Women in Saudi Arabia have for the first time been allowed to become notaries, with 12 granted permission to start working in the profession, the justice ministry said Monday. The move comes amid a reform drive in the ultra-conservative kingdom that saw the authorities lift a ban on...

Yemen's state news agency says Interior Minister Ahmed al-Maysari demanded the closure of informal prisons in a meeting with an Emirati official, despite denials by the United Arab Emirates that it controls detention facilities in the country. The SABA news agency said he made the...

Kuwait's top court Sunday sentenced two serving opposition lawmakers and six former legislators to 42 months in jail after convicting them of storming parliament and assaulting police in 2011. The Supreme Court sentenced five opposition activists to the same term for the same offences,...

The unemployment rate among Saudi citizens rose to a record 12.9 percent in the first quarter of this year from 12.8 percent in the previous quarter, according to data published by the government's statistics agency Thursday. The government is pushing through economic reforms to develop...