Connect to share and comment

UAE sheikh detained while torture allegations probed

May 11, 2009 18:42
A member of the United Arab Emirates’ ruling family has been detained while prosecutors investigate allegations that he tortured an Afghan grain dealer in 2004, according to a government statement issued Monday. The allegations stem from a videotape of the 2004 assault that purportedly shows the detained man, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, beating the victim with a nail-studded wood plank, setting his genitals on fire, hitting him with a cattle prod, and repeatedly running him over with an SUV.

The heir apparent

June 5, 2009 22:00Updated May 30, 2010 12:54
Position: King of Saudi Arabia Age: 75 (born 1934) Parents: King Abdul Aziz Bin Saud and Princess Hassa bint Ahmad Al Sudairi, member of the "Sudairi Seven." Wives: Al-Johara Bint Abdul Aziz Bin Musa'ad Al-Saud, mother of his eldest son Prince Saud Bin Nayef; Maha Bint Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-Sudairy, mother of Prince Nawaf Bin Nayef.

Torture caught on camera in UAE

May 2, 2009 11:09Updated May 30, 2010 12:54
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Abu Dhabi government, a staunch U.S. ally, has reversed course and announced that it will launch a “comprehensive review” of the videotaped torture of an Afghan businessman — purportedly inflicted by a member of its ruling family. The videotape, aired by ABC Television April 22, shows the Afghan, Mohammed Shah Poor, being beaten with a nail-studded wood plank, having his genitals set on fire, his anus pierced by a cattle prod and then repeatedly run over by an SUV.

Child bride "divorced"

April 30, 2009 14:10
RIYADH — A man who signed a marriage contract to wed an 8-year-old girl has agreed to legally divorce the child following widespread condemnation by Saudis of the agreement, according to Saudi press reports. The case drew international attention after a Saudi judge in Onaiza twice refused to annul the marriage contract, which the father of the girl concluded with his 47-year-old friend in order to pay off a debt.

No marker

April 30, 2009 09:09
The 100-day mini-milestone has not been ballyhooed in Saudi Arabia or the other Gulf states, and there's been precious little commentary in the local press. The reason may be that Arabs are still holding their breath to see what actually will emerge as Middle East policies in the Obama administration. The atmospherics have changed — a lot. But when it comes to the region’s carbuncles of tough problems, all that the Arabs have seen so far is a promise of change.

Religious police feel the heat

May 1, 2009 06:49Updated May 30, 2010 12:53
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The news startled many Saudis. Abdul Aziz Al-Humain, president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — known unfondly here as the religious police — apologized to a young man for an altercation with commission agents who accosted him after alleging that he’d kissed his wife in public.

The madness of George

April 18, 2009 09:51Updated May 30, 2010 12:52
NEW YORK — It's all out there now, in all its vivid madness. America's democracy, on "Justice Department" stationery, impaling us on the horns of our own sanctimony. Paragraph after paragraph of banal, mediocre legal prose, the work of the department's "Office of Legal Counsel" attorneys, who are now back in private practice (or on a federal bench).

Child marriage case showcases deep splits in Saudi society

April 16, 2009 18:11Updated May 30, 2010 12:52
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The refusal of a Saudi judge to annul a marriage contract that weds an 8-year-old girl to a man in his late 40s has brought into sharp relief the tribal and religious forces complicating this country’s march to modernity. Judge Habib A. Al Habib in the Saudi city of Onaiza said the girl can petition for a divorce once she reaches puberty. And although he also stipulated that no sexual relations take place before the girl is 18, his ruling has set off a firestorm of national controversy.

Girls against child marriage

April 16, 2009 13:50
Saudi activist Wajiha Al Huweidar, who helped found the Saudi Society for the Defense of Women's Rights, put together a video quoting Saudi girls saying why they are against child marriage. It is posted on YouTube and has not been blocked by the Saudi government. The video: "I Am a Child, Not a Woman." 

How bulletproof is the Saudi economy?

March 30, 2009 08:14Updated May 30, 2010 12:48
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The world’s largest oil exporter is navigating the global economic crisis better than most countries because of its large foreign reserves, totaling more than $500 billion, which are mainly in conservative, low-risk investments, such as U.S. bonds. These reserves, officially reported at $523 billion in February, are likely to be tapped as the Saudi government launches its own “stimulus” spending in an effort to keep the country’s declining economic growth from falling into recession.
Syndicate content