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...Abdullah, like other Saudi royals, had numerous wives — at least seven, and perhaps as many as 30. He had at least 15 daughters. Four of them, according to news reports, live under house arrest.... Fayez claims her daughters’ supposed incarceration, which has gone on for some 13 years, was both a mark of Abdullah’s vindictive streak and intolerance of his daughters’ modern, independent upbringing. She says the four have been locked away for more than a decade, subject to abuse and deprivation. Last year, various news stations managed to reach Sahar, 42, and Jawaher, 38, who live in a...

Germany would be prepared to negotiate a free-trade agreement between the European Union and Russia as a way out of the deadlocked Ukraine conflict, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. Merkel told the World Economic Forum in Davos that Germany was “ready” to open talks about “possibilities for cooperating in a collective trade area”, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. But she said that a precondition for the plan, suggested by Russian President Vladimir Putin several years ago but ignored by European leaders, would be a comprehensive peace agreement in Ukraine. …

Remember how Richard Nixon told us to watch what he does, not what he says? Good advice. Well, Barack Obama — our POTUS who makes Nixon and Clinton seem like Diogenes — thinks like a postmodern agnostic, professes to be a Christian, but acts like a Shiite. During Obama’s presidency the influence of Ayatollah Khamenei’s Iranian Shiite regime has spread across the world like the proverbial wildfire, reaching from North Africa into Iraq, Lebanon (via Hezbollah), Syria (via Assad whose red line on chemical weapons famously faded into invisibility), Gaza (via improved relations with Hamas) and now into Yemen (via...

President Obama has changed his scheduled departure on his trip to India so as to personally meet the new Saudi King Salman (according to CNN).  The POTUS is literally running to be among the first world leaders to genuflect to the new Saudi leader, only days after he was appointed. Vice President Joe Biden was originally set to have led a delegation to Saudi Arabia on Obama's behalf. However, the schedule for the President's departure from India has been adjusted to allow Obama to stop in Riyadh himself on his way home, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. King Abdullah passed away Friday, at 90...

United States President Barack Obama will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to meet with new King Salman to pay respects after the death of King Abdullah, the White House said on Saturday. The White House had originally planned that US Vice President Joe Biden would lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia, but now that Obama will travel to Riyadh, Biden will remain in Washington. “The President is very much looking forward to this visit. It is a genuine honour to be invited as the guest for Republic Day” and Obama “is looking forward to see the festivities associated with...

President Obama will forego a visit to the Taj Mahal during his visit to India in order to travel to Saudi Arabia for King Abdullah’s funeral, the White House announced early Saturday morning. Vice President Biden was initially scheduled to lead the U.S. delegation, but he will instead now remain in Washington and Obama will add the stop onto his return from India, where the president is embarking on a three-day trip to foster economic ties with the nation. “President Obama and the First Lady will travel to Riyadh on Tuesday, January 27 in order to pay respects to King...

Saudi Arabia’s top auditor, Osama Al Faqih, has presented King Abdullah with a report of “massive abuse of public funds” throughout the kingdom. Faqih cited illegal spending and off-budget expenditures. From Emirates Business 24/7 earlier this week: Saudi Arabia’s top government auditing body has reported massive abuse of public funds in a report presented to King Abdullah to seek his support for an intensifying anti-corruption crackdown in the world’s oil superpower. The General Auditing Bureau (GAB) complained to King Abdullah on Sunday that government offices are involved in illegal spending of public money while some are holding up projects and...

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud died on January 23 at the age of 90. Abdullah had been the de facto ruler of the nation since 1995 after King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke; he was made king when Fahd died in August 2005. Some Shiite Muslims have long believed, based on Islamic prophecies, that Abdullah’s death would set off a chain of events that would destabilize Saudi Arabia and culminate in the rise of Imam Mahdi—the messianic figure of Islamic eschatology. Though Mahdi is not explicitly mentioned in the Koran, references to him appear in the hadith,...

A damning report by Palestinian legislators, which has been seen by the Telegraph, concludes that Mr Arafat did nothing to stop the deals although he publicly condemned the structure as a "crime against humanity"... The report reveals that the cement originally came from Egyptian companies which supplied it at a huge discount of $22 (£12.50) a ton to help rebuild dilapidated Palestinian houses or buildings bulldozed by the Israelis. Between September 2003 and March this year, 420,000 tons of cement were allegedly sent to three big Palestinian companies. According to the report, however, only 33,000 tons were sold in...

