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DUBAI - A Saudi journalist and a member of the royal family denied rumors on Thursday that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, in hospital since December suffering from pneumonia, had died, according to messages on social media. "All that is being reported about King Abdullah's death is far from the truth," Ibrahem al-Rawsa, identified as a journalist at state-run Saudi Press Agency, wrote on his Twitter account. A member of the royal family wrote: "I give you good news. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is fine and there is no truth to the rumors going around." He was referring...

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, said Wednesday it deplored the continued “mocking of Islam” by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The kingdom is “surprised, and deplored” the publication last week of a new cartoon of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, the state Saudi Press Agency said, citing a source at the foreign ministry. “The kingdom does not find any justification for such deliberate abuse against Islam, which insults the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world,” the source said. Freedom of opinion and expression do not justify “insulting religious beliefs,” the source added.

House Panel to Ask for NSA Spying Probe A congressional panel will ask the National Security Agency's internal watchdog to investigate whether the super-secret spy agency eavesdropped without warrants on a Muslim scholar and later hid that evidence in a 2005 terror prosecution that got him a life sentence.The House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel and the judge overseeing the case want the NSA's inspector general to find out if the government failed to disclose evidence that might have cleared the name of a Northern Virginia spiritual leader Ali al-Timimi, Rep. Rush Holt (D- New Jersey) told the New York Times.That...

The joke’s on them. Don’t the Saudis know that massive border fences do nothing to enhance domestic security and are, in fact, counterproductive? Well, I guess they’ll find out soon enough. According to reports, the Saudi Kingdom is fed up with defending against ISIS raiding parties that routinely cross over the Iraqi border. In order to stave off these assaults, the Saudis are going to build a massive, 600-mile long border fence across the length of the country’s border with Iraq. But that’s not all. The fence will be double layered with a concertina wire barrier in no man’s...

With the Islamic State terrorist group in control of large swathes of Iraq, Saudi Arabia has decided to build a “Great Wall” that spans 600 miles. Construction of the security apparatus began in September and will include five layers of fencing, watch towers and night-vision and radar cameras

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi met U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall on Tuesday in Riyadh where they discussed oil markets, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. SPA gave no specific details about the meeting in a brief statement but said the officials looked into cooperation on energy and environmental issues, climate change, solar energy use and mutual investments. A U.S. energy department spokesman said in addition to those areas, the two officials discussed global oil markets. The trip was Sherwood-Randall's first as deputy energy secretary. "She chose to make her first visit to Saudi Arabia given our strategic...

Saudi Arabia has provided $60 million in direct support for the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) budget, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Egypt Ahmad Abdulaziz Qattan said Tuesday, according to the WAFA news agency. Qattan reportedly said that the Saudi Fund for Development had transferred $60 million to the PA Finance Ministry’s bank account. The Saudi diplomat noted in a press release that amount covers Saudi Arabia’s financial contribution to the PA’s budget for October, November and December 2014. The total PA budget for 2014 was estimated at $4.21 billion with a $1.25 billion deficit; when the $350 million deficit in development budget

I've been in the oil patch for close to 30 years. During that time, I have seen oil price go down to about $10 per barrel, and I have seen the price rise to over $100 per barrel. I have seen the price swing for no reason at all. I have heard different bogeymen being blamed for changes in the oil price. Supply and demand are certainly part of the oil price equation, but speculation has been a major price driver for at least the last couple of years, beyond the S&D factors. Right now, the Saudis are being blamed...

Saudi blogger and activist Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, is set to receive the first set of 50 lashes tomorrow. Badawi will be flogged after Friday prayers tomorrow and continuously over a period of 20 weeks as the remainder of his sentence is carried out, according to Amnesty International.

the seizures came after clashes broke out Thursday night in the eastern city of Marib between tribesmen and army troops. They say the tribesmen suspected that the soldiers were heading to join the Shiite rebels who have been gathering outside of Marib for several weeks ... The Shiite rebels known as the Houthis are backed by ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. They have overrun the capital and other cities in a power grab that has plunged Yemen into turmoil. ... Sunni al-Qaida has recently intensified its attacks against the expansionist Shiite Houthis, especially in Yemen's predominantly Sunni central region.

