Saudi King Calls For Oil Exploration To Be Halted

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has ordered a halt to oil exploration operations to save the hydrocarbon wealth in the world’s top crude exporting nation for future generations.

Dead Beauty Pageant Camel May Cost Oil Firm $261,000

A Saudi Arabian oil company is reportedly being sued for 160,000 pounds for causing the death of a camel that was a beauty pageant contestant.

The camel was grazing in a desert pasture about 150 miles west of Ahsa when it fell into a large hole dug to store crude oil.

Now, the camel’s owner Abdullah al-Saiari, is suing the oil giant Saudi Aramco seeking 160,000 pounds in compensation for his three-year-old black camel.She was part of the Camel Beauty Contest,” the Telegraph quoted Saiari as telling the Saudi Gazette.

Saudi Blogger Farhan Freed From Prison

Saudi Arabia’s most popular blogger was released Saturday after serving four months in prison without charge.

The blogger, Fouad al-Farhan, 33, was detained Dec. 10 after authorities warned him about his online support of an activist group. At the time of his arrest, the Interior Ministry said only that his violations were not related to state security.

Farhan had used his blog to criticize corruption and call for political reform in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy. Fouad al-Farhan is one of the few Saudi bloggers who uses his real name.

Mr Farhan’s arrest, believed to be the first of an online critic in Saudi Arabia, had been condemned by bloggers around the world, including more than 200 in the kingdom.

In a telephone interview Saturday, Farhan said he was happy to be free and described his time behind bars as “a unique experience.” He said he had been “fairly treated” but would not comment on the specifics of his case.

“I will be blogging soon,” he said.

In a letter to friends written just before he was detained, he said: “I was told that there is an official order from a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior to investigate me. They will pick me up anytime during the next two weeks.”

Reporters Without Borders classifies Saudi Arabia as a top “internet enemy” and estimates about 400,000 websites are on the government’s blacklist.

See previous articles – Cuba Blogger Yoani Sanchez Wins Journalism Award

Cuba Lock Down Top Cuba Blog

[Adapted from International Press Reports]

Saudi Arabia Women Denied Basic Human Rights

The Human Rights Watch group has taken issue with how Saudi Arabia women are denied the most basic of human rights just so their male relatives can “excersise ” complete control over them.

The report from the New Yorl based group titled “Perpetual Minors: Human Abuses Stemming fom Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia draws onmore than 100 interviews with Saudi women who are denied the legal right to make “trivial decisions for their children – women cannot open bank accounts for children, enrol them in school, obtain school files or travel with their children without written permission from the child’s father.”

Ummm, this travelling? Is this taking a child and going shopping with it or actually travelling with the child as in overseas? If it is the latter I don’t see that as trivial as a father has a right to know if the mother is planning to take the child out of his reach.

The report further states that Saudi Arabia is the only country where Muslims women are not allowed to drive.

Here in Barbados, Muslims women going for a driver’s license are allowed to take their photos with their face covered but a female staff will have to view the face first. You know just to be sure and I am also sure that some Muslims men would not want their female folks to suffer such uhh “indignity”. So some will just have to leave that one by the wayside.

Other international human rights organizations, such Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Committee have in the past issued reports critical of the Saudi legal system and its human rights record in various political, legal, and social areas, especially its severe limitations on the rights of women.

Females have to obtain permission from male relatives to travel, marry, study and receive health care.

Further reading – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7358448.stm