Riyadh

Saudi Arabia executed a man for double murder and displayed his body as a deterrent, state news media said. The body of the man, beheaded by sword, was put on a cross in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency said. Ahmad Adhib bin Askar Shamalani Anzi had been convicted of killing a man and his 11-year-old son in a shop in Riyadh, the agency said. Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, usually carries out executions by public beheading for murder, rape, drug smuggling and armed robbery.

Women in Saudi Arabia won a small but promising victory this year. No, they aren't being allowed to drive; that's still forbidden. Most of the time, they still can't work, travel or even open bank accounts without the approval of a male guardian. But they do have this: Saudi women can now buy lingerie in stores from female salesclerks, instead of the sometimes leering men who used to staff the counters. If this modest wave of liberalization continues, they may even get fitting rooms. It doesn't sound like much, but in the glacial process of modernization in the tradition-bound kingdom, it's an important step.

Senior U.S. diplomats have been dropping by the royal palace in Amman almost every week this spring to convince Jordanian King Abdullah II that democratic reform is the best way to quell the protests against his rule. But another powerful ally also has been lobbying Abdullah — and wants him to ignore the Americans. Saudi Arabia is urging the Hashemite kingdom to stick to the kind of autocratic traditions that have kept the House of Saud secure for centuries, and Riyadh has been piling up gifts at Abdullah's door to sell its point of view.

Senior U.S. diplomats have been dropping by the royal palace in Amman almost every week this spring to convince Jordanian King Abdullah II that democratic reform is the best way to quell the protests against his rule. But another powerful ally also has been lobbying Abdullah — and wants him to ignore the Americans. Saudi Arabia is urging the Hashemite kingdom to stick to the kind of autocratic traditions that have kept the House of Saud secure for centuries, and Riyadh has been piling up gifts at Abdullah's door to sell its point of view.

Britain and Germany reopened diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia that were shut in the wake of suicide bombings that killed 34 people May 12 in the capital, Riyadh. But Western warnings remained against nonessential travel to the Arab kingdom, which has arrested suspected Al Qaeda supporters in connection with the attacks.

Sixteen Kuwaiti Shiite Muslims were publicly beheaded today for planting bombs that exploded in Mecca at the height of the Muslim pilgrimage this year, the Interior Ministry announced. The statement, read over the state-run Riyadh radio, said that another four Kuwaitis received prison terms of 15 and 20 years and 1,000 to 1,500 lashes of the whip. It said another nine Kuwaitis were acquitted.

Saudi spaceman Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz on Tuesday whirled into an impromptu Bedouin sword dance for Prince Charles and Princess Diana during a colorful desert picnic outside Riyadh. Prince Sultan, 30, an Air Force major who orbited the Earth in the space shuttle Discovery last year, joined Prince Salman ibn Abdulaziz, the governor of Riyadh, in a light-hearted jig for the British royal couple on their second day in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi security forces on Thursday dispersed a protest by Shiite Muslims in restive Eastern province with percussion grenades and rubber bullets, wounding five people, witnesses in the city of Qatif said. The crackdown heightened fear that nationwide demonstrations scheduled in Saudi Arabia for Friday could turn violent. The Shiite minority has long complained about religious and employment discrimination in the Sunni Muslim-dominated kingdom. They have been holding more frequent protests in the last few weeks, demanding equal treatment and the freeing of political prisoners.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher met with Saudi Arabia's King Fahd in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Sunday on the last stop of her seven-nation tour of Asian and Middle Eastern nations, the Gulf News Agency reported. The two leaders discussed developments in the Persian Gulf and Middle East before Thatcher left for London aboard a British air force jet, the Bahrain-based news agency said in a report monitored in Beirut.

Re "Read Between the Lines of Those 28 Missing Pages," by Robert Scheer, Commentary, July 29: Nothing would destabilize the Mideast region more than an attempt to overthrow the Saudi government. "Regime change" in the desert kingdom would play into the hands of Al Qaeda terrorists. Scheer's belief that President Bush's "business ties" with the oil-rich kingdom are behind the effort to classify information about its links to the 9/11 hijackers misses the point. No group would be happier to see the current government go than Al Qaeda itself, which has conducted operations and established cells in Riyadh and Mecca.

