RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi courts will notify women by text message when they get divorced, in a new regulation that took effect on Sunday (Jan 6), officials said. The measure approved by the justice ministry appears aimed at curbing seemingly rampant cases of men secretly ending marriages without informing their wives. “Women… will be notified […]

Jamal al-Badawi, the al-Qaeda militant behind the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, died in a US air strike, President Donald Trump has confirmed. “Our great military has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole,” Mr Trump tweeted. US defence officials said a […]

A young Saudi woman says she is stranded at Bangkok’s main airport after fleeing her family and having her passport seized by a Saudi official. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun says she was on a trip to Kuwait with her family when she fled on a flight two days ago. She was trying to head to Australia […]

JERUSALEM (NYTIMES) – With elections a few months away, it is political fratricide season in Israel: From left to right, candidates are sticking knives in the ribs of their natural allies in hopes of elevating their own chances of succeeding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This week, the Zionist Union, a 4-year-old liberal alliance, blew itself […]

AMUDA, SYRIA (AFP) – A deal between Damascus and Syria’s Kurds over their autonomous region in the country’s north is “inevitable”, a senior Kurdish military official said on Saturday (Jan 6), insisting that Kurdish forces should remain in the area. Marginalised for decades, Syria’s minority Kurds carved out a de facto autonomous region across some […]

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks on Friday (Jan 4) with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since the shock US military withdrawal from Syria was announced, the premier’s office said. During the phone call the two “discussed the situation in Syria and recent developments and agreed on continued […]

Saudi Arabia’s attorney general sought the death penalty for five of 11 defendants charged with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as their high-profile trial opened in Riyadh yesterday. All 11 accused were present with their lawyers at the opening hearing in the capital, according to a statement by the attorney general carried by the […]

Saudi Arabia has announced it will seek the death penalty against five suspects over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The killing has seen members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage implicated in the writer’s death. Prosecutors said 11 suspects attended their first court hearing with lawyers, but the statement did not […]

The Palestinian Authority says President Trump is attempting to pressure them by attacking those most in need. The US is withholding another payment to the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees. Forty-five million dollars pledged for food aid is now frozen. That’s in addition to $65m, which was cut back earlier this week. Al Jazeera […]

Prince Abdullah bin Saud reportedly fired over audio tape that refutes authorities’ version of princes’ arrest. A Saudi prince was removed from his post after he released an audio recording that contradicted the Saudi authorities’ version of the arrest of 11 princes in Riyadh last week, reports said.  Prince Abdullah bin Saud, who was appointed […]