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Second season of the Professional Fighters League launches in Jeddah

Second season of the Professional Fighters League launches in Jeddah
Jeddah is set for an action-packed night this Friday with the launch of the second season of the Professional Fighters League (PFL) at Onyx Arena. (Supplied)
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Updated 05 May 2025

Second season of the Professional Fighters League launches in Jeddah

Second season of the Professional Fighters League launches in Jeddah
  • Iranian lightweight champion Mohsen Mohammad Saifi will defend his title against Egypt’s Ahmed El-Sisi
  • Saudi veteran Ahmed Makki, whose career spans 26 years, will take on Egypt’s Hisham Al-Nimr

JEDDAH: Jeddah is set for an action-packed night this Friday with the launch of the second season of the Professional Fighters League (PFL) at Onyx Arena. The event marks a major highlight in the 2025 mixed martial arts calendar for fighters from the Middle East and North Africa.

Headlining the card, Iranian lightweight champion Mohsen Mohammad Saifi will defend his title against Egypt’s Ahmed El-Sisi. Also in the lightweight division, Algeria’s Suhail Thaeri will square off against Kuwait’s Abdullah Saleem, making his return after a season-long suspension due to doping.

Other notable lightweight bouts include Bahrain’s Abbas Khan versus Morocco’s Salah Eddine Hamli, and Lebanon’s George Eid taking on Iraq’s Mohammed Fahmi.

In the featherweight division, Jordan’s Abdulrahman Hayasat— riding a five-fight win streak— returns after missing last season’s final due to injury. He will face unbeaten Moroccan Taha Ben Daoud. Elsewhere in the division, Jordan’s Ezzedine Al-Derbani will meet Algeria’s Mohamed Amin, while Iraq’s Hussein Salem faces Egypt’s Assem Ghanem.

In another featured bout, Egypt’s Islam Reda will go up against Algeria’s Akram Nasri, who steps in for injured Saudi champion Abdullah Al-Qahtani, last season’s gold belt holder.

Capping off the official fight card, Saudi veteran Ahmed Makki, whose career spans 26 years, will take on Egypt’s Hisham Al-Nimr.

The exhibition matches will include the debut of Saudi fighter Abdulaziz Bin Muammar against Morocco’s Fares Hamdani in the open weight division. In the flyweight category, Saudi fighter Malik Bashel will face Morocco’s Montaser Boutouta.


Historic Qur’an texts displayed at Grand Mosque

Historic Qur’an texts displayed at Grand Mosque
Updated 6 min 43 sec ago

Historic Qur’an texts displayed at Grand Mosque

Historic Qur’an texts displayed at Grand Mosque
  • Event highlights the Qur’an’s global relevance and fosters values of tolerance, moderation and balance

MAKKAH: An awareness exhibition aimed at enriching pilgrims’ experiences and spreading the Holy Qur'an’s guidance and cultural insights has opened in the third Saudi expansion area of the Grand Mosque.

The event, launched by the Presidency of Religious Affairs at the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, highlights the Qur’an’s global relevance and fosters values of tolerance, moderation and balance.

Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, head of the presidency, said it underlined the Qur’an’s message and aligned with the leadership’s commitment to serving the holy book and spreading its sciences, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The exhibition offers a unique opportunity for millions of pilgrims to view rare and ancient copies of the Qur’an, some dating back more than 1,000 years. These include old handwritten copies, wooden panels with Qur’anic verses, and other significant manuscripts.


Saudi, Dutch deal to enhance farm services

Saudi, Dutch deal to enhance farm services
Updated 9 min 24 sec ago

Saudi, Dutch deal to enhance farm services

Saudi, Dutch deal to enhance farm services
  • Partnership will focus on improving services in Kingdom’s agricultural sector

RIYADH: Ƶ’s National Co. for Agricultural Services, known as AgriServ, and the Netherlands’ Delphy signed a cooperation agreement during the recent GreenTech exhibition in Amsterdam.

The agreement aims to strengthen collaboration in the agricultural sector by transferring best practices and advanced expertise, enhancing operational efficiency and improving services for farmers and agricultural establishments across Ƶ.

