(Reuters) - The Shi’ite Muslim minority in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province have long felt marginalized by the Sunni ruling dynasty, and protests for greater rights as part of the 2011 Arab Spring brought a crackdown on both protesters and demands for reform. But now, death...
Female drivers in Saudi Arabia will be dealt with "strictly", authorities said on Thursday before a right-to-drive campaign culminates at the weekend. The kingdom is the world's only country where women are not allowed to operate cars. Activists said in early October they were...
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced 27 people to prison for planning a series of attacks against U.S. forces in Qatar and Kuwait, with more than half of the defendants charged on Wednesday with also trying to join forces with a group in Syria to smuggle...
A group of Houthi militants late on Saturday stormed the administrative building of Sanaa province and besieged the home of Sanaa governor, Abdel-Ghani Hefzallah Jameel, eyewitnesses said. They said the Houthis had besieged the administrative building of the province for...
(Reuters) - Yemeni Shi'ite Houthi fighters and supporters of the Sunni Moslem party Islah clashed in central Yemen on Saturday, residents and local officials said, another sign of sectarian warfare in the violence-prone country that borders Saudi Arabia . Saturday's fighting in...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Bahraini activist who is eight months pregnant was detained for "insulting" the king after she tore up his photograph in court, a human rights organization said Thursday. Human Rights Watch said Zainab al-Khawaja appeared before a Bahraini...
(Reuters) - An explosion near a military checkpoint in Yemen's southeastern Hadramawt region killed two soldiers and injured four others, a local official said, adding to a wave of attacks hitting the country at a moment of political turmoil. The blast took place on a public...
The Shiite Houthi group on Tuesday rejected the appointment of Ahmed bin Mubarak as Yemen's new prime minister. "Bin Mubarak's appointment is a violation of the peace and partnership deal," Houthi leader Ali al-Bekheti told the pro-Houthi Yemen Agency. He, however, declined...
(Reuters) - Gulf Arab states have demanded the restoration of government authority in Yemen , issuing a thinly veiled criticism of rebels with ties to Iran who have taken control of the capital, Sanaa. Fighters from the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement seized Sanaa on Sept. 21...
(Reuters) - Yemen's Shi'ite Houthi fighters tightened their grip on the capital Sanaa on Monday after seizing much of the city in a lightning advance and signing an overnight deal to win a share of power, capping a decade-long guerrilla uprising. The Zaydi Shi'ites, who make...
(Reuters) - A Sunni Muslim cleric at the center of a diplomatic rift among Gulf Arab states has criticized Washington's role in the campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria as purely self-interested. Ties between Qatar and its neighbors have...
Oil prices on Monday dipped below the US$100-a-barrel mark, threatening to pinch oil-dependent states' budgets and getting closer to the level where Arabian Gulf swing producers feel pressured to curb supply. The European benchmark Brent fell below the psychological barrier for the...
Defying calls by the U.N. Security Council to end hostilities against the Yemeni government, a Houthi tribal leader on Sunday urged supporters to wage a campaign of civil disobedience until their demands are met. The Houthis, who have been fighting for years for more power for...
The residents of al-Naseem neighborhood in eastern Riyadh, were shocked when they saw the alleged slogans of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on the walls of some schools, Al-Hayat daily reported. A number of residents who spoke on condition of anonymity said they suspect...
Saudi Arabia's top Sunni cleric warned Muslim youths to steer clear of "calls for jihad" issued on "perverted" grounds, the official SPA news agency reported Thursday. "Young people should not let themselves be influenced by calls for jihad ... on perverted principles," said Grand...
High-ranking Saudi envoys held talks with the Qatari emir on Wednesday after months of strained relations over Doha's support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libya and Syria. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, intelligence chief Prince Khaled bin Bandar, and...
(Reuters) - A Saudi court has jailed 17 men for up to 33 years on a range of militant Islamist charges, including fighting in foreign conflicts and joining terrorist cells inside the kingdom, state news agency SPA reported on Monday. Riyadh's concerns about Islamist militants...
Saudi Arabia is to host a meeting of foreign ministers from several Arab states to discuss the Syrian conflict and the rise of Islamic State jihadists, Egypt's foreign ministry announced Saturday. It said Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were to...
LONDON (Reuters) - Qatar condemned on Saturday the Islamic State's "barbaric" murder of U.S. journalist James Foley and flatly rejected accusations of giving financial support to the militant group. Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiyah's comments came a day after the German...
(Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced 18 men to prison terms of 10 months to 25 years for their part in a series of militant attacks against government and foreign targets between 2003-06, state media reported late on Wednesday. The men were part of a group of 50...
