Milan is hosting a universal exhibition called Expo 2015 from May 1 through October 31. It's an occasional world fair where nations convene for a theme-based event, and t his year’s concept is “ Feeding the Planet , Energy for Life". The Fertile Crescent , bridging ancient Mesopotamia and present-day Egypt, is where Sumerians, and later Mesopotamians, domesticated many of the wild plants which now form the basis of global food production. Arab Gulf states, grappling with water scarcity and harsh growing climates, are world leaders in innovative irrigation and ...

Riyadh: Ailton’s header eight minutes from time earned Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal a 1-1 draw with Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates in the first leg of their 2015 AFC Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, leaving the tie firmly in the balance.

Ban Ki-Moon opened the 70th United Nations General Assembly on Monday, putting a spotlight on finding peace for Syria. Ban says five countries hold the key to ending the war there: Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey. Yet ever since the war began in 2011, these countries (and others) have failed to end the conflict. Their policies towards Syria have been bumbling and ham-fisted; many have reversed course multiple times. Here’s a look at world leaders who have flip-flopped on their approach to the brutal civil war.

Remember the old bells your teacher used to ring when class was over? How'd you run home and play "El Wawi" with your friends, or (better) Duck Hunt on Atari -- or you'd gather around the TV on a hot summer afternoon and watch telenovelas like "Rosalinda" or "Kassandra"? (We already know how much Arab girls just love foreign soap operas .) It's time to indulge nostalgia : if you recognize these cultural references, you definitely grew up in the Middle East in the eighties and nineties...

This post is an update of a story first published by Albawaba during Hajj 2014 Over 2 million Muslims from 183 countries have arrived in Mecca for Hajj 2015, the annual pilgrimage commanded by the Koran. The Saudi royal family are increasingly turning to technology to keep visitors safe from punishing heat, overstressed infrastructure, and the fatal consequences of crowd behavior. Hajj pilgrims might share an attitude that, if I die, it is God’s will, but it doesn’t relieve the kingdom of its responsibility to anticipate risks, such as this ...

With hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn nations in the Middle East and North Africa scrambling to find safe haven abroad , many have called on the US -- a nation made up largely of immigrants and refugees from all over the world -- to accept its fair share. Though the Obama administration announced this week that it would raise its quota by 15,000 in 2016 (and another 15,000 in 2017), most of the presidential candidates competing to replace Obama next year are advocating a more conservative approach. Some ...