Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal is one of the biggest shareholders of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, owner of rabidly anti-"Ground Zero Mosque" Fox News. He's also a Muslim. Which side of the Prince's identity will win, do you think?
Today we looked at the Saudi diplomat seeking asylum in the US because of his wicked gayness. One commenter looked at the problem and made a smart connection.
A diplomat at the Saudi consulate in LA is seeking asylum, saying he fears his countrymen "will kill me openly in broad daylight" should he return. Why? Because they found out that he's gay, and friends with a Jew. [via]
Now we know why Miami's airport evacuated last night: Something suspicious was found in the suitcase of a man previously jailed for smuggling the plague. Meet Dr. Thomas Butler, a white guy from Texas who works in Saudi Arabia.
A Sri Lankan maid says the wealthy Saudi Arabian family she worked for drove hot nails into her arms and legs after she complained to them about being overworked. There are even X-rays! And you thought your office was tough.
Sure, stoning is a harsh punishment. But how about having your spinal cord severed on court orders? That's what one man in Saudi Arabia is facing, after paralyzing another man in a fight over two years ago. A little brutal?
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are banning certain Blackberry functions because the maker, RIM, won't allow them access to users' encrypted data. The UAE will block emails, web browsing and IM'ing, while Saudi Arabia is banning text messaging.
Oh boy, Maureen Dowd pissed off Marty Peretz! How can I not click on a blog post from The New Republic's prickly, racist sometimes-owner headlined "Maureen Dowd And The Saudi Royals"?
A Saudi prince is on trial in London for strangling his manservent.
[Are you watching, wingnuts? It's all true. Everything you warned us about. Click through for close-up pic of the foreign Arabian rapper chain that Obama will use to "make it rain" (terror). Pics: AP]
[President Obama received the red carpet treatment at the King Khaled airport earlier today after arriving in Saudi Arabia; Photo via Getty]
The White House press loves to complain about the terrible treatment they all endure, stuck in the basement of the White House waiting for hours to be lied to. So it may do them some good to see what real repression is like. How about this upcoming Saudi Arabia trip?
Preternaturally lanky Olympic swimming medalist Michael Phelps hit his knee on a table at a press conference in Saudi Arabia. Ow! But what was he doing there?
With thousands of Arabic speakers already using Facebook, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg convinced that he can personally bring peace to the Middle East by convincing teenagers to trade bombs for pokes, it's only natural the company would want to expand in the region. Facebook is hiring an operations analyst who can…
Saudi Arabia's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has banned Saudi pet stores from selling dogs and cats. Not because they wash up on shores looking like decayed hellspawn but because men are using them to pick up women. (Apparently they walk cats in the Wahhabi kingdom.) Meanwhile, it…
America's best friends the Saudis are throwing a party in Spain today where they will all celebrate how tolerant they are of other religions or something. So the folks at the Center for Religious Freedom decided to translate some official school textbooks from the Saudi Ministry of Education into English so that we…
A young man in Saudi Arabia (he is delivering a kidney to his father—no joke!) reports that the site of Fouad al Farhan, the Saudi blogger jailed last year, is blocked. Along with Radar, Fleshbot, and Craigslist Casual Encounters. [Kidney and the Kingdom]
Saudi blogger Fouad al-Farhan was arrested by government authorities and detained for "purposes of interrogation." Fouad says, in a letter posted on his blog, that he was arrested because he "wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia, and they think I'm running an online campaign promoting their…
