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Analysts said the purge aimed to go beyond corruption and aimed to remove potential opposition to Prince Mohammed's ambitious reform agenda Saudi Arabia's future king has tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge by arresting royals, ministers and investors including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal who is one of the kingdom's most prominent businessmen. Saudi Prince Arrest  Alwaleed, a nephew of the king and owner of investment firm Kingdom Holding, invests in firms such as Citigroup and Twitter. He was among 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers detained, three senior officials told Reuters on Sunday. The purge against the kingdom's political and business elite also targeted the head of the National Guard Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was detained and replaced as minister of the powerful National Guard by Prince Khaled bin Ayyaf. The allegations against Prince Alwaleed include money laundering, bribery and exto...

Indians stranded in Saudi Arabia: All you need to know about the issue Nearly 10,000 Indians stuck in   Saudi Arabia   are set to be evacuated and provided with food in the meanwhile, Sushma Swaraj,   External Affairs   Minister, informed the Parliament on Monday. Minister of State, VK Singh, will be travelling to Saudi Arabia soon to oversee the operation, which involves airlifting people. The minister was making a statement in the House after other members of Parliament (MPs) raised concerns over the plight of workers there. Here’s a gist of the entire issue and the Centre’s issue to provide relief to such workers. What is the issue? The Saudi government was forced to cut its spending last year on the back of plummeting oil prices As a result, it created pressure on the financials of local construction companies. Such firms employ foreign workers and rely on state contracts. The resultant strain on the firms led to nearly 10,000 workers being laid o...

Humanity beats curfew in Kashmir as locals rush to help Amarnath bus accident victims One more youth was killed on Wednesday in a clash between a stone-pelting mob and security forces in   Kashmir , taking the toll in the five-day unrest to 35, even as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed "great sadness and sorrow" over the deaths and promised a "healing touch". Zakir Naik cancels conference for third time Controversial Mumbai-based Islamic preacher   Zakir Naik   has cancelled his media interaction on Thursday for the third time. "It is very difficult to do a press conference. We will announce another conference soon. Naik himself is willing to come and share information with people," official spokesperson of Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) told on Thursday. South China Sea ruling must be respected: Philippines The ruling by the Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration(PCA) in favour of Manila over its South China Sea...

The Saudi, Russian, Qatari and Venezuelan  oil ministers  visited Doha for a previously undisclosed meeting - their highest-level discussion in months on joint action to help prices recover from their lowest in more than a decade. Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi Arabian oil minister, said that freezing production at January levels was an adequate measure and new steps to stabilise the market could be considered in the next few months. Read Full Article Over Here :  Business Standard News

The first mantra of the oil crisis was ‘lower for longer’. Then “lower for even longer”. Now in Davos, oil executives are starting to talk - or rather, whisper - about a new nightmare scenario: “A lot lower for a lot longer.” Oil executives, policy makers and banks said in the first days of the World Economic Forum that a recovery will remain elusive in 2016 as major producers keep pumping and China’s fuel appetite slackens. And they fret that prices could take another hit as Iranian crude freed from sanctions flows back on to world markets. “It is the third year in a row we have more supply than demand,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told Francine Lacqua in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Prices will be still under pressure. I don’t see any reason why we have a surprise increase in the price in 2016.”  Read Articles  

Video streaming company  Netflix  Inc (NFLX.O) on Wednesday launched its services in 130 countries, covering almost the entire globe except China, as part of efforts to counter slowing growth in the United States. Shares of the company, whose popular shows include “House of Cards”, “Orange Is The New Black” and “Narcos”, rose 5.5 percent to $113.60 in afternoon trading. India, Nigeria, Russia and Saudi Arabia were among the major countries where the service was launched, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Read More

Saudi Arabia has severed diplomatic ties with regional rivalIran following attacks on the kingdom’s embassy and consulate in the Islamic Republic over the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced the cut in relations late on Sunday and gave Iranian diplomatic personnel 48 hours to leave his country. All Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran have been called home after an attack on the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran and a consulate. The decision came after the mass execution of  Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr  and 46 others the largest carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades laid bare the sectarian divisions gripping the region. Shiite protesters took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan while Arab allies of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia quickly lined up behind the kingdom. The standoff illustrates the kingdom’s new aggressiveness under King Salman. During his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yem...