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Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi'ite units contain the Yemeni Shi'ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.

Saudi Arabia is weighing buying an advanced Russian missile system to shore up its defence against a potentially nuclear Iran, Gulf analysts and diplomats said. They said Moscow and Riyadh are close to sealing a deal on a multi-billion-dollar weapons package that could include Russia's advanced S-400 missile defence system. It is the newest version of the S-300 long-range surface to air missile system that Moscow has been in discussion for several years to sell to Iran, which denies Western charges of aiming to become a nuclear power. But heavy Western and Israeli pressure and a possibly more lucrative deal...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Does Islam frown on nose jobs? Chemical peels? How about breast implants? One of the clerics with the answers is Sheik Mohammed al-Nujaimi, and Saudi women flock to him for guidance about going under the knife. The results may not see much light of day in a kingdom where women cover up from head to toe, yet cosmetic surgery is booming. Religion covers every facet of life in Saudi Arabia, including plastic surgery. Al-Nujaimi draws his guidelines from the consensus that was reached three years ago when clergymen and plastic surgeons met in Riyadh to determine...

Obama and King Abdullah spoke to reporters -- and Abdullah presented Obama with a gold medallion -- before they went into a private meeting after Obama's arrival Wednesday. Said Obama: "We have a strategic relationship and as I take this trip and will be visiting Cairo tomorrow I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek his majesty's counsel and to discuss with him many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East." Abdullah: "The historically strategic ties between our two countries...go back to the time of the meeting...

Former chief White House political advisor Dick Morris revealed Tuesday that his former boss Bill Clinton cared so little about global terrorism that his own Assistant Secretary of State had trouble getting him to pay attention to a bomb threat against the Khobar Towers Air Force barracks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. "In 1996, I got a phone call from Dick Holbrooke," Morris told WABC Radio's Sean Hannity. "He said, 'We're getting hard intelligence that terrorists are planning another hit on our guys in Riyadh.... They're in the exact same building they were in when it was hit last time.'" In ...

No churches should be permitted in Saudi Arabia, unless Pope Benedict XVI recognised the prophet Mohammed... "It would be possible to launch official negotiations to construct a church in Saudi Arabia only after the Pope and all the Christian churches recognise the prophet Mohammed." "If they don't recognise him as a prophet, how can we have a church in the Saudi kingdom?" Ashiqi's comments came after a declaration launched by the papal nuncio of the Persian Gulf, the archbishop Mounged El-Hachem, at the opening of the first Catholic church in Qatar last week. El-Hachem estimated three to four million Christians...

Today President Bush toured the National museum in Riyadh and visited Saudi King Abduallah’s Al Janadriyah Farm in Al Janadriyah, where he watched the king’s horses paraded in front of them. He also spoke at the US Embassy in Riyadh, during a roundtable discussion with Saudi entrepreneurs, where he urged oil producers to take action over near record-high prices Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Baghdad First Lady Laura visited the Washington Mill Elementary School near Mt. Vernon, where she participated in the 'George Washington's Return to School' ceremony Enoy your visit to Sanity Island...

Mar. 4, 2007 15:52 | Updated Mar. 4, 2007 17:15Analysis: What actually happened in Riyadh? By DR. GUY BECHOR It would have been a sensitive visit in any case - a meeting between the two most prominent figures in the Middle East today, who represent the Shi'ite and Sunni worlds - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz VI. Everyone understood that this was a visit that would have to be prepared carefully. Ahmadinejad's personal representative Ali Larijani visited Riyadh. Larijani is Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, and the subject of the Riyadh visit was obvious. Larijani...

Abu Dhabi: A new report from the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy showed Saudi Arabia is the main beneficiary of high oil prices. But it noted the kingdom's spare capacity has sharply dwindled in the past few years because of higher output. Saudi Arabia controls nearly a quarter of the world's recoverable crude resources. "Saudi Arabia's oil export revenues increased sharply [49 per cent] in 2005 compared to 2004, and are projected to increase again [6 per cent] in 2006 before falling [-7 per cent] in 2007," it said. It noted that during 2003-2004, Riyadh benefited...

DUBAI - Seven terror suspects - six Saudis and a Yemeni - have escaped from a prison in central Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday. The men escaped from Milz Prison, said the Saudi Interior Ministry. The Saudi Press Agency quoted the ministry’s spokesman Mansour Al- Turki as saying that if the fugitives do not return to the detention camp they would lose the privilege of an amnesty announced by Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to those who surrender. He urged anyone who sees the fugitives to immediately contact the interior ministry or the closest police station. Last...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 18 (UPI) -- Saudi security forces arrested five suspected al-Qaida members closely linked to a foiled attempt to bomb oil installations in eastern Saudi Arabia. A security source said one of the detainees figures on a list of 36 wanted terrorists released by Saudi authorities last June. An interior ministry source said police discovered last week the suspects' hideout in a warehouse in Riyadh where they seized explosive materials, assault rifles and ammunitions, in addition to three cars. He said communication equipment, cameras, a computer and video tapes as well as false car plates were also...

