Dubai — long champion of all things biggest, longest and most expensive — will soon have some competition from neighboring Saudi Arabia.

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Saudi Arabia to build world’s tallest tower that will reach one kilometer into the sky

Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa — the world’s tallest building — could be stripped of its Guinness title if Saudi Arabia succeeds in its plans to construct the even larger Kingdom Tower in Jeddah — a prospect looking more likely as work begins next week, according to Construction Weekly.

Consultants Advanced Construction Technology Services (ACTS) have recently announced testing materials to build the 3,280-feet (one kilometer) skyscraper (the Burj Khalifa, by comparison, stands at a meeker 2,716-feet, or 827 meters).

The Kingdom Tower, estimated to cost $1.23 billion, would have 200 floors and overlook the Red Sea. Building it will require about 5.7 million square-feet of concrete, and 80,000 tons of steel, according to the Saudi Gazette.

 

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Clashes between police, foreign workers leave 2 dead in Saudi Arabia

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Two people were killed and 68 others injured in clashes between police and foreign workers following a visa crackdown in Saudi Arabia, the official news agency reported.

Police arrested 561 people Saturday in the capital of Riyadh, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The arrests came after “unidentified” people barricaded themselves in narrow streets, where they threw stones at residents and vandalized shops and cars, according to a police statement posted on the news agency’s website.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s clashes, a police spokesman urged workers without proper documents to surrender at a shelter in the capital until they could be deported.

Most of the workers impacted by recent police raids are African migrants.

Saudi Arabia launched a “security campaign” this month to crack down on workers violating visa rules.