Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia remains the world's leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow, the Bush administration's top financial counter-terrorism official said Tuesday. Stuart A.

JERUSALEM -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Israel on Sunday to begin a weeklong tour of the Middle East as the region grapples with the worsening civil war in Syria and the stubborn nuclear threat from Iran. Making his first visit to the region as Pentagon chief, Hagel is seeking to demonstrate solidarity between the U.S. and Israel -- allies whose relations have been strained over how to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. Israel is said to be mulling unilateral military action against Iran's nuclear facilities, a move that Obama administration officials consider extremely risky.

Saudi Arabia denied reports that a young man had been sentenced to paralysis, a punishment that human rights groups had excoriated as a form of torture. “This is untrue,” the Justice Ministry said Monday on its Twitter account, according to a translation by blogger Ahmed Omran . The judge “dismissed the request of such punishment.” The Saudi Gazette reported last month that if Ali Khawahir could not pay roughly $270,000 to the friend he allegedly stabbed and paralyzed a decade ago, he in turn would be paralyzed.

The great Yogi Berra is said to have observed, "Predictions are difficult, particularly about the future" (or something very close to that). When UCLA history professor James Gelvin quoted Berra to that effect on Saturday, it served as a capstone to a wide-ranging discussion of the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Wait, scratch that. The term preferred by the panel of Mideast experts speaking at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was Arab Uprisings, not Arab Spring.

Yemen's embattled president left the country for treatment of injuries suffered in a rocket attack, a dramatic turn after two weeks of heavy fighting that signaled a drive by Saudi Arabia to quell the chaos on its southern border and could result in a change of leadership. A source close to the Saudi government said President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived late Saturday in Saudi Arabia for treatment. Yemeni officials also confirmed that the Saudis had brokered a truce in the fighting that has racked the capital.

I am writing to take exception to "Experts Ask: Did Saudi Crackdown Light Fuse of Bomb?" (Nov. 14), about the car bombing that killed five Americans in Saudi Arabia. At this point, we do not yet know the identity or nationality of the terrorist who committed this horrible act. Yet Robin Wright wrote that "the eruption of violence in Saudi Arabia was almost predictable." On what basis did she link the bombing with this kind of blanket statement? The internal situation that Wright described--which is not accurate--did not cause this car bombing any more than the U.S. budget crisis caused the Oklahoma City bombing.

Alarmed by reports that Saudi Arabia will paralyze a man as punishment for allegedly stabbing a friend who ended up paralyzed, Britain urged the kingdom Thursday to abandon the “grotesque punishment.” The Saudi Gazette reported last week that Ali Khawahir was sentenced to be paralyzed if he could not pay 1 million riyals - roughly $270,000 - to the friend he allegedly stabbed a decade ago. Khawahir was reportedly 14 years old when he...

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded a Sri Lankan woman who was convicted of killing a baby, putting the former domestic worker to death despite her young age at the time of the alleged crime. The Sri Lankan government had pleaded with Saudi officials to spare Rizana Nafeek, who was 17 and had been working in the country just a few weeks when a baby died in her care in 2005. She was among the hundreds of thousands of migrants who flock to Saudi Arabia from countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines, toiling as domestic workers who cook, clean and care for children.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia surprised his ultraconservative nation Sunday by announcing bold reforms that for the first time will give women the right to vote, run for local office and serve on the Shura Council, the king's advisory board. The measures by an aging monarch who has battled Islamic hard-liners for years will marginally improve the standing of women in a country that still forbids them to drive or leave the house without their faces covered. The moves appear likely to enrage religious conservatives while advancing at least a veneer of change in one of the world's most repressive states.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The Saudi royal family prizes stability as much as the oil that secures its wealth, but political upheaval across the Middle East has shaken the kingdom's sense of balance, forcing it to press for radical change in Syria and confront a bid by longtime nemesis Iran to wield greater influence. The decades-old rivalry between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shiite-controlled Iran for prominence in the region is one of the volatile subplots embedded in the "Arab Spring.