It was signed by Omar Alsuhaibani, CEO of AgriServ, and Jacco van der Wekken, CEO of Delphy, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

The partnership will focus on improving services in the Kingdom’s agricultural sector, including cooperation on certification, specialized training programs, and technical consultations for farmers and agricultural projects.

AgriServ is a government entity established by Cabinet decision and is tasked with providing agricultural services assigned by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.


Child survivor of Gaza family strike heads to Italy

Child survivor of Gaza family strike heads to Italy
Updated 11 min 16 sec ago

Child survivor of Gaza family strike heads to Italy

Child survivor of Gaza family strike heads to Italy
Rome - ITA
Rome, June 11, 2025 (AFP) - - An 11-year-old Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli air strike in Gaza last month, which killed his father and nine siblings, was due to arrive in Italy Wednesday for treatment.
Adam and his mother, paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar, were due to fly to Milan in northern Italy on Wednesday evening alongside his aunt and four cousins, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.
"Adam will arrive in Milan and will be admitted to the Niguarda (hospital), because he has multiple fractures and he will be treated there," Tajani told Rtl radio.
A plane carrying Palestinians in need of medical care is scheduled to land at 7:30 pm (1730 GMT) at Milan's Linate airport, according to the foreign ministry.
Adam had a hand amputated and suffered severe burns across his body following the strike on the family house in the city of Khan Yunis on May 23.
His mother was at work when the bomb hit the house, killing nine of her children and injuring Adam and his father, doctor Hamdi al-Najjar, who died last week.
Al-Najjar, who ran to the house to find her children charred beyond recognition, told Italy's La Repubblica daily: "I remember everything. Every detail, every minute, every scream."
"But when I remember it's too painful, so I try to keep my mind focused entirely on Adam," she said in an interview published Wednesday ahead of their arrival.
Asked by his mother during the interview to describe his hopes, Adam said he wanted to "live in a beautiful place".
"A beautiful place is a place where there are no bombs. In a beautiful place the houses are not broken and I go to school," he said, according to La Repubblica.
"Schools have desks, the kids study their lessons but then they go play in the courtyard and nobody dies.
"A beautiful place is where they operate on my arm and my arm works again. In a beautiful place my mother is not sad. They told me that Italy is a beautiful place," he said.
Al-Najjar said she has packed the Koran, their documents and Adam's clothes.
"I am heartbroken. I am leaving behind everything that was important to me. My husband, my children, the hospital where I worked, my job, my patients," she said.
"People are dying of hunger. If not of hunger, of bombs. We would just like to live in peace," she told the daily.
Adam is one of 17 children being brought to Italy on Wednesday from Gaza along with relatives, Tajani said.
The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable.
ide/djt
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3-month ban on midday outdoor work in Ƶ from June 15

A labourer has a drink of water from a plastic bottle at a construction site in Riyadh. (File/AFP)
A labourer has a drink of water from a plastic bottle at a construction site in Riyadh. (File/AFP)
Updated 26 min 39 sec ago

3-month ban on midday outdoor work in Ƶ from June 15

A labourer has a drink of water from a plastic bottle at a construction site in Riyadh. (File/AFP)
  • The ministry said employers must ensure workers avoid direct exposure to the sun during this period and urged them to adjust working hours accordingly

RIYADH: Ƶ’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has announced a three-month ban on outdoor work between noon and 3 p.m. for all private sector establishments, effective from June 15 to Sept. 15.

The ministry said employers must ensure workers avoid direct exposure to the sun during this period and urged them to adjust working hours accordingly, with the goal of reducing occupational injuries and health risks.

The regulation, issued in cooperation with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, aims to protect workers’ health and promote a safer working environment, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

To support implementation, the ministry has published a procedural guide on preventing sun exposure and an advisory guide for working in hot environments. Both are available on its website.

Violations can be reported via the ministry’s hotline — 19911 — or its smartphone app.


