Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — Under the support of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, the Riyadh International Book Fair will open on Wednesday. The 10-day fair will be held at the Riyadh International Center for Conferences and Exhibitions under the theme, Books — Future of Change, with more than 500 Arab and international publishing houses participating. The United Arab Emirates will be the guest of honor at the event. A spokesman for the fair said the UAE was chosen to be the guest of honor as an expression of strong relations between the two countries and with a view to further cementing those historic ties. According to the spokesman, there will be about 80 various cultural activities including debates, poetic nights, plays and dialogue with the authors and writers. There will be exclusive programs for children, he said while adding that a special platform was established for authors to sign their books. The spokesman said for the first time in the history of the fair, there will be a new activity named the translation marathon, in which about 200 articles on the Kingdom's heritage, customs and traditions will be translated from Arabic into English and French. This activity is aimed at boosting the process of translation of articles related to the Kingdom's culture, history and social norms, he said. In a prelude to the fair, a press conference will be held ton Tuesday to highlight the details of the fair, the participants and the various cultural activities.