Saudi chief replaced

Shock as King Salman revamps Defence Ministry in shake-up

FORMER Dynasty star Heather Locklear has been arrested after she allegedly bit her boyfriend’s nose in a drunken rage and then attacked three police officers.

Miss Locklear, who played Sammy Jo Carrington in the 1980s US soap, fought with Chris Heisser, a childhood sweetheart she began dating again last year, at her home in Thousand Oaks, California, late on Sunday night.

A police source said the 56year-old actress ‘ practically bit the tip off of Heisser’s nose’ then attacked officers when they attempted to put her in handcuffs. SAUDI Arabia replaced its military chief of staff and other defence officials early Tuesday morning in a shake-up apparently aimed at overhauling its Defence Ministry during the stalemated war in Yemen.

The kingdom also announced a new female deputy minister of labour and social development as it tries to broaden the role of women in the workplace. Saudi Arabia made the announcement in a flurry of royal decrees carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. As with many announcements in the ultraconservative Sunni kingdom, it was short on details.

King Salman “approved the document on developing the Ministry of Defence, including the vision and strategy of the ministry’s developing program, the operational pattern targeting its development, the organisational structure, governance and human resources requirements,” one statement said. Chief among the changes was the firing of military chief of staff Gen. Abdulrahman bin Saleh al-Bunyan. Another announcement said the general would become a consultant to the royal court.

Al-Bunyan was replaced by General Fayyadh bin Hamid al-Rwaili, who once had been the commander of the Royal Saudi air force, among the nation’s premier military forces.

The decisions come as the Saudi-led coalition, chiefly backed by the United Arab Emirates, remains mired in a stalemate in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the war in which Saudi-led forces back Yemen’s internationally recognised government against Shiite rebels and their allies who are holding the country’s capital.

The kingdom faces wide international criticism for its air strikes killing civilians and striking markets and hospitals, and other civilian targets.

Aid groups also blame a Saudi-led blockade of Yemen for pushing the country to the brink of famine.