A Saudi man had to undergo laparoscopic surgery to unblock his airway after he accidentally swallowed his car key while playing with it.

A medical team at a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s coastal Al Qunfudah governorate has been praised for saving a man’s life by extracting his car key from his respiratory tract. Just how the 49-year-old man managed to swallow his own car key is still unclear, but most Middle Eastern news sources claim that he was ‘playing’ with it. That doesn’t really explain much as we can’t even begin to picture how he was playing with the car key if he ended up swallowing it, but the important thing is that the driver didn’t choke to death and even managed to recover his car key.

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In an attempt to keep artificially-enhanced camels out of official beauty pageants, Saudi authorities recently disqualified 43 camels over the use of Botox and other cosmetic procedures.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is one of the several annual events that features a camel beauty pageant. As funny as that might seem to us westerners, it’s no laughing matter in the Middle East. In fact, these sort of competitions is such a big deal that some breeders reportedly resort to Botox injections and other cosmetic touchups to make their animals prettier. The Saudi Press Agency recently reported that over 40 camels were disqualified from this year’s King Abdulaziz Camel Festival pageant because of Botox injections and other cosmetic procedures.

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Einstein Café, a popular coffee chain operating in several middle-eastern countries has come under fire for sparking a controversial trend of replacing paper cups with baby bottles.

It all started with Einstein Café, a dessert chain with branches in countries like the UAE, Kuwait or Bahrein. One day, allegedly inspired by pictures of trendy-looking bottles shared on social media, it changed the paper cups it usually served its drinks in with plastic baby bottle complete with transparent silicone teats. No one expected the change to have a huge impact on the business, but according to company management, everyone wanted to try the new bottles, even calling to book tables in advance.

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I imagine that having to split you time and attention between two families is hard enough, but things really become complicated when you’re forbidden to go outside. Which family do you quarantine with and how do you visit your second family?

Those are just two of the questions Kuwaiti polygamists, which make up about 8 percent of the Arab country’s population, are struggling with these days. Kuwait has imposed some of the strictest rules to stop the spread of the SARS-Cov2 virus in the Middle East, including a nationwide, lockdown until May 30, suspending all but essential private and public sector activities, and enforcing a curfew which only allows people to go out for groceries once every six days. The strict measures are expected to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but they are also making life much harder for polygamists.

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Saudi Arabia state-owned oil company, Aramco, has been forced to apologize for using one of its employees as a human stand for a hand sanitizing gel dispenser.

The oil giant attracted severe criticism this week after photos of one of its employees wearing a body suit with a hand sanitizer attached and a medical mask on his face started circulating on social media. The foreign employee can be seen standing as a virtual stand, as other employees use the gel dispenser he’s carrying. Although the intention may have been to raise awareness of the importance of cleaning your hands using sanitizer during the current Covid-19 pandemic, the humiliating role was harshly criticized.

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A newlywed couple in Kuwait recently made history for having the shortest marriage in the country’s existence. They decided to go their separate ways just three minutes after getting married.

Last month, Kuwaiti media reported the bizarre case of a couple who ended their marriage before even leaving the courthouse they got married in. The two had just signed their marriage contract in front of a judge and were walking out of the courthouse when the bride accidentally tripped. Instead of helping her up, the groom reportedly insulted his wife by calling her “stupid” for slipping. That was apparently too much for the woman to bear, so she turned around and asked the judge to dissolve their marriage on the spot. They had been married for only three minutes.

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An Egyptian man working as a hotel receptionist in Saudi Arabia was recently arrested after posting a short video of himself having breakfast with a fully-veiled female co-worker on social media.

The man, known only as “Bahaa”, was arrested on Sunday after a video of himself having breakfast with a female co-worker at a Jeddah hotel attracted a lot of unwanted attention on social media. The short clip shows only Bahaa and a fully-veiled woman eating breakfast, but that was apparently a clear violations of a Saudi law that states that workplaces and eateries should have separate spaces for men and women. It drew condemnation from the vast majority of Saudis, who saw this behavior as incompatible with Saudi culture.

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If high quality sportswear can improve performance in human athletes, then it technically should work for animals as well. Testing this theory is UAE-based camel and horse luxury products company Al Shibla. They recently launched a line of lycra-style outfits for camels, and they claim that the bizarre product has already garnered tremendous interest among stable owners in the Middle East.

It’s true that compression suits are worn by race horses around the world to improve performance, but the owners of Al Shibla believe that camels deserve the very best in comfort clothing as well. “If it’s fitting the horse, why we don’t do it for the camel?” asked Anne Wolter, co-founder and head of research and development.

Made of soft, thick material that covers the body, the suits improve blood circulation by slightly constricting blood vessels. Worn before and after training, it increases blood and oxygen supply to the muscles, reducing the lactic acid build-up that causes cramping. The animal is covered entirely, except for the head and neck.

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