Secretary of the Higher Education Council Abdulghani Al-Shuwaikh said that the equivalence of academic qualifications issued by foreign universities is not a condition of employment in private higher education institutions, according to the provisions of the regulations issued by the Higher Education Council.

Iraqi campaign owners and tourist offices in Bahrain demanded the cancellation of security clearance for issuing visas to tourists and re-work in individual visas.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) summoned Nihad Rajab Askar, Deputy Chargé d'Affaires of the embassy of Iraq to the Kingdom of Bahrain.

A U.N. advance team arrived in Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah on Sunday to start monitoring a ceasefire and withdrawal of forces agreed by the Iranian-aligned Houthi group and Saudi-backed government forces, the United Nations said.

Bahrain's annual growth in gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, slowed in the third quarter of this year as both the oil and non-oil sectors lost momentum, the government's statistics website showed on Sunday.

The National Audit Office report showed that the Higher Education Council prepared a single booklet after a survey that showed that graduates did not meet the expectations of employers, because they lacked the requisite skills. Meanwhile, the council claimed that it completed 80% of its initiatives, and that the Secretariat did not seek the implementations of 15 initiatives that it adopted, and only sufficed with what it included in the Government's Programme of Action, which does not help achieve the strategic objectives.

The National Audit Office report criticized the inaccuracy and non-objectivity in implementation of some of the projects of the Ministry of Transport and Communications in the follow-up reports of the Government's Programme action for the years 2015-2018 and their incompatibility with the data contained in the budget implementation in the same reports.

The National Audit Office report revealed the existence of numerous irregularities in the Gulf Air Company, the national carrier of the Kingdom and associated with the revenues, as the detailed notes on passenger revenues and dealing with sales agents showed that the company did not claim the receivables of total $18 million from travel agents outside Bahrain during the period from 1 August 2014 until 1 August 2017.

The National Audit Office report on the performance of the Al-Salmaniya medical complex cited examples of serious professional errors that caused the death of many patients, whose files were not referred to the National Health Regulatory Authority “NHRA”. The Ministry of Health only conducted an internal investigation without proving that it had carried out investigations. Besides, the period in which it told the Commission in some cases was 420 days, despite the fact that the law provided only 5 days.

The Ministry of Interior has recorded a number of financial irregularities according to the National Audit Office report, the most prominent of which is the repeated expenses of the Ministry, which are carried over to other years without being included in their actual year, as well as the failure to obtain guarantees for the entire periods specified for presenting goods and services, as well as the frequent and continuous disbursement of overtime allowance, without considering whether it is necessary.

The government will start next week a new increase in diesel prices reaching up to 12.5%, in a pre-planned increase as part of the kingdom's plans to structure government support for the energy sector and address fiscal deficits, while Bahraini carriers companies have confirmed that they have already prepared for this increase and that the effects will be limited.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards launched war games in the Gulf on Saturday, state television reported, after a U.S. aircraft carrier entered the waterway amid rising tension with Washington over reimposed U.S. sanctions.

Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, a vocal supporter of reform in Saudi Arabia, has died aged 87, the royal court said on Saturday.

The head of a United Nations advance team tasked with monitoring a ceasefire between the Iranian-aligned Houthi group and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen's Hodeidah has arrived in Yemen, U.N. and local officials said on Saturday.

The President Of Civil Service Bureau Ahmed Al-Zayed stated that the annual promotion for 2019 will be handed out to all employees who have been accepted in the optional retirement program who fit the requirements according to the approved regulations, including those who are set to exit with the first batch on 31 January 2019 and the following batches.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry retracted its first statement which demanded some MPs to postpone the Added Value Tax, and replaced it with a statement demanding that the government "improve the implementation of the Added Value Tax."

The General Federation of Bahraini Trade Unions (GFBTU) Hassan Al-Halwaji called upon the leased workers of Bapco to take their time before accepting "Tatweer's" offer, stating that a call has been made to the Ministry of Labor and union regarding this topic.

The Bahraini Finance Minister Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa issued the Executive Regulations on the Value Added Tax (VAT), effective January 1, 2019.

The Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the issuance of Security Council Resolution 2451 on the ceasefire in Yemen’s Hodeidah, and the dispatch of international observers to follow up what was agreed upon between Yemeni parties in Sweden.

The report of the Financial and Administrative National Audit Office for 2017 and 2018 states that the amount of water received by the sewage stations in the Kingdom exceeds its absorptive capacity by up to 186%.