RCU announces birth of Arabian leopard cubs, US embassy congratulates
RCU tweeted video of newborn Arabian leopard cubs playing together at Prince Saud Al-Faisal Center for Wildlife Research
Updated 21 August 2022
Nada Hameed
JEDDAH: The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has announced the birth of two female Arabian leopard cubs, one of the world’s most endangered animals.
The RCU tweeted a video of the newborn Arabian leopard cubs playing together at the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Center for Wildlife Research, where they were born.
The US embassy in Riyadh praised the efforts of the RCU in preserving one of the most endangered species via a message on Twitter: “We congratulate Saudi Arabia on the birth of “two female” Arabian leopard cubs. RCU is doing a great job when it comes to preserving one of the most endangered animals.”
Congratulations Saudi Arabia on your newest and most adorable residents! @RCU_SA is doing an impressive job working to save the critically endangered Arabian Leopard. @SciDiplomacyUSApic.twitter.com/B4qjaThZka
The news received thousands of positive reactions from many animal lovers from countries around the globe including Japan, India, Canada, Ukraine, the US and France.
The RCU’s strategy to preserve the Arabian leopard includes initiatives such as the expansion of a breeding program through the opening of the Arabian Leopard Breeding Center in the Sharaan Nature Reserve, and the establishment of a $25 million Global Fund for the Arabian Leopard.
The Arabian Leopard’s habitat has historically been ecologically diverse. The RCU tweeted: “In #AlUla, we work to safeguard the Arabian Leopard from extinction, restore ecosystems and meet our #SaudiGreenInitiative & #SaudiVision2030 objectives.”
Only a handful of the magnificent animals are thought to survive in the whole Arabian Peninsula, holding out in the last refuge in Oman’s Dhofar mountains.
What makes Arabian leopards vulnerable is that they are solitary animals, they live alone and mate in the winter, their gestation period is 100 days, and the female Arabian leopard gives birth at an annual rate of one to two cubs only.
The Arabian leopard is classified on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List as “critically endangered.” It is all but extinct in the wild.
However, the commitment to preserving the Arabian leopard runs deep in Saudi Arabia, and in June 2016 Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s minister of culture and the RCU, signed an agreement with Panthera, committing the commission to invest $20 million over 10 years to aid global conservation of the leopard and to revitalize the Arabian leopard population.
This year, the Kingdom celebrated its first Arabian Leopard Day in February. The occasion will take place annually on February 10 to raise awareness about the endangered big cat.
Rewilding Arabia
Return of the leopard is at the heart of plans to conserve and regenerate Saudi Arabia’s landscapes and wildlife
How Saudi Arabia is embracing AI to drive healthier lifestyles in line with Vision 2030
From smart hospitals to intelligent PE planning, the Kingdom is harnessing tech to improve public health outcomes
King Faisal Specialist Hospital uses AI to streamline patient care and educate families on managing long-term health conditions
Updated 13 sec ago
Haifa Alshammari
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is leveraging artificial intelligence to build a healthier, more active population — a central objective of Vision 2030, which commits to raising the quality of life for all citizens through physical wellbeing.
AI is playing a pivotal role in this national transformation, with its applications extending across the healthcare sector, educational institutions and even mobile fitness apps that support healthier daily habits.
One leader in this field is the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, which uses AI to streamline patient care, support post-treatment recovery and empower families through personalized health education.
Early this year, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh announced that it has successfully performed a robotic-assisted implantation of an artificial heart pump (HeartMate 3) developed by Abbott. (Photo courtesy of KFSHRC)
“Today, we live in a golden digital innovation ecosystem in the Kingdom,” Dr. Ahmad AbuSalah, director of the Center for Healthcare Intelligence at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, told Arab News.
“It is a golden time for entrepreneurs, for innovators, for organizations and for researchers. In the hospital, we have a digital transformation journey that we take really seriously.”
Driven by the healthcare transformation program of Vision 2030, the hospital’s strategy focuses on lowering costs, expanding access to care and delivering outstanding services — all supported by AI.
However, Dr. AbuSalah said that adoption of these new technologies must be strategic and sustainable if they are to have the desired effect on patient outcomes and medical practice.
“Some organizations build AI models, keep it for a couple of years, and then shut it down. Why? Because it wasn’t bringing value,” he said.
One of the most impactful uses of AI at King Faisal Specialist Hospital is operation intelligence, which helps to guide the patient journey from admission to discharge. The system uses predictive analytics to inform patients about their health and encourage targeted lifestyle changes.
“We built a system that will proactively predict a patient’s experience three days before their appointment for the cancer treatment unit,” Dr. AbuSalah said.
This helps doctors anticipate outcomes, manage expectations and intervene early where needed.
Dr. Ahmad AbuSalah
The hospital’s AI tools also alleviate administrative burden on medical staff — a major cause of burnout. “If we remove the noise around the doctor, the care quality will be enhanced by itself,” Dr. AbuSalah said.
“You always hear the term ‘physician burnout’ because they are spending a lot of time on non-clinical tasks, on documentation, submitting orders here and there, generating reports. How can they focus on patients?”
