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Saudi Offers Russia Deal to Scale Back Assad Support

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Photo Credit: Reuters Saudi Arabia has offered Russia economic incentives including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Middle East sources and Western diplomats said on Wednesday.

The proposed deal between two of the leading power brokers in Syria’s devastating civil war was set out by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, they said.

Russia has supported Assad with arms and diplomatic cover throughout the war and any change in Moscow’s stance would remove a major obstacle to action on Syria by the United Nations Security Council.

Syrian opposition sources close to Saudi Arabia said Prince Bandar offered to buy up to $15 billion of Russian weapons as well as ensuring that Gulf gas would not threaten Russia’s position as a main gas supplier to Europe.

In return, Saudi Arabia wanted Moscow to ease its strong support of Assad and agree not to block any future Security Council Resolution on Syria, they said.

Read more from this story HERE.

There Is “a Stench to this”: Citizens Livid After Saudi’s First Degree Murder Charge Dismissed

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Charges against a Saudi national accused of paying his roommate to kill a Warrensburg bar owner were dropped Friday after information from a critical witness changed, leaving the state with insufficient evidence to prosecute him.

Ziyad Abid was briefly taken into custody Friday by immigration officials then released on his own recognizance hours after Johnson County prosecutors dismissed all charges.

Abid, 24, had been jailed since Sept. 5 on first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges. His case gained national attention when Circuit Judge Michael Wagner refused to release him after the Saudia Arabian government posted $2 million bail.

Abid was arrested after his roommate, Reginald Singletary Jr., told investigators that he killed bar owner Blaine Whitworth last September, and that Abid had paid him to do it.

Circuit Judge Jacqueline Cook set bond at $2 million in November — along with a number of other conditions — but said she was concerned Abid was a flight risk. She also expressed concerns that Abid would be deported because his student visa had lapsed when he could not attend classes at the University of Central Missouri.

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudi Arabia Confirms More Deadly MERS Cases

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesThree more confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus infections in the Kingdom have been recorded, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday…

The new cases bring to 92 the total number of people who have contracted the virus worldwide, including 71 in Saudi Arabia.

Of the 92 cases registered with the World Health Organization since last year, 46 have died, including 39 in Saudi Arabia…

Saudi and UK scientists studying MERS said the coronavirus is more deadly, unpredictable and has significant differences from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Ziad Memish, Saudi deputy minister for public health, earlier said: “MERS coronavirus appears to be more deadly, with 60 percent of patients with co-existing chronic illnesses dying, compared with the one-percent toll of SARS.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Newly-Retired CENTCOM General Asks Why Iran was Allowed to Get Away With Assassination Attempt on US Soil (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeThe U.S. made a serious mistake by not responding more assertively to an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States in a bomb attack on a popular Washington restaurant, just-retired CENTCOM commander James Mattis said Saturday.

At an October 2011 press conference Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that Iran’s government had attempted to use a Mexican drug cartel to arrange the killing of the Saudi official, Adel Al-Jubeir, while dining at Cafe Milano in Georgetown. An Iranian-American living in Texas, Manssor Arbabsiar, and Iranian al-Quds force offifical Gholam Shakuri were charged with conspiring to carry out the bombing—which the U.S. officials said was headed off with the help of an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency informant.

“When we finally caught them in the act of trying to kill Adel, we had a beleaguered attorney general, a fine man but beleaguered politically, stand up and give a legal argument that frankly I couldn’t understand,” Mattis said at the Aspen Security Forum. “We caught them in the act and yet we let them walk free.”

Without being specific, Mattis suggested Iran should have suffered some more serious consequence for being behind the alleged plot.

“Frankly, I‘m not sure why, again, they haven’t been held to account,” he said. “They have been basically not held to account….I don’t know why the attempt on Adel wasn’t dealt with more strongly.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudi Princess Arrested in California Human Trafficking Probe

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Photo Credit: APA Saudi princess was charged Wednesday with human trafficking for allegedly holding a domestic worker against her will and forcing her to work at an Orange County condominium, prosecutors said.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas identified 42-year-old Meshael Alayban as a Saudi princess who was charged with one count of human trafficking. If convicted, she faces up to 12 years in prison.

Alayban was arrested after a Kenyan woman carrying a suitcase flagged down a bus Tuesday and told a passenger she believed she was a human trafficking victim. The passenger helped her contact police, who searched the Irvine condo where Alayban and her family were staying, authorities said.

The 30-year-old woman told authorities she was hired in Kenya in 2012 and her passport was taken from her on arrival in Saudi Arabia. She was forced to work excessive hours and was paid less than she was promised and not allowed to leave, authorities said.

“This is not a contract dispute,” Rackauckas told the court during a bail hearing Wednesday afternoon, likening the case to slavery. “This is holding someone captive against their will.”

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Bill Maher Hammers Islam: ‘It’s the Liberals Here Who Don’t Quite Get It’ (+video)

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bill_maherHBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher asked female Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa al Mansour about the obstacles she encountered as a female filmmaker on Friday and spoke out against the nation’s governing religion of Islam.

