Around 150 clerics and religious scholars have held a rare protest outside the Saudi king’s palace against fresh efforts by women seeking the right to drive.

A SAUDI court convicted a man and sentenced him to four months in prison and 90 lashes for kissing a woman in a mall, a government-owned daily reported.

THE sentencing of a 75-year-old widow to 40 lashes and four months in prison for mingling with two young men has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia’s ultra-conservative religious police and judiciary.