Riyadh, Dec 31 : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday the stalled peace process is the reason he will not run for a second term in office.

"The objective is to achieve a final status solution to the Palestinian cause, but the matter is still held up until now and that is why I do not want to run for a second term," the Palestinian leader said while visiting Saudi Arabia.

Last month, Abbas gave a televised speech in which he said he would not seek reelection in polls scheduled Jan 24.

Riyadh - The number of pilgrims registering with Hajj pilgrimage companies in Saudi Arabia has dropped by 40 per cent compared to last year due to a fear of H1N1 virus and higher prices, media reports said Monday.

Many citizens and expatriates have cancelled their Hajj this year due to health warnings against the spread of swine flu, as well as the higher prices offered by Hajj companies, the Saudi daily Arab News reported.

Prices sometimes reach 10,000 Saudi Riyals (about 2,673 US dollars) per pilgrim, the paper added.

Riyadh - One Saudi soldier was killed and 11 injured when Saudi security forces clashed with unknown gunmen "who infiltrated into the kingdom", the official Saudi Press Agency said Wednesday.

The clashes took place Tuesday morning when gunmen were spotted near Mountain al-Dokhan, in Jazan region, near the borders with Yemen, an unidentified official was quoted by SPA as saying.

He added that the "infiltrators opened fire on Saudi security forces using various weapons".

Riyadh  - Saudi security forces shot dead two "suspects" on Tuesday and detained a third at a checkpoint in the southern Jizan province, the al-Arabiya news channel reported.

The men had been stopped by police while travelling from Jizan to Aseer province near the border with Yemen. The men opened fire on the officers, injuring three, according to the report.

It was not clear whether the men were suspected of smuggling or terrorism.(dpa)

Riyadh - A mass conversion of Chinese workers to Islam in Saudi Arabia should quell domestic criticism about hiring of non- Islamic foreigners, the government said Thursday.

The ceremony included 660 Chinese workers who came to Saudi Arabia to work on a railway project, according to media reports.

While witnessing the ceremony, Abdul Aziz al-Khudhairi, Mecca governorate undersecretary, said that this is a "direct response to

critics of the government for contracting Chinese."

Riyadh - Two policemen were wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a checkpoint in south-western Saudi Arabia, local media reported Tuesday.

The local daily al-Riyadh said that five gunmen in a car on Monday opened fire on the checkpoint and escaped to the southern town of Khamis Mashit.

The attack comes days after Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister in Jeddah survived an assassination attempt by a man wanted on terrorism charges.

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Aug. 21 : Israel has said that it is aware about Saudi Arabia''s plans to build nuclear power plants.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan quoted the country’s Minister of Water and Electricity, Abdullah al-Hosain, as saying the kingdom was working on plans for its first nuclear power plant.

The US inked civil nuclear power deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last year.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel had no official response to the Saudi minister''s announcement.

Riyadh - Saudi Arabia has arrested a group of 44 suspects believed to be part of al-Qaeda network in the kingdom, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

A ministry spokesman said investigations showed that the people arrested "belong to a deviant group" - a common Saudi term for al- Qaeda - who had sought to recruit youth and use charity donations to finance their activities, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), July 27 : Saudi Arabia on Monday confirmed that a man had died of swine flu.

The health ministry said this was the first such death and that it had taken place in a private hospital in Dammam in the eastern part of the country.

Health ministry officials said that the dead man was 30 and that he was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday with a fever and pneumonia.

He expired on Saturday despite being treated with antibiotics and the anti-flu drug Tamiflu, the ministry said.

Riyadh, July 22 : Human rights watch group Amnesty International (AI) has criticized Saudi Arabian Government for detaining thousands of innocent people in the name of countering terrorism, which is a clear violation of human rights.

"The scale of human rights violations is shocking. Thousands of people have had their lives turned upside down or destroyed by violations of their rights in the name of countering terrorism," The Telegraph quotes Amnesty’s 65-page report, as saying.