Maher noted that some nations in the Middle East are becoming more conservative in regards to Islam after the Arab Spring, which, in his view, isn’t necessarily a good thing.

“The problem is, the Arab Spring kind of turned into the Arab Winter,” Maher said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudi Prince Sues Forbes Over His Rank on Billionaires List

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Photo Credit: Forbes

A Saudi Arabian billionaire prince has sued Forbes magazine in London, accusing the publication of underestimating his wealth in its highly scrutinized annual list of the world’s richest people.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal claims the magazine was “deliberately biased” when ranking him at a lowly 26th place in its 2013 tally of the super wealthy, according to court documents cited by the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper.

The magazine pegged his net worth at $20 billion. The prince claims it is closer to $30 billion. The difference? About $9.6 billion, the Guardian reported.

The alleged inaccuracy has the business mogul, who holds a stake in Twitter, reportedly fuming. In addition to the Forbes publisher, Bin Talal also filed suit against its editor and two of its reporters, the Guardian reported.

Forbes may have angered the prince further with an article examining the way he calculates his net worth, deeming it “an alternate reality” driven in part by his need for public validation.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Gives Saudi Airlines ‘Unrestricted’ Access to American Skies

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Photo Credit: CNS News

The United States and Saudi Arabia have signed an Open Skies agreement that will “permit unrestricted air service by the airlines of both countries between and beyond the other’s territory.”

The agreement means Saudi airlines may fly from any point in the kingdom to any point in the United States, and that U.S. airlines may fly from any point here to any airport in Saudi Arabia.

The deal was signed May 28 in Jeddah by U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James B. Smith and Dr. Faisal bin Hamad Al-Sugair, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Director of the General Authority of Civil Aviation.

In addition to permitting each nations’ airlines to provide unrestricted air service to any point in the other country, the agreement also eliminates restrictions on how often the carriers can fly, the kind of aircraft they can use and the prices they charge.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why MERS Virus is Terrifying Scientists Throughout the World

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Photo Credit: CNN

By Laurie Garrett. The head of the World Health Organization warned the world this week of a new virus, awkwardly dubbed MERS-CoV, found in Saudi Arabia.

“Looking at the overall global situation, my greatest concern right now is the novel coronavirus,” Margaret Chan said, calling it “a threat to the entire world.”

“We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat,” the director general said in her closing speech to the 66th session of the World Health Assembly. “Any new disease that is emerging faster than our understanding is never under control.

“These are alarm bells and we must respond. The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself.” Read more from this story HERE.

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UPDATE: MERS Virus Hits Death Toll Of 33 As New Cases Continue To Plague Middle East

By Samantha Olson. A 21-year-old man from Saudi Arabia has died this week after being placed in intensive care for the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which has brought the worldwide death toll up to 33, according to the World Health Organization.

Three new laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS were announced this week. The Saudi Ministry released a statement, which announced the young man’s death and the two other cases located in Saudi Arabia’s eastern governorate of Al-Ahsa.

All 58 cases of MERS across the globe since September 2012 have been linked to the Middle East and a majority of the disease cases have come from Al-Ahsa. The Saudi Arabia ministry announced the new cases and death only a day after saying it had made progress in its efforts to fight MERS outbreaks.

Researchers from Saudi Arabia and the UK have fully mapped out the genetic series from four infected cases of the MERS virus, according to the health ministry’s statement. Read more from this story HERE.

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2 more cases reported in Italy, total in Europe rises to 11

By WHO/Europe. The Ministry of Health in Italy, through the European Union’s Early Warning Response System, has notified WHO of 2 more laboratory-confirmed cases with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the country.

Both the patients are close contacts of the recent laboratory-confirmed case of a 45-year-old man who had travelled to Jordan. The first patient is a two-year-old girl and the second patient is a 42-year-old woman. All three cases are in stable condition.

The man had returned to Italy on 25 May 2013 with symptoms of cough and fatigue. His condition deteriorated and he was hospitalised on 28 May 2013. Laboratory test was conducted by the influenza reference laboratory of Tuscany and confirmed by the National Center of NHI (Istituto Superiore di sanità). Read more from this story HERE.

Kenyan Woman Claims She Was Kept as Domestic Slave by Saudis near DC for Months (+video)

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Photo Credit: taberandrewA 25-year-old Kenyan woman has come forward with allegations that she was kept as a domestic slave for three months by Saudi Arabian diplomats living in Northern Virginia.

The allegations come to light two weeks after News4 first reported an investigation into possible human trafficking at a Saudi-owned compound in McLean, Va.

The Kenyan woman — who goes by the name Sheila — said she was brought to the U.S. from Kenya by way of Saudi Arabia last summer, by people who forced her to work long hours each day, seven days a week, as a domestic worker.

“I used to work from 6 in the morning to 8, 10 in the evening,” Sheila said by cell phone to News4’s Jackie Bensen. “From Monday to Monday.”

Did you ever have a day off? Bensen asked. “No,” Shelia replied.

Read more from this story HERE.