Pakistan says won’t be baited into ‘war theatrics,’ warns India against Indus Treaty violation

Pakistan says won’t be baited into ‘war theatrics,’ warns India against Indus Treaty violation
Updated 46 min 9 sec ago

Pakistan says won’t be baited into ‘war theatrics,’ warns India against Indus Treaty violation

Pakistan says won’t be baited into ‘war theatrics,’ warns India against Indus Treaty violation
  • Pakistani delegation says India threatening missile strikes “not display of strength but dangerous sign of regional instability”
  • Weeks after worst military confrontation in decades, India and Pakistan have dispatched delegations to press their cases in US, UK

KARACHI: The head of an official delegation visiting world capitals to present Islamabad’s position following a recent military standoff with New Delhi on Wednesday accused Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar of behaving like a “warmonger, not a diplomat” but said Pakistan would not be baited into “war theatrics.”

Speaking at a press conference in London, former Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is heading the high-level delegation lobbying Western governments, rejected what he called “recycled allegations” from New Delhi about Islamabad’s role in cross-border terrorism and warned that India’s threats to stop Pakistan’s flow of river water could escalate into an open conflict.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, the Indian foreign minister had warned the West that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism would “eventually come back to haunt you.”

“Mr. Jaishankar speaks like a warmonger and not a diplomat. If he believes that threatening nuclear war is diplomacy, then India’s problem isn’t Pakistan, it’s extremism inside its own cabinet,” Bhutto Zardari said. “Threatening missile strikes and boasting about escalation is not a display of strength. It’s a dangerous sign of regional instability.”

He also mocked India’s claim that Pakistan was behind a April 22 militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that triggered a four-day military confrontation in May. Pakistan has denied the accusations and demanded India present evidence.

“If Jaishankar is so enamored by Google images, I suggest he Google Abhinandan Chaiwala,” he said, referring to a 2019 dogfight after which Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was captured and then released by Pakistan.

“India knows that Pakistan had nothing to do with this attack. This was indigenous terrorism within Indian-occupied Kashmir, a secure intelligence failure of the Indian government,” he added.

On water, Bhutto Zardari issued a stern warning against what Islamabad described as India’s “weaponization” of shared rivers under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank.

After the April 22 attack, India had announced it was unilaterally terminating the treaty and would halt Pakistan’s waters. The agreement had long been considered a rare pillar of cooperation between the two sides.

“If India actually carries out this threat, then Pakistan has already said that this declaration will be a war,” Bhutto Zardari said.

“If we want to create an environment for dialogue, where we can talk about the issue of Kashmir or any other issue, then it is very important to follow the old treaties.”

DIPLOMATIC BLITZ

Pakistan and India have launched competing diplomatic offensives across major capitals weeks after their worst military escalation in decades in which the two nuclear-armed nations exchanged missile, drone, and artillery fire until the United States and other allies brokered a ceasefire on May 10.

Bhutto Zardari’s delegation is currently in London after visiting the United States and is scheduled to travel onwards to Brussels. Indian opposition MP and former UN under-secretary Shashi Tharoor is leading a parallel outreach effort for New Delhi, presenting India’s case that Kashmir is a domestic matter and accusing Pakistan of supporting terrorism — a charge Islamabad denies.

Earlier in London, Bhutto Zardari met with senior British diplomats and UK-based Kashmiri leaders, and accused India of violating international agreements, including the Indus Waters Treaty.

“The Jammu & Kashmir dispute remains the unfinished agenda of the United Nations and the unhealed wound of Partition,” he wrote in a post on X. “In all my interactions, Kashmir was central — its people’s inalienable right to self-determination under UNSC resolutions must be upheld.”

He also met with Christian Turner, former British High Commissioner to Pakistan and incoming UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

“Welcomed the UK’s emphasis on diplomacy and dialogue, and encouraged its continued, constructive role in supporting de-escalation and encouraging dialogue for resolution of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute, the unfinished agenda of Partition and British legacy,” Bhutto Zardari said after the meeting.

As both governments build their respective cases ahead of a high-level UN session on South Asia later this month, Pakistan has framed its position as one of restraint and diplomacy.

“We want peace, stability, and regional integration,” Bhutto Zardari said at the London press meet.

“Pakistan won’t be baited into war theatrics. We will defend ourselves if attacked, but we do not crave conflict.”