Riyadh  - A special court in Riyadh has convicted 330 people in what was the first known Saudi trial of suspects accused of plotting terrorist attacks on behalf of al-Qaeda, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The accused were convicted of "belonging to a deviant group," a common Saudi term for al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia's Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution told the official Saudi news agency and television station.

They were also convicted of "conspiring to spread chaos and endanger national security," and of financing terrorism, prosecutors said.

Riyadh  - A Saudi judge sentenced seven young men and four women to up to 700 lashes and jail terms ranging up to 10 months for attending an "immoral" party, a Saudi newspaper reported.

The 11 revelers, including two Iraqis and nine Saudis aged between 18 and 37, received sentences of between 400-700 lashes and between 4-10 months in prison, Saudi Arabia's al-Watan newspaper said.

Riyadh - Saudi customs agents intercepted more illicit drugs from smugglers trying to enter the country during the past two months than during any other two months in the kingdom's history, a spokesman said on Saturday.

Over the course of May and June, Saudi customs agents seized 41 kilograms of hashish, 14 million illegal pills, and 4 kilograms of heroin "smuggled in the shoes and bowels of travelers," a statement from the Saudi customs authority said.

Riyadh - The Saudi Ministry of Health said Saturday that four new new cases of the A/H1N1, or swine flu virus had been confirmed, boosting the total to 34 in the country.

Two young girls and an eight-month-old baby had contracted the virus after coming in contact with "a previously confirmed case," the ministry said in a statement released to reporters.

The fourth case was that of a 27-year-old Saudi man who had returned to the kingdom from Thailand on Tuesday, the ministry said.

Riyadh  - Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health on Saturday confirmed two new cases of the A(H1N1), or swine flu, virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the kingdom to eight.

The two cases, a Saudi woman and a Saudi man, returning separately from the United States, were admitted to two hospitals in Riyadh and the eastern province city of Dahran.

Riyadh - Germany and Saudi Arabia have agreed an unprecedented cooperation pact to exchange information on possible terrorists, the German embassy in Riyadh confirmed Thursday.

The intelligence-sharing will encompass possible terrorist financing and money-laundering, the two governments agreed, in a deal signed Wednesday evening in the Saudi capital.

The agreement was signed by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his Saudi counterpart Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz.

Riyadh  - A Saudi man whose wife tortured the family's Indonesian housemaid to death was sentenced to nine months in prison for failure to intervene, Saudi local media reported on Wednesday.

The court found the man guilty of negligence and disregard for the maid who had refused to eat in protest at the beatings she was suffering at the hands of his wife, the Saudi Okaz newspaper reported.

The man has served six months in prison awaiting trial. His wife is scheduled to be sentenced for manslaughter on July 14.

Riyadh- Trains have the power to transform: From Britain's industrial revolution to the latter-day mobilization of millions of Chinese migrant workers, railways change societies. The appeal of high-speed rail networks, which cut carbon emissions, create jobs and energize economies, has been obvious in Europe.

Now Saudi Arabia is getting on board.

Even in tough economic times, France, Spain and Britain have been investing in high-speed passenger trains traveling at over 300 kilometres per hour. The world economy may be slowing, but trains are getting faster.

Riyadh - Saudi Arabia will not bar pilgrims from countries that have reported cases of swine flu in the coming Umrah, or "minor pilgrimage" season, its aviation authority said Tuesday.

Instead, the aviation authority said in a statement posted to its website, it would screen all would-be pilgrims for HIV infection.

Riyadh  - Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries chose the Saudi capital of Riyadh to be the headquarters for their regional central bank, the GCC secretary-general said on Tuesday.

"An agreement was reached on the headquarters of the monetary council that it should be in the city of Riyadh," Abdul-Rahman al- Attiyah told a press conference after the meeting of GCC leaders.

He added that details of the agreement would be released later and that no timetable had been scheduled for monetary union.