In earlier time, the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud would have rocked the oil market. The succession plan has always pointed in a direction away from U.S. interests and a turn toward an even harder line on Middle East issues. The antipathy toward Iran will be levered up, and the various Sunni-Shia battles will likely see greater escalation. Oil prices have quickly jumped $1.00 per barrel on the news in a knee-jerk reaction to the uncertainty. What is more likely is an even greater commitment to over supplying the market, in attempt to drive out...

The longtime king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, passed away on Friday. But the death of the 90-year-old monarch didn’t seem to come as much of a shock to the Saudi establishment. When royal officials acknowledged Abdullah’s death, it was also revealed that Crown Prince Salman would succeed his brother. For the time being, the succession process seemed to have preserved stability in the Saudi Kingdom. Within hours, traders who speculated that the new king may take a critical look at Saudi policies, which have allowed crude prices to collapse in recent months, created a rally in the oil...

The longtime king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, passed away on Friday. But the death of the 90-year-old monarch didnÂ’t seem to come as much of a shock to the Saudi establishment. When royal officials acknowledged AbdullahÂ’s death, it was also revealed that Crown Prince Salman would succeed his brother. For the time being, the succession process seemed to have preserved stability in the Saudi Kingdom. Within hours, traders who speculated that the new king may take a critical look at Saudi policies, which have allowed crude prices to collapse in recent months, created a rally in the...

President Obama hailed late Saudi King Abdullah, who died at age 90 after a battle with pneumonia, as leading the kingdom “through its emergence as a critical force within the global economy and a leader among Arab and Islamic nations.” “He took bold steps in advancing the Arab Peace Initiative, an endeavor that will outlive him as an enduring contribution to the search for peace in the region,” Obama said of the Saudi plan that would recognize Israel in exchange for concessions including pulling back to pre-1967 borders. “At home, King Abdullah’s vision was dedicated to the education of his...

SMILED as soon as he heard the most famous war cry of Islam, “bismillah al-rahman al-rahim,” Arabic for “in the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.” Watch Obama smile as soon as Bergdahl gives the most famous Muslim expression, the “Bismillah” or the “Basmallah”: ... The “basmallah” is the Islamic expression for victory and only indicates that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s father is a Muslim. Think that the man is acting as “Muslim” for a stealth operation to rescue his son who is already in good hands in Germany? And what is with the long beard and trimmed...

The King Is Dead, Long Live the KingPosted By Robert Spencer On January 23, 2015 @ 12:58 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments Abdullah was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Old Abdullah was as dead as a door-nail.So what now?The crown prince, Abdullah’s half-brother, Prince Salman, has taken over, but it might not be that easy. After all, it wasn’t too many years ago that people were speculating about what Egypt would be like under the rule of Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal. And the accession of a 79-year-old to the throne does not...

Saudi Arabia has charted a long-term course to drive down oil prices and maintain its major share of the global market—and a change of who is on the throne in Riyadh won’t likely alter this course, energy experts said. Even after the death of King Abdullah, announced early Friday, the kingdom is likely to continue to pump crude in the face of a global glut, which has helped push prices down by more than 55% since last June. Surrounded by unrest and uncertainty in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is protecting itself by exploiting its big advantages—huge oil reserves and...

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah died early on Friday and his brother Salman became king, the royal court in the world's top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam said in a statement carried by state television.

DUBAI - A Saudi journalist and a member of the royal family denied rumors on Thursday that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, in hospital since December suffering from pneumonia, had died, according to messages on social media. "All that is being reported about King Abdullah's death is far from the truth," Ibrahem al-Rawsa, identified as a journalist at state-run Saudi Press Agency, wrote on his Twitter account. A member of the royal family wrote: "I give you good news. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is fine and there is no truth to the rumors going around." He was referring...

Comments from world leaders in response to the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who died early Friday in Riyadh.

(CNN) —Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud has died, according to an announcement on Saudi state TV. He was 90. The next king will be Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, state television reported. The announcement of his death comes several weeks after the state-run Saudi Press Agency said Abdullah was suffering from pneumonia and had been admitted to the hospital....

