The King of Saudi Arabia and the Peace Initiative
YNET NEWS: As it turns out, Saudi king apparently doesn’t back peace initiative

It may well be assumed that the Olmert government, which is currently under great pressure at home, will seek a way to revive the diplomatic process so as, among other reasons, to also create a political agenda. It will seek a legitimate political initiative as long as it is premised on accurately reading regional reality.

Prior to the publication of the Winograd Report, senior Israeli officials praised the Saudi initiative despite reservations regarding its content. The Saudi initiative was backed by the Bush Administration, a fact which influenced Israeli considerations.

Yet something strange happened during the last visit to the Middle East by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: When Rice praised the Saudi initiative, which calls for full Israeli withdrawal in exchange for "normalization" of ties between Israel and the Arab world, the Saudi king cancelled his participation at a festive dinner with President Bush at the White House and condemned the American invasion of Iraq, calling it an "illegal foreign occupation." Don’t count on Saudi plan (more) By Dore Gold

Mark Alexander

Mercy in Short Supply in Saudis’ Latest High-Gear Decapitation Spree
GLOBE AND MAIL: WASHINGTON and TORONTO — The fate of two Canadian brothers imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, who could face beheading after a youth died during a schoolyard melee in Jeddah, is sparking a vigorous debate in the Arab news media.

The detention of Mohamed Kohail, 22, and his 16-year-old brother Sultan was a leading story on the website of Al-Arabiya, a popular Dubai-based Arabic TV outlet, attracting more than 100 comments. While some praised Canada's insistence on defending its citizens abroad, most backed the Saudi authorities and said that Canada should respect the Saudi justice system.

"It's the Saudis' right to execute him," one reader wrote in Arabic. "Too bad, Canada. Hard luck."

"They must be executed," said another. Arab world debates fate of Canadian brothers (more) By Alan Freeman and Omar el Akkad

Mark Alexander

Saudi Arabia Just Keeps On Beheading and Beheading and Beheading!
KUWAIT TIMES: RIYADH: Saudi authorities yesterday beheaded two Ethiopians convicted of killing a Saudi national in an armed robbery and displayed their bodies in public after the execution, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, said Ali Mohammed Ali and Adel Adam Aman were found guilty of fatally shooting and robbing Khaled bin Karim bin Bakhash, the owner of a private telephone services center. Saudi displays bodies of two Ethiopians beheaded (more)

LE FIGARO:
Arabie saoudite: 2 Pakistanais décapités

Mark Alexander

The Saudi Executioner’s Sword Reaches as Far as Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: WASHINGTON — For the past four months, home for Mohamed Kohail has been a filthy prison cell in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he says he has been pushed, slapped and abused, and forced into signing a confession for a murder he did not commit.

In a country where capital punishment by beheading is still the law of the land, the 22-year-old Canadian citizen says he fears the worst from the Saudi judicial system, which has accused him of killing a Syrian youth in a vicious schoolyard brawl. His 16-year-old brother also is being held in relation to the death.

“It's going to be death for now,” Mr. Kohail told The Globe and Mail Monday in an extraordinary interview on a friend's cellphone from inside the prison. “That is what the investigators asked from the court.”

“I'm afraid of everything,” he continued in accented English, saying he never wanted to return to Saudi Arabia after spending five years in Canada. “I really want to go back to Canada now. I like everything in Canada.” Canadians face beheading in Saudi Arabia (more) By Alan Freeman

Mark Alexander

”Beheading Spree”
KUWAIT TIMES: RIYADH: Four Saudis were beheaded by the sword yesterday after being convicted of rape and murder, while an Iraqi and a Pakistani nationals were executed for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said. The six beheadings-one of the highest numbers of executions in one day-brought to 72 the number of executions announced by the Saudi authorities this year, almost double the figure in 2006. Saudi Arabia on beheading spree (more)
Mark Alexander

Saudi Arabia Web-Cam Girls Stripping Online for Free
Mark Alexander

Rumblings of Discontent in the Kingdom: Saudi Women Start Agitating for More Rights

Photocourtesy of the BBC

KUWAIT TIMES: More and more Saudi women are speaking out against preachers in their country. Fatma Al-Faqih, a columnist at the daily Saudi Al-Watan accuses preachers (April 17) of "denigrating women" and "inciting discrimination against women." "Day in day out, our preachers flood us with accusations against women and beg men to defend the virtues of society that women corrupt," Al-Faqih writes. This "anti-woman culture", Al-Faqih continues, causes women to feel mentally and psychologically inferior, "like a quarrelsome child who must be constantly supervised, intimidated, and punished into performing her duties." Anti-woman culture (more) By Dr Sami Alrabaa

Mark Alexander