The Saudi city of Jeddah is officially set to become home to the world's tallest skyscraper, the Jeddah Tower, despite several setbacks. 

According to Arab News, real estate developers overseeing the project have recently signed a 620-million Saudi riyal ($165 million) contract for infrastructure work at the site, indicating that the work remains in progress.

Speaking to CNN, the developer behind the skyscraper, Jeddah Economic Company, confirmed that the project is still on schedule and will be completed by 2020.

The infrastructure contract has been signed with local Al-Fouzan General Contracting Co., which plans to complete the work within one year.

After first being launched in 2013, the project has encountered several roadblocks that have delayed its progress.

In November 2017, two of the project's top investors - billionaire businessman Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal and chairman of Jeddah Tower's construction company, Bakr Bin Laden - were arrested as part of the kingdom's crackdown on corruption. 

The purge saw several princes, ministers, businessmen, and politicians be detained under orders from an anti-corruption committee headed by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Still, the recent move has confirmed that the project will go ahead as planned, despite the arrests.

Jeddah Economic Company CEO Mounib Hammoud told Arab News that implementing the advanced infrastructure is considered "an essential step in positioning this mega development as a world-class project."

As of late 2017, the tower was 252 meters high and already had broad views of the kingdom, according to CNN, which released a video capturing the construction site last week.

Based in Jeddah Economic City, the Jeddah Tower is planned to stand at 1,000 meters, surpassing the world's current tallest tower, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, by 72 meters.

This comes as part of the Jeddah Economic City project, a commercial and residential project that will feature homes, hotels, offices, along with touristic sites.

"Before (the tower) was here, this was not considered a place that people would live," Hisham Jomah, chief development officer of Jeddah Economic Company, told CNN.

"Jeddah is going to be repositioned on the international scene of modern cities," he added. "You speak about downtown Dubai - and now we're going to have downtown Jeddah."

On Thursday, Lebanon's intelligence service was reportedly accused of hacking into the smartphones of thousands of Android phone users, monitoring individuals' devices and data without consent, according to Reuters.

A report published by Lookout, a mobile security film, in collaboration with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights group, claims Lebanon's General Directorate of General Security (GDGS) ran more than 10 campaigns since 2012 aimed at Android users in 21 countries.

The state-backed hackers - dubbed "Dark Caracal" - tricked individuals into downloading fake versions of encrypted messaging apps, including Whatsapp and Telegram, giving hackers full access to their devices. 

No evidence was found with regards to hacking of Apple phone users.

"The malware, once installed, could do things like remotely take photos with front or back camera and silently activate the phone’s microphone to record conservations," researchers said, according to Reuters.

The researchers behind the report said the stolen data includes nearly half a million intercepted text messages, documents, photos, audio and the like, according to Annahar.

"It’s almost like thieves robbed the bank and forgot to lock the door where they stashed the money,” said Mike Murray, Lookout’s head of intelligence, according to Annahar.

The main targets of the cyber attacks are government officials, military targets, utilities, and financial institutions.

The victims of the attacks were mostly located in Lebanon, with some in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China - to name a few.

The researchers also found evidence linking the servers used for the attacks to a General Directorate for General Security (GDGS) office in Beirut. 

The report added that "the internet protocol addresses of the spyware’s control panels mapped to an area just south of the GDGS building."

The suspected devices all seemed to have connected to a Wi-Fi network active at the site of Lebanon's security headquarters, according to The Telegraph.

However, the researchers cannot confirm 100% that GDGS is fully responsible for the hacking.

"General Security does not have these type of capabilities. We wish we had these capabilities," said Major General Abbas Ibrahim, director general of GDGS, when asked for comment by Reuters.