(Note: This was written a month ago) With 91-year-old Abdullah’s hospitalization with pneumonia Jan. 2, all eyes in Saudi Arabia immediately turned to Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, the defense minister and the king’s 79-year-old half-brother. Yet due to Salman’s own deteriorating health – those close to the palace say the crown prince is suffering from the early stages of dementia – a campaign is growing within Riyadh to bypass Salman and give the throne to Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, 69, another of the king’s half brothers, should Abdullah be deemed unfit to rule. Both the crown prince...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102292477

The crisis in Yemen deepened on Thursday as officials reported that both the president and his government had resigned.

Conservative Princeton University professor and vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Robert P. George, along with six other advocates, have offered to take 100 lashes each for Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting his country's clerics. Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes got his first 50 lashes by cane in a public square just over a week ago. A news release from Amnesty International explained that a second round of flogging for the blogger was postponed last Friday because his wounds from the...

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Libya on Tuesday, overriding the previous warning issued in July 2014. In July, the U.S. embassy suspended all operations in Libya and relocated staff due to “ongoing violence between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the Embassy.” On Tuesday, the State Department said that “the security situation in Libya remains unpredictable and unstable.” Pointing to the inability of the Libyan government to “adequately build its military and police forces and improve security following the 2011 revolution,” the State Department said that crime levels remain high and various groups have called...

In response to the growing threat posed by the Islamic State terrorist group, the royal family of Saudi Arabia is having a 600-mile barrier constructed to completely block the Iraqi portion of the Saudi northern border, hoping to prevent ISIS militants from infiltrating the kingdom. The planned fence structure will span the entire distance of the Iraq-Saudi border, from Jordan to Kuwait. The border barrier system will feature five layers of barbed wire fencing, a ditch, a patrol road, 240 rapid response vehicles, underground motion sensors, 40 watchtowers, radar, day/night cameras, seven command centers, 28 communication towers, 32 military response...

Beheading in Saudi Arabia Burmese woman gets beheaded in Saudi Arabia after getting accused of murder

Homeland Security: To keep out Islamic State terrorists, the Saudis are building a 600-mile-long barrier — complete with five layers of fencing, underground movement censors and radar cameras — on their northern border. If they can do it ... Good fences, it is said, make for good neighbors, which on a grand scale was the intent of the Great Wall of China in antiquity and the Israeli fences of more recent vintage. Both were designed to keep out intruders and to make sure all guests were invited guests. Unlike the Berlin Wall, they were built to keep hostiles out, not...

If you think that Vladimir Putin would be dissuaded from his territorial ambitions by a few billionaires more or less being punished in Moscow, then you probably deserve to condemned to a Purgatory that resembles Obama’s White House. Despite assurances that Russia was on the ropes via economic sanctions imposed by the West after the Bear stirred up ethnic conflict in Ukraine, there are no signs but that Russia under Putin is restless. And hungry. New fighting has erupted near Donetsk with Russian supported separatists firing shells resulting in the death of 11 people. Since so-called “peace-talks” are underway between...

For years, it was thought that Israel had destroyed Syria’s nuclear weapons capability with its 2007 raid on the Kibar complex. Not so. New intelligence suggests that Bashar al-Assad is still trying to built the bomb. And he may be getting help from North Korea and Iran. […] Analysts say that the Syrian atomic weapon program has continued in a secret, underground location. According to information they have obtained, approximately 8,000 fuel rods are stored there. Furthermore, a new reactor or an enrichment facility has very likely been built at the site—a development of incalculable geopolitical consequences. Some of the...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyNew England, USA — January 17, 2015 … The above mosque is not in Iraq, Syria, Turkey or Iran. But one would have wished it was. The speaker was Dr. Saud Anwar, mayor of South Windsor, Connecticut. Dr. Anwar is respected for saving lives. Saud Anwar is a physician who specializes in Lung Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals. Dr. Anwar is involved in humanitarian and peace initiatives nationally and internationally. He is frequently invited to consult for...

