Free Republic

A Saudi man studying in the United States married a girl in the Gulf Kingdom through the advanced Skype video communication system and a newspaper said it was the first “Skype” marriage to be performed in the conservative Gulf Kingdom. Sheikh Fawaz Al Nafeei conducted the marriage rites at the bride’s home in the western Saudi town of Kharma after getting approval from the couple’s families and the groom through Skype, Okaz Arabic language daily said. “At first I was surprised when they asked me to consummate the marriage this way…but then I agreed because it does not contradict with...

Saudi prince hunted endangered birds, Pakistan officials say Karachi: A Saudi prince is alleged to have poached over 2,100 endangered and internationally protected birds in a 21-day hunting safari in southwest Pakistan's Balochistan province, bringing the focus back on the practice that has been taking place for long. Last year in January, the hunting of endangered Houbara Bustards by members of Arab royal families in Pakistan had led to friction along the Indo-Pak frontier, with the BSF complaining about the firing. Any firing near the border is a violation of norms and India's Border Security Force (BSF) had lodged protests...

The mother of an autistic 17-year-old Stafford County girl who was sexually assaulted Saturday has been accused of helping the teen’s attacker try to leave the country, court records show. Hamad Mastour Alsuwat, 20, was arrested Sunday at Dulles International Airport as he was boarding a plane bound for his native Saudi Arabia, police said. He is charged in Stafford with object sexual penetration, a felony that carries a potential life sentence. The victim’s mother, who is not being named to protect the victim’s identity, was arrested Sunday on a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice. According to an affidavit...

A Saudi woman defied the kingdom's ban on female driving, getting behind the wheel of her husband's car before police detained the couple and fined the man, a newspaper said Sunday. The 23-year-old woman was caught driving on Thursday in the Qatif district in Eastern Province, the Saudi Gazette said, adding police forced the couple to sign a pledge not to repeat the offence. They were released on bail and the traffic department fined her 28-year-old husband 900 riyals ($240) and impounded his car seven for days, it said.

WASHINGTON — The United States is said to have disclosed that Saudi King Abdullah was dying. (Snip) The sources said the photograph was taken by White House personnel during Obama’s meeting with the Saudi king outside Riyad on March 28.“The Saudis specifically did not want any photograph that showed Abdullah with the tube,” a source said. “But there was a White House photographer that took the picture for what he said was history.” The photograph was said to have been relayed to members of the White House press corps. Within a day, an image of the Saudi king with the...

Used generators to restore power after sandstormA Saudi bridegroom had to call the civil defence to save his wedding after a sandstorm disrupted power and threatened the concert. Civil defence units rushed to the wedding in Darma town, 60 km south of the capital Riyadh, and used their generators to supply power to the place for three hours. “Our men used generators to restore power for three hours to the couple will go ahead with their wedding,” civil defence spokesman Major Mohammed Al Hammadi said, quoted by the Saudi news network Al Arabiya.

PM facing embarrassment over links between adviser and Islamist group. Adviser Tariq Ramadan is grandson of Muslim Brotherhood's founder . ... Tariq Ramadan is one of 14 members of the Foreign Office’s Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, chaired by Tory peer Baroness Warsi. He is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, and was a member of a taskforce set up by Tony Blair after 7/7. But Prof Ramadan, 51, is grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder Hassan al-Banna and his father Said Ramadan was a leading light. ... He was kept out of France in...

A Muslim gunman saw a jesuit priest named Fr. Frans van der Lugt in the Syrian city of Homs, opened fire on him and shot him to death. He was killed in the Bustan al-Diwan neighbourhood. Fr Frans van der Lugt He was trapped in the city, alongside numerous other Christians and Muslims, who were all suffering of mass starvation. He lived in Syria for fifty years, and refused to leave his flock. Just a few months before he was murdered, he stated: As long as there is one person from our community left here, I will stay with them....

He stabbed victim many times in the street in front of passers-byA Saudi drug addict in his 30s went into a shop, dragged an Indian worker out and stabbed him to death many times, claiming he wanted to get rid of evil spirits. Panicking passers-by watched with horror as the Saudi stabbed the Indian worker while chanting “God is Great” in the middle of the road in the capital Riyadh. Police said the unnamed killer already had been convicted of taking drugs, having alcoholic drinks and abusing his parents. “We [are] interrogating him and he said that he kept seeing...