She got her driver's license in Indiana. She likes to drive fast. And on Friday, Maha Qahtani, 39, in a face-covering niqab , raced through the streets of Riyadh in her family's blue Hummer H3, defying Saudi Arabia's religion-inspired bans on female motorists. In all, nearly three dozen Saudi women got behind the wheels of various vehicles Friday, human rights activists said, in what was billed on social networking websites as a day of defiance against the ultra-conservative kingdom's longstanding driving decrees.

Yemeni protesters on Sunday cheered the surprise exit of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment and swore the man who has ruled their country for almost 33 years was finished. "Yemen is reborn!" screamed thousands of demonstrators who have lived in front of Sana University in Sana, the capital, for more than four months, weathering tear gas, police batons and AK-47 fire. But even as the crowds rejoiced, officials close to Saleh vowed he would return in days, and his trusted lieutenants, including his son, held on to senior security positions.

Saudi security forces on Thursday dispersed a protest by Shiite Muslims in restive Eastern province with percussion grenades and rubber bullets, wounding five people, witnesses in the city of Qatif said. The crackdown heightened fear that nationwide demonstrations scheduled in Saudi Arabia for Friday could turn violent. The Shiite minority has long complained about religious and employment discrimination in the Sunni Muslim-dominated kingdom. They have been holding more frequent protests in the last few weeks, demanding equal treatment and the freeing of political prisoners.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is demanding more assurances from the Obama administration that a record $60-billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia won't give the kingdom new military capabilities that threaten Israel. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, 198 members of the House of Representatives complained about Saudi policies, and said they "would like to know how these sales will affect Israel's qualitative military edge.

Saudi Arabia executed a man for double murder and displayed his body as a deterrent, state news media said. The body of the man, beheaded by sword, was put on a cross in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency said. Ahmad Adhib bin Askar Shamalani Anzi had been convicted of killing a man and his 11-year-old son in a shop in Riyadh, the agency said. Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, usually carries out executions by public beheading for murder, rape, drug smuggling and armed robbery.

Religious police in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, banned the sale of dogs and cats as pets and prohibited walking them in public. An official of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice said the ban was because of "the rising phenomenon of men using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families," as well as "violate proper behavior in public." Previous bans in Mecca and Jidda have been ignored and failed to stop pet sales. The commission official said pets would be confiscated if found outside with their owners.

She got her driver's license in Indiana. She likes to drive fast. And on Friday, Maha Qahtani, 39, in a face-covering niqab , raced through the streets of Riyadh in her family's blue Hummer H3, defying Saudi Arabia's religion-inspired bans on female motorists. In all, nearly three dozen Saudi women got behind the wheels of various vehicles Friday, human rights activists said, in what was billed on social networking websites as a day of defiance against the ultra-conservative kingdom's longstanding driving decrees.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is demanding more assurances from the Obama administration that a record $60-billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia won't give the kingdom new military capabilities that threaten Israel. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, 198 members of the House of Representatives complained about Saudi policies, and said they "would like to know how these sales will affect Israel's qualitative military edge.

"GIRLS of Riyadh," a first novel by a young Saudi woman, Rajaa Alsanea, is one of those rare books with the power to shake up an entrenched society. The novel is framed as a series of e-mail postings, sent by an unnamed narrator to her online chat site, chronicling the lives of four (pseudonymous) friends -- college-age women of the Saudi upper class.

Seven terrorism suspects escaped from a prison in the Saudi capital, a rarity in the tightly controlled kingdom. The Interior Ministry described the fugitives as religious extremists and said they had been arrested separately during the last year. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the six Saudis and one Yemeni had escaped from Malaz, one of the main prisons in Riyadh. Authorities warned citizens against providing the seven shelter or any other assistance.