Middle Eastern Kingdom building 600-mile wall and ditch along its border with Iraq in effort to insulate itself from the chaos engulfing its neighbours. When a raiding party from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attacked a Saudi border post last week, it was no mere hit on a desert outpost. The jihadists were launching an assault on the new, highest profile effort by Saudi Arabia to insulate itself from the chaos engulfing its neighbours. The Saudis are building a 600-mile-long “Great Wall” - a combined fence and ditch - to separates the country from Iraq to the north....

Socialism: Venezuelans are being arrested for posting Internet photos of shortages in stores. So let's get this straight: Murder and mayhem are de facto legal in that crime pit, but posting evidence of socialism's failure merits jailing. As socialism plays out to its logical conclusion in Venezuela, the specters of long lines, rationing, troop enforcers, bizarre edicts and desperate statements are now the order of the day. Not only have more than a dozen Venezuelans been arrested for posting photographs of empty store shelves on social media, three governors have responded to long lines by — prohibiting them; ordering the...

Myanmar Woman Screams Innocence Before Saudi Beheading video A Myanmar woman beheaded in a Saudi street this week for killing her husband's young daughter is seen screaming her innocence in a video posted on the Internet Saturday. Saudi authorities have arrested someone for filming the incident, said local newspaper websites, including Okaz and Al-Riyadh, in reports accompanied by still shots from the recording. They did not say what the arrest was for. The official Saudi Press Agency said Monday that Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim was executed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca for killing her husband's six-year-old daughter.

Saudi authorities have swooped on a house in the eastern province city of Khafji, on the border with Kuwait, and arrested 27 people for using the premises as church last week. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) also confiscated copies of the Bible and various musical instruments from the people during the raid. The swoop was prompted by a tip from a citizen, reported the English-language newspaper Saudi Gazette. Those arrested on September 5 were of various Asian nationalities, including women and children, the newspaper reported.

The drop in the price of oil will cost 9,000 workers at Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) their jobs. The company disclosed: In response to lower commodity pricing and anticipated lower exploration and production spending in 2015, Schlumberger decided to reduce its overall headcount to better align with anticipated activity levels for 2015. Schlumberger recorded a $296 million charge associated with a headcount reduction of approximately 9,000. Unfortunately for the workers, the oil services company had good reason. Although fourth-quarter revenue rose 6% to $12.5 billion and operating income by 7% to $1.9 billion, the company believes the situation has deteriorated:

With the ISIS militant forces inching closer to Baghdad, Saudi Arabia has urged allies Pakistan and Egypt to send in troops to secure its border near Iraq. Saudi Arabia shares a 500 mile-long border with Iraq and Syria. “The kingdom is calling in favors from Egypt and Pakistan,” an adviser to the Saudi government told The Times. “No one is certain what ISIS has planned, but it’s clear a group like this will target Mecca if it can. We expect them to run out of steam, but no one is taking any chances.” The ISIS has a strong control on...

The joke’s on them. Don’t the Saudis know that massive border fences do nothing to enhance domestic security and are, in fact, counterproductive? Well, I guess they’ll find out soon enough. According to reports, the Saudi Kingdom is fed up with defending against ISIS raiding parties that routinely cross over the Iraqi border. In order to stave off these assaults, the Saudis are going to build a massive, 600-mile long border fence across the length of the country’s border with Iraq. But that’s not all. The fence will be double layered with a concertina wire barrier in no man’s...

With the Islamic State terrorist group in control of large swathes of Iraq, Saudi Arabia has decided to build a “Great Wall” that spans 600 miles. Construction of the security apparatus began in September and will include five layers of fencing, watch towers and night-vision and radar cameras

The politics of the crude exports issue are confused by a lot of irresponsible reporting. Almost every story on the issue asserts that allowing exports would be politically dangerous because it would supposedly raise prices at the pump, but the claim is never credibly sourced. In fact, every single serious study has found precisely the opposite: allowing crude exports would lower prices at the pump. With Senator Ted Cruz leading the charge on an amendment to end the export ban, some reporters will be working even harder to pretend his amendment is dubious or even destructive. But facts matter. The...

The ruble continues to fall, sanctions are biting and the slide in the price of oil shows no sign of slowing – it's hitting Russia hard and means a credit rating downgrade to "junk" status could be on the way. Russia's Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Wednesday that the chances of the beleaguered country's rating being downgraded to junk were "pretty high," according to the Interfax news agency.