By automating those tasks, AI frees up time for direct patient care, improving both staff wellbeing and service quality.
Outside the hospital setting, the same technology is helping Saudis to make better everyday health choices. AI-enabled apps now track sleep, diet and exercise, offering personalized insights to encourage small, achievable steps — such as walking or cycling.
In fact, walking and cycling are now the most popular forms of physical activity among Saudi adults, according to a 2024 General Authority for Statistics report.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Predictive AI can forecast patient experiences before appointments, enabling more personalized treatment.
• AI-powered apps help users to track their sleep, diet and activity for smarter, healthier daily habits.
• Schools are using AI to plan tailored PE lessons, making physical activity more engaging for students.
However, the report also noted a gender gap, with 23.2 percent of men being physically active compared to just 14 percent of women.
AI could help to close that gap, offering flexible, accessible ways for women to engage in exercise from home or within their communities.
Meanwhile, in schools across the Kingdom, AI is transforming physical education by helping teachers to tailor activities to individual students’ needs. This has made PE more engaging and inclusive — and part of a broader campaign to instill lifelong habits of fitness.
Last year, the Saudi Ministry of Education added rugby as an elective sport in its physical education curriculum, as part of an effort to promote the importance of having a healthy lifestyle among children. (AFP photo)
In a landmark move last year, the Ministry of Education introduced rugby as an elective sport — an initiative that underscores the growing importance of physical activity in the national curriculum.
But technology alone is not enough. To ensure lasting impact, experts say that the Kingdom must continue investing in infrastructure, educator training and custom tools that align with Saudi culture and goals.
Through such initiatives, Saudi Arabia is turning AI into more than just a technological leap — it is becoming a public health revolution, helping the nation move, live and feel better every day.
BRUSSELS: Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, adviser at the Royal Court and supervisor general of the Saudi aid agency KSrelief, recently conducted high-level discussions with UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell during the European Humanitarian Forum in Brussels.
The meeting, which included Saudi EU Ambassador Haifa Al-Jedea, focused on joint humanitarian and relief initiatives designed to enhance child welfare programs across global crisis zones.
Russell praised the ongoing partnership between UNICEF and KSrelief, highlighting how their collaboration has successfully delivered aid to millions of vulnerable children worldwide. She described the relationship as “an outstanding example of international humanitarian cooperation dedicated to serving children globally.”
Madinah university launches ‘Legacy and Impact’ project
Updated 22 May 2025
Arab News
MADINAH: The Islamic University of Madinah has launched the “Irth Wa Athar” (Legacy and Impact) project, which aims to document its graduates’ educational impact and rectify data digitization.
The university said the initiative included documenting and rectifying graduates’ certificates from 1961-97 and collecting the data of 173,000 international scholarships offered by the university to its graduates from 179 countries since its establishment in 1961.
The international scholarships include more than 41,000 awarded to students in the fields of religious sciences, in addition to over 15,000 granted for studies in the principles and skills of Islamic preaching.
Some 27,000 scholarships were granted to students of Arabic language education, while 24,000 were offered for training specialists in other scientific fields.
RIYADH: The National Developmental Housing Corporation, or Sakan, has won the Qassim Award for Excellence and Creativity in the National Excellence Branch in its fifth session.
Yazeed Al-Rasheed, vice president for shared services at Sakan, received the award on behalf of the organization. He expressed his gratitude to officials for their support and recognition of national initiatives, saying that this was an incentive to continue efforts in cooperation with all parties.
Abdulaziz Al-Karidis, secretary-general of Sakan, thanked the Qassim governor for his support for Sakan’s initiatives and for following up and encouraging activities that achieved the foundation’s goals. Receiving the award would inspire the foundation to further enhance its performance and reinforce its core values, he said.
The win marks a milestone in the foundation’s journey and its commitment to excellence and innovation. The foundation continues to strive toward creating a positive and sustainable impact in the developmental housing sector by offering the best solutions and practices.
Black mulberry and damask rose seedlings distributed to farmers in Baha
Updated 22 May 2025
Arab News
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s National Research and Development Center for Sustainable Agriculture — known as Estidamah — has distributed over 20,000 black mulberry and damask rose seedlings to farmers in Al-Baha.
The initiative, carried out through the center’s tissue culture laboratory, is part of efforts to support farmers and transfer modern agricultural techniques to areas with comparative advantages. It continues Estidamah’s contribution to a former agricultural project which saw 52,000 black mulberry, damask rose and strawberry seedlings distributed across the area.
The aim is to introduce new types of seedlings, increase production efficiency and achieve a qualitative leap in the region’s agricultural landscape.
It reflects the center’s keenness to support sustainable agricultural development by spreading highly economically viable plant varieties, which are propagated using tissue culture techniques to ensure quality, genetic purity and suitability to the targeted climatic and environmental conditions.
The center continues to implement several programs that aid farmers by providing research and technical solutions based on sustainable agricultural practices, achieving optimal efficiency in using resources and maximizing production value, in line with National Agriculture Strategy objectives.