A Saudi prince has renewed his argument that women should be allowed to drive, saying on Twitter that doing so would eliminate the need for hundreds of thousands of foreign drivers. Activists point out that driving is not actually legally prohibited for Saudi women, but traffic officials refuse to grant them licenses because clerics in the country forbid it. As a result, women rely on drivers to ferry them around, one of many factors pulling foreign workers into the Arab kingdom.

Saudi Arabia denied reports that a young man had been sentenced to paralysis, a punishment that human rights groups had excoriated as a form of torture. “This is untrue,” the Justice Ministry said Monday on its Twitter account, according to a translation by blogger Ahmed Omran . The judge “dismissed the request of such punishment.” The Saudi Gazette reported last month that if Ali Khawahir could not pay roughly $270,000 to the friend he allegedly stabbed and paralyzed a decade ago, he in turn would be paralyzed.

Alarmed by reports that Saudi Arabia will paralyze a man as punishment for allegedly stabbing a friend who ended up paralyzed, Britain urged the kingdom Thursday to abandon the “grotesque punishment.” The Saudi Gazette reported last week that Ali Khawahir was sentenced to be paralyzed if he could not pay 1 million riyals - roughly $270,000 - to the friend he allegedly stabbed a decade ago. Khawahir was reportedly 14 years old when he...

CAIRO - An Egyptian human rights lawyer was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and 300 lashes by a court in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of smuggling drugs into the kingdom. Ahmed Gizawy was arrested with his wife on their way to a pilgrimage to Mecca in April, allegedly carrying 20,000 prescription anti-anxiety pills. The Egyptian consulate in the kingdom said it would appeal the ruling, according to Egypt's state news agency. The court also convicted an Egyptian who was traveling with Gizawy to six years and 400 lashes, the news agency reported.

The king of Saudi Arabia has named dozens of women to serve on his advisory council, a new step in the ultra-religious country where women remain strictly confined in daily life. Thirty women were among 150 people chosen Friday to serve on the council, a purely advisory body. King Abdullah also insisted that women make up at least a fifth of the members of the advisory council in the future, setting out the quota in a royal order. “Women selected as members of the Shura Council will enjoy full rights of membership, be committed to their duties, responsibilities and assume their jobs,” said the royal order published Friday by the official Saudi Press Agency . Plans to grant women seats on the Shura Council were first announced by Abdullah more than a year ago, one in a batch of reforms meant to bolster the standing of Saudi women.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded a Sri Lankan woman who was convicted of killing a baby, putting the former domestic worker to death despite her young age at the time of the alleged crime. The Sri Lankan government had pleaded with Saudi officials to spare Rizana Nafeek, who was 17 and had been working in the country just a few weeks when a baby died in her care in 2005. She was among the hundreds of thousands of migrants who flock to Saudi Arabia from countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines, toiling as domestic workers who cook, clean and care for children.

Socialite, designer and former reality TV star Paris Hilton has spurred howls of outrage in Saudi Arabia by opening a handbag store in the holy city of Mecca. Her boutique in the Mecca Mall has angered scores of faithful Muslims who don't want anything to do with the blond hotel heiress, who first gained notoriety in 2003 with a homemade sex tape that went viral. Some Saudis have flocked to Twitter to vent about the "insult" to Mecca, where millions of Muslims arrive annually on a pilgrimage.

IKEA removed images of women from the Saudi Arabia version of its catalog, a decision that the furniture giant now says clashes with its values. Swedish publication Metro posted a comparison of the Saudi Arabian mailer and the Swedish version, showing that women present in the latter were missing from the former. In the Muslim country, women are not allowed to travel or study without male permission and are expected to avoid driving and to conceal their bodies and hair. The image of a  pajama-clad woman -- shown standing at a bathroom sink along with a young boy, a man and another young child nearby -- is erased in the catalog distributed in the Arab state.