With plans for brand new megacities, allowing women to drive and foreign-run cinemas, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is on a charm offensive trying to promote his country as an international investment destination. The strategy aims at luring foreign money to help the world's biggest oil exporter create a new economy away from oil dependency in order to prevent future instability. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Riyadh's break-even oil price for 2018 is likely to be around $88 a barrel. North Sea Brent is currently trading down around $74 a barrel. And although the oil price is up considerably from 2014, the director of the IMF's Middle East department Jihad Azour said the focus in Saudi needs to remain on economic and social reforms.

Authorities in Riyadh have called on drone enthusiasts to register with authorities prior to operating the aerial devices, after a toy drone was reportedly shot down near the royal palace in the capital. On Saturday, videos posted online purported to show Saudi security forces shooting down the drone near King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's palace, with heavy gunfire. Riyadh police said security forces responded to an unauthorised, small drone-type toy after spotting it near a security point in Khuzama neighbourhood. It was not clear who was operating the device. A spokesperson for the interior ministry said a framework regulating the use of drones was in "its final stages", state-run SPA news agency reported on Sunday.

The proposed changes include permitting IPOs that restrict shareholders' voting rights, secondary listings by Chinese and international companies already listed elsewhere and primary listings by unprofitable biotech firms. The reforms are set to become effective April 30. The exchange will begin taking listing applications in early May, Mr. Li said. "This probably is the largest reform we've ever had in the last 25 years," he said, adding that it's "only a matter of time" before the likes of Alibaba and Xiaomi list in Hong Kong. Mr. Li is one of several speakers who are discussing some of the most compelling ideas emerging globally.

"The air force announced the execution of air strikes with the Qasif 1 aircraft on Aramco in Jizan (province)," the channel said on its official Twitter account, referring to a drone the Houthis had previously unveiled.

Tech giants Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), and Microsoft (MSFT) have raced to apply artificial intelligence to their businesses, and the oil industry is starting to seize on AI's benefits too. The reason interest is surging now is because artificial intelligence is "actually doable," he said in an interview with IBD at CERAWeek, explaining that advancements in cloud computing and infrastructure have made AI more affordable and accessible. "The industrial world is waking up to best practices," he said. "They are all waking up to it." Several heavyweights in the energy industry are already investors in his company, including General Electric (GE), Chevron (CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) and Saudi Aramco.

Apple and Amazon are in licensing discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia, sources claim. The move is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's push to give the conservative kingdom a high-tech look. A third source confirmed to Reuters that Apple was in talks with SAGIA, Saudi Arabia's foreign investment authority. Both companies already sell products in Saudi Arabia via third parties but they and other global tech giants have yet to establish a direct presence. Apple and Amazon are in licensing discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia, sources claim.

For the past 90 years, TIME magazine has named a'Person of the Year'. The result is based on who has had the most influence on the news, leading to some controversial but entirely justified selections including Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Last year, Donald Trump received the title over resounding favourite Narendra Modi. This year the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, topped the reader's poll with a clear majority. Despite this, history repeated itself yet again when the #MeToo Campaign was announced as TIME's final choice. So, despite various online polls and predictions, it's notoriously difficult to know who will be picked.

It'll be close, but it looks like women will be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia with some time to spare before the automobile industry converts entirely to self-driving cars. A royal decree announced Tuesday that women would finally be allowed behind the wheel, heralding a preposterously overdue end to the most high-profile and infamous of the repressive kingdom's restrictions on women. While there are a few other Middle Eastern and conservative Islamic countries where driving by women is culturally or religiously frowned upon, Saudi Arabia is the last country on the planet that officially prohibited it. The government says it will first form a panel to look into implementing the order, then create the infrastructure it claims is necessary to put the order into effect. However, the order seems likely to be carried out.

The orb's segmented pedestal, which looked as if it might have come from the bridge of a science-fiction starship, added to the mystery. And an illuminated floor, not directly visible in the most widely circulated images, intensified the dramatic underlighting. Critics of Mr. Trump, some of whom seem eager to see something nefarious in anything he does, appeared especially agitated. Some projected onto the images their dismay about Mr. Trump's playing down of human rights and about the authoritarian Egyptian and Saudi governments. Bill Kristol, a prominent conservative critic of Mr. Trump, likened the group to the conclave of witches in "Macbeth."