The White House on Friday reiterated that President Barack Obama would veto a bill that would allow the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia's government for damages. The House of Representatives was expected to vote on the bill on Friday. The Senate passed it unanimously in May. "We are in the same place we were the last time," the White House official said on Friday. Both Obama and a White House spokesman said in April the president would veto the bill.

At least 32 civilians have been killed and scores more injured in a Saudi airstrike on Yemen's western Hudaydah province. The strikes were carried out against a busy marketplace in the province's Hawak district late on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Saudi warplanes targeted residential areas in the northwestern province of Sa'ada. Meanwhile, Yemeni forces have carried out a retaliatory missile attack on a Saudi military base in the kingdom’s southern Najran region.

The case of a Parisian decorator who claims he was beaten, bound and forced to kiss a Saudi princess’s feet shows the lamentable track record of Arabic royal families when it comes to abusing their servants. Working for the patriarchs and matriarchs of Middle Eastern royal families and their mercurial offspring has never been regarded as an employment opportunity without its drawbacks.

The United Nations has called on Saudi Arabia to repeal laws that allow stoning, amputation, flogging and execution of children. Children over 15 years are tried as adults and can be executed, "after trials falling short of guarantees of due process and a fair trial", according to the report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

A US government spokesperson has struggled to answer questions put to him on why the US condemns Russian bombing in Syria, and supports Saudi-led bombing in Yemen, both of which have killed thousands of civilians. During a media briefing in Washington DC on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson John Kirby was asked repeatedly about whether Saudi coalition bombing of Houthi rebels in Sanaa - facilitated by US arms sales to the Gulf state - deliberately targets civilian infrastructure.

SAUDI Arabia has executed a member of the royal family for murder, in a rare case involving one of the thousands of members of the House of Saud. Prince Turki bin Saud al-Kabeer was put to death in the capital Riyadh for shooting dead Adel bin Suleiman bin Abdulkareem al-Muhaimeed, a Saudi, during a mass brawl, the interior ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The prince was the 134th local or foreigner put to death this year, according to an AFP tally of ministry statements.

The Yemen war uniquely combines tragedy, hypocrisy and farce. First come the casualties: around 10,000, almost 4,000 of them civilians. Then come those anonymous British and American advisers who seem quite content to go on “helping” the Saudi onslaughts on funerals, markets and other obviously (to the Brits, I suppose) military targets. Then come the Saudi costs: more than $250m (£200m) a month, according to Standard Chartered Bank – and this for a country that cannot pay its debts to construction companies. But now comes the dark comedy bit: the Saudis have included in their bombing targets cows, farms and sorghum – which can be used for

Saudi Arabia is set to behead a disabled man for taking part in anti-government protests. A specialised criminal court in Riyadh, the Arab kingdom's capital, sentenced Munir al-Adam, to death for “attacks on police” and other offences they said took place during protests in the Shia-dominated east in late 2011. The 23-year-old is partially blind and was already partially deaf at the time of arrest; he alleges he is now completely deaf in one ear as a result of being severely beaten by police.

Tehran’s support for the Houthis is minimal at best, and its influence in Yemen is non-existent. It is simply inaccurate to state that the Zaidi Houthis are Shia Iranian proxies. By Muhammed Ali Carter. (Oct. 23, 2016)

One of Official Washington’s favorite “group thinks” is to insist that Iran is the “chief sponsor of terrorism,” but the reality is that Saudi Arabia is much guiltier and U.S. officials know it, says Robert Parry.

A woman who received death threats after going out without her abaya in Saudi Arabia has been arrested and now faces being lashed. The woman, who has been identified as Malak Al Shehri, shared a photograph of herself without a hijab or abaya - a traditional body covering - on a street in the capital city of Riyadh. The ultra-conservative Muslim country enforces a strict dress code for women in public, banned them from driving and prohibits the mixing of sexes.

The cost to the Yemeni people and particularly to its young people is incalculable. By Michael Horton.

Michael Fallon has confirmed British-made cluster bombs have been used by Saudi Arabian forces in the current Yemen conflict. The admission by the Defence Secretary in the Commons came after a Government analysis indicated that cluster bombs manufactured in the UK in 1980s had been used by the Saudi-led coalition in the on-going civil war in Yemen.

On March 15, 2002, 15 Saudi girls burned to death inside their school in Mecca. They were not trapped by fallen debris, or unaccounted for by firefighters. The mutaween, Saudi Arabia’s religious police, would not allow the girls to leave their burning school because they were not covering their hair or wearing their abayas... By Felix Biederman.

Since it premiered online last month, the music video “Hwages” has been viewed more than 2 million times and has become the subject of widespread debate in Saudi Arabia — as well as considerable celebration. Take a look for yourself and it is clear why. Not only is the song catchy, the accompanying video, created by director Majed al-Esa of the Saudi production company 8ies Studios, features a group of charismatic women skateboarding, playing basketball, driving bumper cars and much more. At the same time, they wear brightly coloured sneakers and fashionable dresses under their traditional black niqabs.

Bahrain on Sunday executed three men found guilty of killing three policemen, in a move likely to further raise tensions between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni rulers. The three Shiite men faced the firing squad, six days after a court upheld their death sentences over a bomb attack in March 2014, the prosecutor's office said in a statement carried by BNA state news agency. The executions came a day after demonstrations broke out across Shiite villages following rumours that the authorities were going to carry out the death sentences.

There is a reason why Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan has done everything possible to interfere with President-elect Donald Trump taking the reins of the presidency… By Wayne Madsen.

The attacks included the first suspected US drone strikes under the Trump administration, according to Yemeni officials. By Lara Rebello. [Autoplay]

Following President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, the Iranian government announced it would stop using the U.S. dollar “as its currency of choice in its financial and foreign exchange reports,” the local Financial Tribune reported. Iran governor Valiollah Seif’s central bank announced the decision in a television interview on January 29. The change will take effect on March 21, and it will impact all official financial and foreign exchange reports.

Saudi Arabia is planning to open its first women-only gyms to aid with weight loss, although they will still be banned from competitive sports such as volleyball, basketball and football. The change in policy was announced by Princess Reema bint Bandar, who is vice president of women's affairs. This follows the first ever women's day in the Kingdom.