Saudi police have arrested a man wanted in connection with a 2011 protest movement organised by Shiite residents of the kingdom's restive Eastern Province ... Muntadher Ali Saleh al-Sabity .. is one of 23 Saudis wanted in connection with protests and violence in Eastern Province, home to more than two million Shiites in the Sunni-majority kingdom. The group, some of whom have been detained or killed, is accused of acting "on behalf of foreign parties" -- a reference to Iran, which authorities have blamed in the past for fomenting unrest among Saudi Shiites.

Saudi Arabia's national airline is allegedly planning to separate male and female passengers on its flights, in accordance to strict rules enforced by the Gulf kingdom. Gulf media report that Saudia will keep men and women segregated onboard, unless they are close relatives. The move follows a spate of complaints from male fliers unwilling to allow other males to sit next to their wives and other female family members.

The 93-year old King of Saudi Arabia was sent to hospital on Wednesday for “medical checks” according to the Royal Court. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who has ruled Saudi Arabia since the death of his half-brother King Fahd in 2005, was admitted to the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, the latest in numerous trips to hospital by the aging monarch in recent years. The King underwent two operations in October 2011 and November 2012 due to "ligament slackening" in the upper back. The news of his entry to hospital prompted a 5 percent fall in Saudi Arabia’s main equities...

Authorities on the alert to ensure only men attend much-anticipated football match in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian authorities have intensified security around a stadium in the Red Sea city of Jeddah to ensure no woman could sneak in to watch a football match. ... Saudi Arabia has a very strict policy regarding female attendance at sports matches. Permissions are needed to allow foreign women to watch the matches in which their home teams play.

Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month in defiance of a ban on females driving were referred on Thursday to a court established to try terrorism cases ... The Specialized Criminal Court, to which their cases were referred, was established in the capital Riyadh to try terrorism cases but has also tried and handed long prison sentences to a number of human rights workers, peaceful dissidents, activists and critics of the government. For example, this year it sentenced a revered Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the government, to death for sedition and sentenced a prominent...

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi sat down with MEES on 21 December in Abu Dhabi and gave his fullest explanation yet of Saudi thinking in pushing for an OPEC rollover on 27 November. Yesterday, excerpts of the interview were widely quoted in the mainstream press, moving the price of oil. Today, for the first time, the full interview is being published beyond the MEES subscriber base on Oilpro. Will Saudi Arabia Not Cut Production If The Russians Do Not Cut? First of all, why did we decide not to reduce production? I will tell you why. Is it reasonable...

Saudi Oil Minister Says Russia Doesn't 'Deserve Market Share' Jim Edwards Dec. 22, 2014, 12:10 PM Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi really got the world's attention in an interview he gave to the energy journal Middle East Economic Survey (MEES). We told you earlier that Naimi said the Saudis don't care how low the price of oil goes: "Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant." What's interesting though is Naimi's rationale for not caring. Basically, he told MEES, the Saudis can afford not to care about the low price of oil. /snip Everyone is asking...

Despite last week's bold proclamation, Saudi Arabia cannot keep producing crude oil and drive the price into oblivion if it wants to maintain its social services. Today, I talked with Regina Mayor, the advisor for the consultant practice at KPMG, who said she doesn't expect this price decline to continue. "The real break even for a lot of these countries is not what they're finding in extraction and transportation costs," Mayor said. "The real price for oil is what are the expectations of their populace in terms of commitments the government has made in terms of subsidies." The fear has...

I can't think of a tax I have even been for so this is new ground for me. Think about a tax on imported oil. Discuss.

The Saudi military Intelligence reportedly had arrested two senior F-16 pilots whom turned down their missions in late October, expressing their utmost resentment toward their country’s alliance with the United States against to what they see as “innocent and defenseless Iraqi civilians” and accusing the Saudi regime to be too docile to White House “vicious” whims. White House officials and CIA had informed the Saudis that their American-trained pilots are in fact jettisoning their bombs and ammunitions over inconsequential or totally unpopulated areas and then returning to their bases in K.S.A. A growing number of Saudis including high-ranking army officers...