It is difficult to view Saudi Arabia's relentless war of attrition in Yemen as anything other than a destructive failure.

The wreck uncovered off the coast of Al Hallaniyah, Mearns announced this week, is almost certainly da Gama's ship Esmeralda, which sank in 1503.

Royal Brunei's first all-female flight crew touched down in Saudi Arabia - a country they're not allowed to drive in.

Citizens of the conservative Saudi Arabia are increasingly turning to social media networks to pursue relationships and plan forbidden rendezvous.

Even if Saudi Arabia wins its struggle with US shale producers over market share, it will face a new billion-barrel adversary.

Saudi Arabia - Stung by falling oil prices, Saudi Arabia has cut spending and subsidies as part of harsh austerity measures that threaten the lavish welfare programs underpinning its stability.

The Turkish government, in league with Saudi Arabia, made a tentative decision to enter the war on the ground in Syria, writes Gwynne Dyer.

It is still not known who will own an abattoir in Saudi Arabia that is being built with taxpayer money, the Government says.

Malaysia's attorney-general says $1 billion transferred into PM Najib Razak's personal bank account was a gift from the royal family in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia defied the world by escalating its crisis with Iran over the execution of a prominent Shia cleric.

As tensions escalate between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the Saudi execution of a Shia cleric, countries such as ours will be reluctant to take sides.

Looking back at economies impacted from major world events in 2015.

The September stampede during the hajj in Saudi Arabia killed at least 2,411 pilgrims, a new Associated Press count shows.

State-linked development companies in the Red Sea port of Jeddah have agreed to pony up the money for a skyscraper flirting with the unprecedented 1km mark.

"A truck carrying what first seemed to be normal cans of the soft drink Pepsi was stopped and after the standard process of searching the products, it became clear that the alcoholic beers were covered with Pepsi's sticker logos,"

Foreign Minister Murray McCully ought to stand aside while the Auditor-General conducts her inquiry into the Saudi sheep deal.

At a workshop on a summer day in Riyadh, prospective candidates in local elections are limbering up. One wants to help kids, one to improve living conditions in the Saudi capital, another to become a political role model.

Taxpayer money will be spent on an abattoir that could be gifted to Saudi Arabia - part of a deal done partly to secure a free-trade deal with Gulf states.

The Labour Party has asked the Auditor-General and Treasury to investigate Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully over a deal made with a Saudi businessman.

Whatever his shortcomings in executing the war, Saddam felt he had saved the Gulf sheikdoms and was worthy of greater respect, writes Tom Clifford.

Unconvincing explanations for settling live sheep export grievance should not hurt New Zealand's clean reputation, writes John Roughan.

A controversial deal that saw $11.5 million in taxpayer money spent on a businessman's private farm in Saudi Arabia was opposed by the Treasury, documents show.

Documents reveal a briefing from NZ Trade and Enterprise warned ministers about sending breeding sheep to Saudi in the latter half of 2014.

The best Kiwi farmers would have struggled with the conditions that led to a very high death rate among lambs from pregnant ewes sent to a farm in Saudi Arabia, a company involved in the operation says.

The only way of proving or disproving the Prime Minister's claim that the papers would embarrass Labour is, obviously, the release of unredacted versions.

The high death-rate of lambs at a farm in Saudi Arabia that will act as a model for Kiwi agribusiness could have been caused by a sand storm, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy says.