Saudi Arabia's flag carrier is discussing ordering a wide-body jet with Airbus and Boeing, the chief executive of Saudi Arabian Airlines said Sunday.

The state-owned carrier, also known as Saudia, is planning to expand rapidly over the next eight years as part of a government strategy to transform the kingdom into a transport hub.

"It's a good size fleet order that will have to be placed," Chief Executive Ibrahim Koshy told Reuters at the Dubai Airshow, without disclosing how many aircraft it would order.

"It's something that will take place. Definitely in 2022."

The order would help fuel network expansion to 135 mostly international destinations by 2030, up from 90 in 2019 which included 28 destinations in Saudi Arabia, he said.

It would later post orders to replace older aircraft and expand its narrow body fleet, while some aircraft types will be removed to simplify the fleet, Koshy said.

Saudia is expanding ahead of a planned launch of a new state-owned airline based in the capital, Riyadh.

"The growth that is taking place in the country actually justifies a second carrier coming in as a full service airline."

Koshy said Saudia would focus on developing a hub in Jeddah once the new airline starts operations, and would see it operate to 200 combined destinations with its low-cost unit by 2030.

Saudia has forecast significant expansion in Asia Pacific and the Americas, carrying a combined 85 million passengers a year with its unit by 2030, up from 35 million in 2019, he said.

Saudia, one of the Middle East’s oldest airlines, could return to profitability by 2024, at which time it expects to return to pre-pandemic passenger traffic, Koshy said./DS

A female terrorist suspect tried to break out of a prison in France by removing stones from her cell window and using bedsheets to go down, according to a statement made by the Paris anti-terrorism prosecutor's office on Sunday.

According to media reports, the suspect was caught while still on the grounds of the prison in Fresnes, south of the French capital.

The French national is suspected of forming a terrorist organization, the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office said.

She had spent some time in Syria.

Daesh controlled huge swathes of both countries for several years from 2013, imposing its extreme ideology of mass killings and enslavement as well as coordinating deadly attacks on civilian targets in France and elsewhere./aa

The South African government withdrew its support for the Miss Universe candidate in “Israel” over the country's atrocities against Palestine.

The decision came after growing calls for the reigning Miss South Africa (SA) to boycott the pageant.

Local beauty pageant organizers have been adamant that the recently crowned Miss SA Lalela Mswane should go.

"It has proven difficult to persuade the Miss SA pageant organizers to reconsider their decision to partake in the Miss Universe event," the arts and culture ministry said in a statement.

The government therefore "withdraws its support" following the organizers' "intransigence."

The pageant is slated for Eilat, Israel on Dec. 12.

"The atrocities committed by “Israel” against Palestinians are well documented and government, as the legitimate representative of the people of South Africa, cannot in good conscience associate itself with such," it said.

South Africa backs the Palestinian cause with formal diplomatic relations established in 1995, a year after the end of apartheid.

It downgraded its embassy in Tel Aviv in 2019 and pulled out its ambassador.

Miss SA pageant organizers had last week argued the Miss Universe pageant is not a "politically inspired event."

Forging ahead could "prove disastrous to her (Mswane') future and public standing as a young, black woman," warned Arts Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

In a statement, the ruling ANC party urged the organizers "to hear and listen to the overwhelming call for the Miss South Africa team to boycott the upcoming apartheid Israel hosted Miss Universe."/DS

 Western countries are responsible for the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border, the Russian president told local media on Saturday.

Speaking to the state channel Rossiya-1, Vladimir Putin touched on the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border.

Putin said he expects Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who have not been in touch regarding the migration crisis, will be in direct contact soon as migrants continue to head towards Germany.

It is important to keep in mind where the migration crisis originates from, Putin said, adding that the crisis was created by the Western and European countries rather than Belarus.

He noted that the reasons behind the migration crisis have political, military, and economic bases.

"It has a military basis because they were involved in a military operation in Iraq, and now more Kurds than in Iraq are at the border. They fought in Afghanistan for 20 years, and now there are more Afghans at the border," he said. "Belarus does not have anything to do with it."

Putin went on to recall the social support with which Europe provides the migrants, pointing at the economic reasons of the migration movement.

He underlined Europe's appeal for the citizens of impoverished countries, saying those who work in an oil-producing country in the Middle East earn less than an unemployed migrant in Europe, a policy driven by the European countries.

Drawing attention to the treatment of the Polish security forces to the migrants on the Belarusian-Polish border, Putin said the migrants are beaten and mistreated, which "does not comply with the ideas of humanism which lies at the heart of all policies of our Western neighbors."

"I hope that a direct contact between the Belarus administration and the administrations of prominent countries in Europe will help with the solution of these issues," he suggested.

