In a major relief for workers, Saudi Arabia has barred employers from charging domestic staff any fees, including recruitment, work permit, service transfer, and change of profession.

The provisions are outlined in the newly released Guide to the Rights and Obligations of Domestic Workers, issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.

Employers violating the rules face fines of up to SAR20,000 and a three-year ban on hiring domestic workers, while repeat offenders will face tougher penalties, according to Saudi Gazette. 

“The regulations include a package of rights that guarantee the domestic worker a decent life and a stable work environment,” read the publication. 

Under the new rules, domestic workers are guaranteed full pay, weekly rest, daily breaks, and one month of paid leave every two years.

They are also guaranteed the right to keep their personal documents, including passports and residency permits (iqama), without any interference from employers, it added.

Employers must provide suitable accommodation, meals or a cash allowance, healthcare coverage, and ensure workers can communicate freely with their families.

The guide also lists recognised professions within the domestic sector, such as drivers, home nurses, cooks, tailors, butlers, and house managers. It allows for new categories to be added as needed.

The Louvre museum in Paris reopened its doors to visitors on Wednesday, three days after it had been shuttered over the theft of precious royal jewellery, an AFP journalist saw.

From 9:00am (0700 GMT), the museum’s usual opening time, the first visitors began entering the world-famous institution, though the museum said the Apollo Gallery, where Sunday´s theft occurred, remains closed.

The audacious daylight robbery on Sunday shortly after the museum opened caused estimated losses of around 88 million euros ($102 million), a sum the Paris prosecutor called “unparalleled” but incomparable to the loss to France’s historical heritage.

Scores of investigators are looking for the culprits, working on the theory that it was an organised crime group that clambered up a ladder on a truck to break into the museum, then dropped a diamond-studded crown as they fled.

They made off with eight priceless pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.

Disappointed tourists were turned away at the entrance of the Louvre in the heart of Paris the day after the theft, and it remained closed on Tuesday as per its regular schedule.

But on Wednesday, it welcomed them again.

“We were really hoping it would be open. We had booked for today, and we wouldn´t have had another chance to come,” said one visitor, Fanny, who travelled from the south of the country with her daughter.

The world´s most visited museum, last year it welcomed nine million people to its extensive hallways and galleries.

The theft reignited a row over the lack of security in French museums, after two other institutions were hit last month.

The investigation “is progressing”, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told local media on Wednesday, saying “more than a hundred investigators” had been mobilised.

“I have full confidence that’s for sure, that we will find the perpetrators,” he said.

Museum director Laurence des Cars has not made any public statement since the theft and is set to appear before the Senate’s culture committee from 4:30pm (1430 GMT) Wednesday.

Des Cars, who became the first woman to run the Louvre in 2021, is expected to be questioned about security at the Apollo Gallery, which houses the royal collection of gems.

The museum on Tuesday hit back at criticism that the display cases protecting the stolen jewellery were fragile, saying they were installed in 2019 and “represented a considerable improvement in terms of security”.

Aroad accident involving two buses on one of Uganda’s busiest highways killed at least 63 people and left others injured, police said on Wednesday.

The crash happened just after midnight on the highway between the capital Kampala and the northern city of Gulu.

Initial investigations suggest it was caused by two buses coming from opposite directions trying to overtake other vehicles, a lorry and a sport utility vehicle (SUV).

“In the process both buses met head-on during the overtaking manoeuvres,” the Uganda Police Force said in a statement on X. 

“Sixty-three people lost lives, all occupants from involved vehicles”.