Latest news with #SalmanAlDosari
Arab News
6 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Saudi Press Agency launches Saudi Photo Platform to expand global access to visual archive
MAKKAH: Saudi Arabia's minister of media and chairman of the Saudi Press Agency, Salman bin Yousef Al-Dosari, on Wednesday launched the Saudi Photo Platform, a new digital initiative designed to offer free access to SPA's vast archive of authenticated images. Unveiled during the second edition of the Hajj Media Forum at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Exhibition and Events Center, the platform will allow users worldwide to browse, use, and share images under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. The forum was attended by local and international media representatives. Acting SPA President Ali bin Abdullah Al-Zaid said the platform reflected its strategy to make its visual archive more widely available to content creators around the globe, while preserving intellectual property rights and promoting creativity in a regulated digital environment. He added that launching the platform from Makkah held symbolic significance, reinforcing the city's historic role in conveying Saudi Arabia's message to the world, and said it marked an important step toward enhancing the Kingdom's visual presence in the digital space. The Saudi Photo Platform, which can be reached on features high-resolution images, sorted by category and accompanied by detailed metadata, including event descriptions and publication dates. The archive is continuously updated to document key national and international events, and the site is fully supported in both Arabic and English. The initiative is part of SPA's broader digital transformation agenda, aimed at modernizing publishing tools and fostering new partnerships with media outlets and online users worldwide, it said.
The National
27-05-2025
- The National
Saudi Arabia uses drones to monitor Hajj pilgrims
Saudi Arabia has announced new measures to enhance the experience and safety of pilgrims during this year's Hajj season, including the use of drones for monitoring and an expansion of flexible rubberised and cooled roads. In a press conference held on Monday in Riyadh, Minister of Transport and Logistics Services Saleh bin Nasser Al Jasser outlined major preparations for the annual pilgrimage. He mentioned a 30 per cent increase in the use of flexible rubberised roads designed to ease the journey for pilgrims on foot. He also announced an expansion in the use of cooled roadways, which can reduce surface temperatures by approximately 12 degrees Celsius – an important measure in the extreme summer heat. Each year, millions of Muslims from around the world gather in Makkah to perform Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam and among the most significant spiritual journeys in the religion. The pilgrimage spans several days and includes a sequence of highly structured religious rites. So far, Saudi Arabia has welcomed more than one million pilgrims for this year's Hajj. 'The total number of pilgrims arriving from outside the kingdom via international ports until the end of yesterday, Sunday, exceeded one million and 70,000 pilgrims,' Minister of Media Salman Al Dosari told a press conference on Monday. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has called on Muslims across the kingdom to look for the crescent moon on Tuesday evening to determine the start of the Islamic month of Dhu Al Hijja, during which Hajj takes place. Tuesday marks the 29th day of Dhu Al Qadah. If the crescent moon is sighted that evening, Dhu Al Hijja will begin on Wednesday, May 28, and Eid Al Adha will fall on Friday, June 6. If the moon is not sighted, Dhu Al Hijja will start on Thursday, and Eid Al Adha will be observed on Saturday, June 7. The kingdom has also announced several penalties for those who violate regulations during Hajj – one of the largest mass gatherings in the world.
Argaam
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Argaam
Pilgrim arrivals reach 1.25M in Saudi Arabia as of May 25: Minister
Minister of Media Salman Al-Dosari announced that the total number of pilgrims arriving from outside Saudi Arabia through international entry points had reached 1.25 million as of May 25. Speaking at today's government press conference, the minister added that around 250,000 pilgrims arrived during the same period through the Makkah Route Initiative.
