government airstrikes in the past 10 days.

Islamic State said yesterday that an American woman hostage it was holding in Syria was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held, but Jordan expressed doubt about the Islamist militant group’s account of her death.

Lawyers for victims of the September 11 attacks say they have new evidence that agents of Saudi Arabia “directly and knowingly” helped the hijackers, including sworn testimony from the so-called 20th hijacker and from three principals of the US government’s two primary probes of the attacks.

Jordan executed two al Qaida prisoners by hanging, after Islamic State (IS) militants put to death a captured fighter pilot by burning him alive in a cage.

Jordan has vowed ‘punishment and revenge’ after its hostage pilot captured by the IS in Syria was burned to death following a week-long drama over a possible prisoner exchange.

USA:

The agony of the families of a captured journalist and fighter pilot is continuing after a sunset deadline for a possible prisoner swap allegedly set by their Islamic State (IS) kidnappers passed with no clue whether they are still alive.

Experts are examining a recorded message said to have been from hostage Kenji Goto, extending the deadline for Jordan's prisoner-swap release of an Iraqi would-be suicide bomber linked to al Qaida.

President Barack Obama has defended the US government’s willingness to cooperate closely with Saudi Arabia on national security despite deep concerns over human rights abuses.

US oil prices were steady yesterday, ahead of the first big snowstorm this year in the country’s north-east, while benchmark Brent crude fell after pledges of no policy change by the top oil exporter Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah’s death.

World leaders and top dignitaries have begun arriving in Saudi Arabia to give their condolences following the death of King Abdullah, who died yesterday aged 90 after nearly two decades at the helm.

Saudi Arabia’s new king promised to continue the policies of his predecessors after the death of King Abdullah at the age of 90.

THE Government decision to fly flags at half-mast on some official buildings on the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is offensive.

Saudi Arabia’s new king is expected to continue a policy of keeping oil output steady to drive out rival producers, though the royal succession has focused market attention on the future of the kingdom’s long-serving oil minister.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has died, according to Saudi state TV. He was 90.

Saudi state television has reported that King Abdullah has died aged 90

The incumbent Saudi king is in hospital with pneumonia and his assumed successor is 79 and suffers from dementia. The country is at a crossroads, writes Mohamad Bazzi

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has been admitted to hospital for medical tests.

Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month for defying a ban on females driving have been referred to a court for terrorism cases, according to people close to the defendants.

Brent has advanced on speculation that the drop in prices below $80 a barrel for the first time in four years increases the likelihood that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will curb output.

In a high-stakes address to the nation, President Barack Obama outlined a broad expansion of the US military role in combating extremists in Iraq and Syria, including a call for arming Syrian opposition forces and potentially launching air strikes in both countries.

Saudi authorities have been asked to consider lifting a state school ban on sports for girls, according to the official SPA news agency.

A senior Iraqi military commander has said it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities.

US president Barack Obama has been ousted from the number one spot in an annual ranking of the world's most powerful people by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Saudi officials stepped up warnings over plans by women to challenge the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom, saying that even online support for the protest could bring arrest.

Saudi Arabian officials have stepped up warnings over plans by women to challenge male-only driving rules, saying that even online support for the protest could bring arrest.

Around 150 clerics and religious scholars have held a rare protest outside the Saudi king’s palace against fresh efforts by women seeking the right to drive.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has urged world leaders to stop fuelling the bloodshed in Syria with weapons and get both sides to the negotiating table to end the “biggest challenge to peace and security in the world”.

Islamist protests descended into a bloodbath across Egypt yesterday, with around 60 killed in Cairo alone on a “Day of Rage” called by followers of ousted president Mohamed Morsi to denounce a crackdown by the army-backed government.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has sued Forbes magazine for libel in a British court, alleging its valuation of his wealth at $20bn (€15.2bn) was short of the mark by $9.6bn.

A shopaholic Saudi princess who fled a luxury hotel in Paris in the middle of the night to dodge a €5.7m hotel bill is to have her assets in France seized.

A Cairo court today ordered the government to block access to the video-sharing website YouTube for 30 days for carrying an anti-Islam film that caused deadly riots across the world.

The Saudi king has granted women seats on the country’s top advisory council for the first time.

As Frankel faces his final race, Brian Viner talks to his trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, and others who know the world's greatest racehorse best.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has insisted his regime will not fall and also lashed out at Gulf countries, which he accused of using their enormous oil wealth to try to drive him from power.

Three members of the Jordanian Paralympic squad charged with sex offences will not be taking part in the Games, organisers have confirmed.

The king of Jordan is taking a personal interest in the case of three members of his country’s Paralympic team accused of sex offences during pre-Games training in Northern Ireland, a court heard yesterday.

Jordan’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood has said it will boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections in protest over recent changes in the kingdom’s election legislation.