Saudi security forces have thwarted a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia's largest oil refinery Abqaiq, the second in two months, according to media reports. The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA and the Iraqi Radio Nawa report that police discovered two car bombs in the area. Local daily al-Riyadh reports that Saudi police on Tuesday carried out house searches in the al-Mantar area of Abqaib, where some employees of Saudi oil giant Aramco live, arms and explosive were discovered in one of the homes and one man was arrested. Reports say that the vehicles to be used in the attack bore the...

Saudi police exchanged fire in a Riyadh suburb Monday with suspects wanted in connection with a failed bid to blow up the world's largest oil-processing plant, the Al-Arabiya television channel reported. Sounds of automatic gunfire and grenades exploding could be heard in the residential suburb of Grenada, where the suspects were holed-up, the Dubai-based channel reported. Suicide bombers attempted to penetrate the world's largest oil-processing plant at Abqaiq, in the oil-rich eastern province, on Friday but their attack was thwarted leaving two security men dead. The two would-be suicide bombers were also killed. An Al-Qaeda statement posted on the...

Zaynab Khadr claims she didn’t know that terrorist Osama bin Laden would attend her wedding in Pakistan. Now the 25-year-old says she didn’t know clips of bin Laden’s voice calling for the killing of Americans were on the laptop computer seized by the RCMP at Pearson airport when she returned to Canada last February.

Plans, tapes diaries seized at Pearson airport Zaynab Khadr denies they belong to her OTTAWA—The RCMP and Canadian military believe they've discovered a vital cache of information on Al Qaeda that includes the whereabouts of wanted members and details of attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. The information is allegedly contained in a laptop, dozens of DVDs, audiocassettes and the pages of diaries, seized by the RCMP officers who met Zaynab Khadr at Pearson airport with a search warrant as she arrived back in Canada in February, court documents state. Khadr is the eldest daughter of a family that has...

Terry Nichols, Philippines, bombs, etc. See Mark Tapscott here: “Before Able Danger and Mohamed Atta, There Was Murrah Building Bombing and Hussain Al-Hussaini; Journalist Uncovers OKC Links to 9/11, which links to this L.A. Weekly article: “The Rohrabacher Test: Congressman questions Terry Nichols about Oklahoma City bombing”. The Mark Tapscott link also has a comprehensive statement from Jayna Davis, who has pursued this story for ten long years and has now written a book entitled “The Third Terrorist”. One interesting quote — among many — in the L.A. Weekly piece is from Richard Clarke: Clarke wrote that the theory of...

BBC man thanks God he survived By Chris Hastingsm Arts Correspondent(Filed: 02/10/2005)Frank Gardner, the BBC reporter left paralysed after an attack by Islamic terrorists, says the horrific incident has increased rather than shattered his faith in God.In an edition of Desert Island Discs to be broadcast today, Mr Gardner, 43, the corporation's security correspondent, also reveals that he has contracted osteoporosis, a disease normally associated with the elderly. Doctors diagnosed the condition just days before he recorded the Radio 4 programme.   Frank Gardner: 'I thank God for staying alive' Despite the continuing impact on his health Mr Gardner...

RIYADH, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Saudi security forces clashed with gunmen north of the capital Riyadh on Thursday, Al Arabiya television reported. The Saudi-owned channel was quoting its correspondent, who said police had cordoned off a district in north Riyadh where they were battling the gunmen. Earlier this month, Washington closed its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia for two days due to an imminent threat against U.S. government buildings in the kingdom. Britain also warned that militants were in the final stages of planning attacks in the kingdom, and Australia said it had received "credible reports" Islamic extremists were...

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, in his debut in the U.N. Security Council, pressed Syria and Iran on Thursday to do more to stem the flow of terrorists, arms and funding into neighboring Iraq. His comments came as the 15-nation council unanimously adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution condemning a recent surge in violence in Iraq that has killed hundreds, including Algerian diplomats, U.S. Marines and a Sunni Arab helping to draft a new Iraqi constitution. Russia used the vote to criticize the media for glorifying terrorists after Moscow said it would bar ABC News from working in Russia when the U.S. television...

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