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.

A Nigerian nurse who treated a man with ebola is now dead and five others are sick with one of the world’s most virulent diseases said authorities, as the death toll rose to at least 932 people in four West African countries.

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.

Saudi Arabia has closed its Cairo embassy and recalled its ambassador following protests over a detained Egyptian human rights lawyer.

SAUDI Arabia announced plans to build the world’s tallest tower.

Saudi Arabia today announced plans to build the world’s tallest tower.

The death toll from the unusually heavy rains that hit western Saudi Arabia has reached 106, an official said today.

Officials say 48 people have died in Saudi Arabia and 900 were rescued after the heaviest rainfall in years.

SAUDI ARABIA’s king waived a flogging sentence on a female journalist charged for involvement in a risque TV show, the second such pardoning of such a high-profile case by the monarch in recent years.

SAUDI ARABIA is willing to produce more oil if customers need it, the kingdom’s oil minister said yesterday, without citing any specific output increase.

Saudi Arabia is willing to produce more oil if customers need it, the kingdom’s oil minister said today, without citing any specific output increase.

Insufficient oil production and not speculation is driving soaring crude prices, the US energy secretary said today.

Saudi Arabia’s king is ready to help restore the soaring oil prices to more “appropriate” levels, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said today.

FORMER prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan from a seven-year exile, hoping to campaign against the country’s US-allied military ruler, but was immediately charged with corruption and deported to Saudi Arabia hours later.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in the Saudi port city of Jiddah today, hours after he was deported from his country.

Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani man convicted of drug smuggling, the Interior Ministry said in a statement today.

Rival Palestinian delegations met in the dark hours of the morning as they prepared for crucial talks in the Saudi holy city Macca today on ending their bloody street battles and resuming the peace process with Israel.

Saudi Arabia brought the two main Palestinian leaders to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, today for a last-ditch attempt to end their bloody conflict and complete a power-sharing agreement on a coalition government.

Saudi police have arrested 10 people for collecting donations and recruiting on behalf of militant groups, the interior ministry spokesman said today.

Rescue workers searching for signs of life at a four-story building that collapsed in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, ended their operation yesterday, having found no new survivors.

Rescuers aided by bright spotlights worked into the night tonight, searching for survivors and clearing rubble from the collapse of an eight-storey building that killed at least 15 people, the latest tragedy to mar the annual gathering of millions of Muslims in Islam’s holiest city.

Some 60% of Saudi Arabians believe their women should be allowed to drive, according to a newspaper poll.

An Egyptian passenger cruiser carrying more than 1,300 Muslim pilgrims from Egypt collided late today with a Cypriot cargo ship at the southern entrance of the Suez Canal, port officials and state-run media said.

The US reopened its three diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia today after a two-day closure owing to a terror threat.

Brian O’Mahony, Chief Business Correspondent

Oil prices hit a new high today after markets were unsettled by the US government shutting its embassy in Saudi Arabia because of security concerns.

The US Embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia will close today and tomorrow because of a threat against US government buildings, the embassy has said.

A MAN identified as Osama bin Laden has praised an attack earlier this month on a US consulate in Saudi Arabia and criticised the Saudi regime as weak and controlled by the United States.

IN A bold attack yesterday Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily guarded US consulate in Jiddah, then forced their way into the building and held civilians at gunpoint during which eight people were killed in the three-hour gun battle.

Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily-guarded US consulate in Jeddah in a bold assault, then forced their way into the building, prompting a gun battle that left seven people dead and several injured before the three-hour long crisis was brought under control.

An explosion was heard today in front of the US consulate in Jeddah (also known as Jiddah), witnesses said and there were reports that gunfire was heard before the blast.

Saudi police arrested a militant after an overnight car chase and shootout in the streets of Riyadh, an Interior Ministry spokesman said today.

An explosion rocked an area near a Jiddah branch of the Saudi-American bank today, according to early reports.

ONE of the most-wanted militants in Saudi Arabia has turned himself in to authorities, a security official said yesterday.

One of Saudi Arabia’s most-wanted militants turned himself in to authorities in southern Saudi Arabia, a security official said today.

The husband of a popular Saudi television presenter was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison and 600 lashes in the brutal battering of his wife, who had used her plight to campaign against wife beating,

The United States upgraded its security warning for Saudi Arabia today, restricting its diplomatic staff to the diplomatic quarters of their cities for all but essential duties.

The United States reopened its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia today, a week after they closed because of terrorist threats.

Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin remains in a coma and his health condition is deteriorating, an employee at the hospital where he is a patient said today.

A militant who is suspected of masterminding the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh has been arrested, state radio reported.

The British and German embassies in Saudi Arabia reopened today following temporary closures due to security concerns in the days after terrorists struck Western targets in the country’s capital.

THREE al-Qaida suspects arrested in Saudi Arabia this week planned to hijack a plane from the southwestern port city of Jiddah, Saudi security officials said, in what appeared to be a plot for a suicide attack.

US diplomats, warning that more attacks in Saudi Arabia were “imminent,” closed their embassy and consulates in the oil rich kingdom today.

At least 20 people were killed when four explosions tore through the Moroccan coastal city of Casablanca damaging a synagogue, the Belgian consulate and a Spanish restaurant, officials said.