Shortages are nothing new in Venezuela. Indeed, a shortage of toilet paper has been the subject of global amusement for quite some time. But recently, the shortages have become much worse. Last week, a government official was jeered for saying that long lines indicated that “Venezuela has plenty of food”, when rows and rows of empty shelves in stores were telling a different story. Bloomberg reports that people are queueing overnight for necessities such as soap, milk and diapers. This is very dangerous. Venezuela is already one of the most violent societies on earth. And when shortages start to affect...

Taking direct aim at the oil-and-gas industry, President Obama on Wednesday put forth long-awaited regulations on methane emissions, setting an ambitious goal of reducing those emissions by 45 percent over the next decade and again drawing the ire of many in the energy industry. The move comes just days before the State of the Union address and underscores that, in the final two years of presidency, Mr. Obama is looking to cement his legacy on climate-change and environmental issues. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/14/obama-hits-oil-and-gas-industry-demands-massive-re/#ixzz3Op4IqMql Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Taking direct aim at the oil-and-gas industry, President Obama on Wednesday put forth long-awaited regulations on methane emissions, setting an ambitious goal of reducing those emissions by 45 percent over the next decade. The move comes just days before the State of the Union address and underscores that, in the final two years of presidency, Mr. Obama is looking to cement his legacy on climate-change and environmental issues...

Back in November, before most grasped just how serious the collapse in crude was (and would become, as well as its massive implications), we wrote "How The Petrodollar Quietly Died, And Nobody Noticed", because for the first time in almost two decades, energy-exporting countries would pull their "petrodollars" out of world markets in 2015. This empirical death of Petrodollar followed years of windfalls for oil exporters such as Russia, Angola, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Much of that money found its way into financial markets, helping to boost asset prices and keep the cost of borrowing down, through so-called petrodollar recycling....

The larger-than-life Russian leader has held power — with one title or another — for 15 years, and is set to reign for at least a decade more. Yet Putin remains inscrutable. With only a smattering of biographical details released to the public and his sometimes puzzling public appearances, scholars — and even many world leaders — still struggle to understand the man at the helm of the Kremlin. To glean a clearer picture, FRONTLINE took a closer look at some of the most identifiable aspects of Putin’s public persona. --------------------------------------------------------- Putin’s Way, FRONTLINE’s investigation into the accusations of criminality...

Sunday's Der Spiegel had a massive expose on the continuing efforts of Bashar al-Assad to build a nuclear weapons plant, which included evidence that Iran is constructing such a plant for Syria in Qusayr, less than two kilometers from Syria's border with Lebanon. The issue came up in the State Department's Monday daily briefing. Disturbingly, spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the United States did not plan to raise the issue in the Iranian nuclear talks, claiming that those talks only deal with Iran's nuclear capabilities and not with Syria's. According to findings of Western intelligence agencies, however, the situation...

Frosty Fatwa: Saudi Cleric Bans Snowmen By Abby Phillip January 13 Do you want to build a snowman? You'd love to? Well, that's too bad — at least according to Saudi Arabia's Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid, a prominent cleric. With snow covering the highland areas of Tabuk province in Saudi Arabia, there's not much else to do with the fluffy white stuff other than build snowmen and snow camels.

Saudi Arabia has provided $60 million in direct support for the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) budget, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Egypt Ahmad Abdulaziz Qattan said Tuesday, according to the WAFA news agency. Qattan reportedly said that the Saudi Fund for Development had transferred $60 million to the PA Finance Ministry’s bank account. The Saudi diplomat noted in a press release that amount covers Saudi Arabia’s financial contribution to the PA’s budget for October, November and December 2014. The total PA budget for 2014 was estimated at $4.21 billion with a $1.25 billion deficit; when the $350 million deficit in development budget

I've been in the oil patch for close to 30 years. During that time, I have seen oil price go down to about $10 per barrel, and I have seen the price rise to over $100 per barrel. I have seen the price swing for no reason at all. I have heard different bogeymen being blamed for changes in the oil price. Supply and demand are certainly part of the oil price equation, but speculation has been a major price driver for at least the last couple of years, beyond the S&D factors. Right now, the Saudis are being blamed...