BOSTON (AP) — A Saudi Arabian man injured in the Boston Marathon bombings has filed a defamation lawsuit against Glenn Beck, accusing the conservative commentator of calling him "the money man" behind the attack. Abdulrahman Alharbi, 20, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston that his reputation was "substantially and severely damaged" as a result of Beck's statements on the air linking him to the bombings. [snip]

I didn’t set out to become Twitter famous in Saudi Arabia. As a senior White House reporter for POLITICO, I’ve traveled all over the country and the world with President Barack Obama, touching down in Air Force One on one unremarkable tarmac after another to record his arrival. I seldom find them noteworthy — and, as an infrequent tweeter, rarely ever share-worthy. But Riyadh was different. A stunning display of Saudi guards awaited Obama at the airport Friday in perfect formation, swords in hand and scarves on their head. So I did something I don’t normally do: I tweeted the...

Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen accidently blow themselves up while handling car bombs Tribesmen from the area and security officials identified the men — one Saudi and two Yemenis — as Al Qaeda terrorists. They were outfitting a car with explosives Sunday when the accident occurred. SANAA, Yemen — Three Al Qaeda operatives accidentally blew themselves up while outfitting a car with explosives, Yemen security officials said. Tribesmen from the area and security officials identified the three, one Saudi and two Yemenis, as Al Qaeda terrorists. The group is known to be active in the province’s Habban region, where the...

A Saudi woman lived as a beggar most of her life until she was 100 years. When she died, she left behind millions and four buildings. Known as Aisha, the woman had told a neighbour just before her death to give her money to authorities as she had no relatives. Okaz newspaper estimated her wealth at SR five million (Dhfive million) plus four large buildings in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah, where Aisha had practiced her begging profession for more than 50 years. “She had around SRfour million in cash, more than SR one million in gold coins...

Saudi scholar says buffet meals are Haram A member of the Standing Committee of the Council of Senior Scholars, Sheikh Saleh bin Abdullah Al-Fawzan, said that buffets offered at restaurants are haram. The basis of his statement was that buffet meals have a fixed price, but the quantity of food that can be consumed is unknown or unlimited. According to Sabq news, the senior scholar said that the quantity of food and the price of the meals must be clear and known. He was responding to a listener‘s question about buffets on Holy Quran Radio. “One must not simply go...

Family was strolling along beach in western port of QunfudahA Saudi family was reported by social networks to have been swallowed by a giant whale at a beach in the Gulf Kingdom, but authorities on Tuesday denied the news and said a picture that was carried along with the report was a fake. The report was circulated by thousands of Saudis on social networks and BlackBerry mobiles that a huge whale surfaced at the beach and swallowed the entire family that was strolling in the area in the western port of Qunfudah. “These reports are not true and the picture...

It seems the snake spent the night with him in bedA Saudi man who was camping with his family in a valley in the Gulf kingdom woke up in the morning to find a cobra in his bed. “It is a desert cobra. It seems that it spent all the night with me in my bed but it did not make any move that could have alerted me,” Ali Al Omari said. “Thanks God that I was not bitten by this snake which is considered as the most dangerous and poisonous snake in Saudi Arabia,” he told Sada newspaper. He...

Raises major questions about what U.S. was doing in secretive facility. The extensive Senate report on the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack dropped a major, unreported bombshell: The commander of U.S. forces in Africa was not aware of the existence of the besieged CIA annex. The staggering detail raises the question of what was transpiring at the fated annex and nearby U.S. special mission and why key members of the Defense Department, including those responsible for responding to emergency situations, were not aware of it. Questions now must be also raised as to why, on the night of attack, command...

Man says jinn started 21 fires at his house and heard incomprehensible voicesA Saudi man accused jinn (ghosts) of starting 21 fires at his house over a period of three years and that he often hears incomprehensible voices during the blazes. Ibrahim Al Asiri said 10 of the incidents involved major fires which were extinguished by the civil defence and that he managed to put out the rest. “The problem is that when I poured water on the fire, it gets bigger….while I extinguished some of those fires, I was hearing incomprehensible voices behind doors at my home,” he told...

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police entered a public park in the Gulf Kingdom and told women to stop using swings, an act that drew applause and criticism by viewers of a picture showing the men warning some women at the swings. The picture went viral on social networks in Saudi Arabia before it was published by newspapers showing two men from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice warning women against using the swings. “Some viewers of the picture supported the move by the Commission members on the grounds women using the swing could encourage men...

Saudi Arabia has noticed Canada’s booming oil and gas industry — and they don’t like what they see. You could even say they’re scared. That’s the panicky message in a 14-page memo written to Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, an influential member of the Saudi royal family. He desperately warns them that Saudi Arabia’s energy dominance is at risk, including from oil and gas developments in western democracies. And he mentions Canada by name. Al-Waleed isn’t just another pundit or oil-rich Arab sheikh. He’s an international tycoon who has built a vast empire of holdings, including...