‘Russian hackers’ are blamed for everything, the latest being breaching Qatar’s news agency, sparking a row with the Saudis. This makes no sense, says Leonid Bershidsky.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has apologised to the Saudi government after an activist tried to carry out a citizen's arrest of one of the Gulf state's generals.

The US senate passed legislation that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, rejecting the fierce objections of a US ally and setting congress on a collision course with the Obama administration.

The Obama administration is expected to release part of a secret chapter from a congressional inquiry into 9/11 that may shed light on possible Saudi connections to the 2001 attacks.

The Obama administration will likely soon release at least part of a 28-page secret chapter from a congressional inquiry into 9/11 that may shed light on possible Saudi connections to the attackers.

Iran’s president has said that Saudi Arabia cannot “cover up” its crime of executing a leading Shi’ite cleric by severing diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic.

THIS week the world’s significant leaders will meet at the UN Summit in New York. 

Lawyers for victims of the September 11 attacks say they have new evidence that agents of Saudi Arabia “directly and knowingly” helped the hijackers, including sworn testimony from the so-called 20th hijacker and from three principals of the US government’s two primary probes of the attacks.

Trade Minister Richard Bruton has set off on a mission to India today to drum up exports for Irish businesses.

BRITAIN’S education department is to look at how it can check Islamic weekend schools after the BBC reported it had uncovered more than 40 of them teaching anti-Semitic views and extreme punishment for sodomy and theft.

An agreement was reached today between the Saudi Arabian authorities and the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, averting a ban on the service.

Two young German girls rescued after year-long kidnap ordeal in Yemen are heading back to Germany, the Saudi government announced today.

KENTZ, the Irish construction and engineering firm, has been awarded a $35 million (€27.1m) development contract in Saudi Arabia, which will see it oversee the expansion of the industrial districts of the Red Sea port cities of Jubail and Yanbu.

A freed Guantanamo Bay terror detainee has re-emerged as an al-Qaida commander in Yemen, the US said today.

SOMALI pirates have collected more than $150 million (€120m) in ransoms over the past year, Kenya’s foreign affairs minister said yesterday, calling on ship owners not to pay when their vessels are hijacked.

Oil prices rose today as investors shrugged off Saudi Arabia’s pledge to increase production if needed.

Saudi Arabia is bristling under international criticism over the sentencing of a woman rape victim to prison and 200 lashes, insisting the West should keep its nose out of its legal system.

IF you have been to see Hollywood’s latest blockbuster, The Kingdom, and came away just a little bit confused, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. When was the last time you went to see a movie that portrays the Americans as the good guys, on the winning side?

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan on October 18 to press for the restoration of democracy, regardless of the outcome of talks with its US-allied military president, her party said today.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto can return to Pakistan from exile, but will have to face corruption cases against her, the government said, as her party prepared to announce her arrival date today.

Lawyers for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif filed a petition in Pakistan’s Supreme Court today challenging his deportation to Saudi Arabia, setting up another confrontation between the judiciary and Pakistan’s military ruler as he battles to hold onto power.

A son of Osama bin Laden confirmed today he had married a British woman nearly twice his age, and voiced outrage at the publicity the wedding attracted.

THE recent hydrocarbon law, approved after much wrangling by Iraq’s Council of Ministers, deserves a great deal more praise than it has received.

Further worrying signs from the United States economy rattled investors on both sides of the Atlantic today.

Saudi King Abdullah appealed to the world today to stop Israeli attacks on Lebanon, saying that if peace moves fail, the Middle East could be engulfed in war.

Saudi security forces stormed a suspected al-Qaida hideout in the capital Riyadh early today, killing six militants and arresting a seventh after an exchange of gunfire, an Interior Ministry official said.

Mourners packed the home of a Yemeni who died at the American prison in Guantanamo Bay as his family dismissed US claims that he committed suicide and accused prison authorities of murdering him.

MUSLIM anger over a Danish newspaper’s decision to publish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed escalated yesterday, with the EU becoming embroiled in an increasingly angry row.

Rescue workers searching for signs of life at a four-story building that collapsed in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, ended their operation yesterday, having found no new survivors.

Rescue workers today still hoped to find survivors from an eight-storey hostel building that collapsed in Islam’s holiest city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, killing at least 27 people and marring the start of the annual gathering of millions of pilgrims.

A BUILDING used as a hostel by pilgrims in Islam’s holiest city collapsed yesterday leaving at least 15 people dead and 39 injured.

Rescuers aided by bright spotlights worked into the night tonight, searching for survivors and clearing rubble from the collapse of an eight-storey building that killed at least 15 people, the latest tragedy to mar the annual gathering of millions of Muslims in Islam’s holiest city.

A hotel at the gates to Mecca’s Islamic shrines in Saudi Arabia collapsed today as millions of Muslims gathered in their holiest city for the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Some 60% of Saudi Arabians believe their women should be allowed to drive, according to a newspaper poll.

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, whose actions to strengthen the oil kingdom’s ties with the US brought down the wrath of Islamic militants, was taken to a Riyadh hospital yesterday apparently suffering from pneumonia.

The US State Department has extended a warning to Americans against unnecessary travel to Saudi Arabia because of a continuing threat of terrorist action against US citizens and interests.

Family and friends who packed a Virginia courtroom to support Ahmed Omar Abu Ali laughed out loud when prosecutors alleged that he had plotted to assassinate President Bush.

IN A bold attack yesterday Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily guarded US consulate in Jiddah, then forced their way into the building and held civilians at gunpoint during which eight people were killed in the three-hour gun battle.

Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily-guarded US consulate in Jeddah in a bold assault, then forced their way into the building, prompting a gun battle that left seven people dead and several injured before the three-hour long crisis was brought under control.

Saudi security forces have arrested four suspected militants in operations in Riyadh and a village outside the capital, an Interior Ministry spokesman said today.

Three suspected militants armed with guns and hand grenades have been killed in a clash with Saudi security forces, an Interior Ministry statement said today.

THE exploits of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s only son have often come under scrutiny over the years.

A month-long amnesty offered by Saudi King Fahd to militants who turn themselves in has failed to attract hardcore militants responsible for the killings of scores of Saudis and foreigners in waves of attacks that began in May 2003.