Saudi Press Agency

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to allow Israeli warplanes to use its airspace in any bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities, The Times newspaper reported Saturday.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz late on Wednesday rejected claims by a Kuwaiti member of parliament that a suspected Iranian spy cell held in the emirate had compromised Gulf security.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks in Middle East oil kingpin Saudi Arabia on Tuesday amid a flurry of diplomacy ahead of an expected resumption of peace talks with Israel.

Iraq's most senior Sunni Arab official, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, on Wednesday became the latest politician to hold talks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia after an indecisive March election.

Sunni Islam's top cleric Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, a controversial figure in Egypt, died on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia of a heart attack suffered while boarding a plane, state media said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday on the first visit by an Indian premier to the oil kingpin in 28 years with energy imports, Middle East peace and Islamic militancy on the agenda.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday on the first visit by an Indian premier to the oil kingpin in 28 years with energy imports, Middle East peace and Islamic militancy on the agenda.

Refineries and storage facilities moving elsewhere . Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, last year shipped more oil to China than it did the United States for the first time ever - a shift that highlights China's ascension to the ranks of the world's economic elite, as well as its position as the new focal point for the world's energy producers. The flow of oil from Saudi Arabia to China rose to more than one million barrels per day (bpd) last year, just as demand in the United States fell below that level for the first time in more than two decades. China in December alone imported a record-high 1.2 million bpd of Saudi oil, as its economy rode the momentum of Beijing's $585 billion (two trillion yuan) stimulus package. U.S. imports of Saudi oil, on the other hand, fell to a 22-year low of 998,000 bpd in the first 11 months of 2009, as the world's largest oil consumer clawed its way back from its worst recession in 70 years.

Yemen's northern rebels turn over captured Saudi soldier as long-running war calms down. Northern rebels in Yemen handed over a captured Saudi soldier captured to Yemeni government mediators, the latest sign that a six-year-old conflict is calming down.

Saudi official: Weeks of fighting with Yemen rebels has left 73 Saudis dead, 26 missing. Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that 73 Saudis have been killed and 26 have gone missing since the kingdom launched an offensive against Yemeni Shiite rebels along the border last month.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi emergency services said on Sunday the death toll from floods that tore through the port city of Jeddah this week had risen to 103, with another 1,400 rescued, the state news agency reported on Sunday.

Prince says Saudi forces evict rebels from mountain along the border. Saudi Arabian forces seized a strategic mountain straddling the border with Yemen and cleared it of Shiite rebels after five days of fighting that have left three Saudi soldiers dead, a Saudi defense official said Sunday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said it had regained control of territory seized by Yemeni rebels in an incursion last week, but the rebels denied the claim and said Yemeni villages were being bombed heavily.

Saudi Arabia says airstrikes against infiltrators from Yemen were limited to Saudi territory. Saudi Arabia said Friday it carried out airstrikes against "infiltrators" from Yemen that were limited to areas inside Saudi territory, and vowed to press on with the military action until the border with its restive neighbor was secure.

RIYADH (Reuters) - Yemen's Shi'ite rebels said they had captured some Saudi soldiers on Friday, after Riyadh said it would press on with its offensive until it had cleared them from its territory.

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday a security officer was killed and 11 others wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen in an area near the Yemeni border, which Yemeni rebels said they had seized in a cross-border raid.

Saudi police unveil al-Qaida weapons cache in the capital Riyadh. Saudi authorities have discovered large quantities of weapons in the capital Riyadh belonging to al-Qaida terror network, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Sunday.

Saudi King Abdullah began a two-day visit to Syria on Wednesday, his first since acceding to the throne in 2005, in a further sign of warming ties between the two Arab states.

Saudi king dismisses prominent cleric who criticized coed classes at new university. The Saudi king dismissed a prominent hard-line cleric who criticized a university he recently launched for allowing men and women to take classes together.

Al-Qaida claims attack that injured Saudi royal, says bomber arrived on prince's plane. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility Sunday for a suicide attack that injured a Saudi prince and said the bomber ? a wanted militant who had fled to Yemen ? arrived on a royal jet after convincing the ruling family he wanted to surrender.