The Russian president underlined that his country does not have any responsibility regarding the migrant crisis, claiming that Russian airline companies were not involved in carrying the migrants.

- Migrant crisis on border

In October, Belarus suspended an agreement with the EU, obliging the country to take back migrants that crossed its territory and into the EU.

The EU accuses the Belarusian administration of "using irregular migration as a tool" and "trying to destabilize the EU" by sending migrants to the borders of EU countries Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Polish authorities announced that they would not allow the migrants to enter the country and would send those who managed to enter back to Belarus.

Belarus is accusing Poland of not providing humane treatment for people seeking to migrate to Europe while the Polish administration accused Belarus of using these people as a political tool.

The EU accused the Belarusian government of "using immigrants and encouraging them to go to EU borders.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on EU member states to approve an expanded sanctions regime against Belarusian officials amid the border crisis.

According to the latest EU figures, 7,935 people tried to enter the bloc via the Belarus-EU border in 2021, up sharply from just 150 last year.

Polish authorities stepped up border protection Monday and mobilized more than 12,000 troops after a large group of migrants started marching toward the country's frontier with Belarus accompanied by the Belarusian military./aa

Schools in New Delhi will be closed all through next week, government employees will work from home, construction activities will grind to a halt – not because of a COVID-19 surge, but the severe air pollution crisis that has crippled life in India’s sprawling capital.

Authorities announced the measures on Saturday after India’s Supreme Court asked the government to take immediate action to rein in soaring pollution that has left New Delhi and its citizens gasping for clean air.

Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of New Delhi, admitted that the city is facing an “emergency-like situation” with toxic air quality and dangerous smog conditions.

“Schools will remain shut for a week and revert to online classes … (and) construction activities have been banned from Nov. 14 to Nov. 17. Government offices will also have employees working from home for a week,” he told reporters, adding that private offices will also be pushed to keep workers at home.

He said a proposal with more possible measures will be submitted to the Supreme Court, which had suggested a two-day lockdown in the capital.

“Our only aim at the moment is to deal with the emergency-like situation that has emerged due to an increase in air pollution … We are not imposing a lockdown right now ... (but) we will put a proposal before the court with steps that can be taken if the situation worsens,” Kejriwal said.

Air pollution has become a persistent problem in New Delhi over recent years and the city is often ranked as the most polluted capital in the world.

A study in 2019 indicated that India’s deadly air quality contributed to over 1.2 million deaths in the country.

The issue is particularly aggravated in the winter season from November to January, when farmers in nearby areas burn crop stubble and add to the emissions of coal-fired plants and industrial units around the city.

“The conditions took a turn for the worse from Nov. 4, and what we are seeing now is one of the longest spells of air pollution,” Gufran Beig, project director of India’s state-run System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), told Anadolu Agency.

“Today, the contribution of stubble burning is 31%. The remaining is from local sources such as transport and industries,” he said, adding that air quality is expected to slightly improve from severe to very poor on Sunday or Monday.

Air pollution is not the only challenge in India’s capital, as seen earlier this week when a stretch of the Yamuna river that runs through New Delhi was covered with toxic white foam caused by pollutants dumped by industries set up around the city.​​​​​​​/agencies

 Turkey has administered over 118.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released on Saturday.

More than 55.8 million people have been given a first vaccine dose and over 49.5 million are fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to over 11.6 million people.

The ministry recorded 22,583 new coronavirus cases, 215 deaths, and 25,254 recoveries over the past day.

As many as 347,426 virus tests were done in the past 24 hours, the data showed.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca shared the latest incidence map displaying the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5.

The number of cases followed an upward trend in the metropolis Istanbul to hit 307.4 and in the western Izmir province to reach 69.6, while it showed a slight fall down to 287 in the capital Ankara.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 5 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 252.7 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​/aa

Saudi Arabia said Saturday it is set to launch the Women's Football League on November 22, the first time in the country's history.

In a statement, the Saudi Football Association said the launch of the first edition of the Saudi Women's Football League is “a step that comes within the framework of the women's football support program since 2017."

The body said the league “will be held on November 22 this year, in two phases, the first with the participation of 16 teams in 3 cities (Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam), and the final stage is scheduled to be held early next year in Jeddah at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium."

Hailing the move, President of the Saudi Football Association Yasser Al-Mishal said the rules and regulations for the league have been completed.

“They (rules and regulations) will be applied and adhered to because of their importance in the path of Saudi women's football,” Al-Mishal said in a statement.

Since the launch of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 program, Saudi Arabia as witnessed rapid social, cultural, political and economic changes. As part of the so-called "reformist" vision, the government has repeatedly stressed that it is determined to provide women rights which they haven't had in the past./aa