SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Saudi Arabia has joined the United States in prosecuting an undeclared aerial war against al-Qaeda in Yemen, The Times has learnt.The disclosure that US drone strikes in Yemen have been bolstered by Saudi fighter jets will raise fresh questions about the legality of America’s expanding programme of targeted killings.Covert airstrikes against Yemeni targets outnumbered those in Pakistan for the first time last year, as the White House discarded its “kill or capture” strategy and the…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Saudis have staged fresh protest against the ruling Al Saud family as anti-regime protests gather steam in the kingdom, Press TV reports. The Wednesday rally was held in the al-Qassim region north of Riyadh. The demonstrators chanted anti-regime slogans and called for the release of political prisoners. On the same day, people demonstrated in the holy city of Mecca and the central city of Buraidah. On December 31, tens of thousands of Saudi nationals…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A prominent Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa (a religious ordinance) that calls for the gang rape of Syrian women.  Expressing frustration that the “warriors of Islam” fighting in Syria may be getting weary for the lack of sexual pleasure, the religious leader issued a decree that promotes hours-long “intercourse marriages.” The cleric, Muhammed al-Arifi, who is a leading jihadist religious figure, made it clear that his edict called for the gang rape of Syrian…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Residents of Saudi Arabia, where booze and New Year's celebrations are banned, flooded into neighboring Bahrain in search of festivities to ring in 2013. More than 80,000 cars crossed a causeway over the Gulf to Bahrain Monday night to celebrate New Year's Eve, the Saudi newspaper Al-Youm reported on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia adheres to a strict interpretation of Islam and bans alcohol as well as celebrations of Christmas and New Year's Eve. It also prohibits…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Housing is a major concern for the largest portion of the Saudi population as 65% of Saudis are not homeowners, according to the Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI).To intensify this issue, the Saudi population of just over 28 million is drastically increasing. According to CDSI’s demographic report of 2011, population increased 2.5 % in 2011 and is expected to reach the 30 million mark by 2017.Currently 70% of Saudi government officials receive…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- A hard-line Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia has recently issued a special religious decree that permits the militants in Syria to engage in short-term marriages with Syrian women. Sheikh Mohammed al-Arifi said that the marriages between the foreign-backed militants and Syrian women will satisfy the militants’ sexual desires and boost their determination in killing Syrians.  He added that the marriages, dubbed by him as “intercourse marriages,” can be with Syrian females as young as 14…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -  protests continue in Qatif Shia area in Saudi Arabia for the anger of killing the youth Ahmed Mohammed by Saudi police on 27 Dec. 2012 , protesters were chanting death to Al Saud , Down with Mohammed Bin Fahad , and the blood of martyrs will not be lost . More protest 1- click here 2- Click here 3- Click Here www.shafaqna.com/english

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - Saudi Arabia is a theocratic, Salafi, Islamist state that holds regular public executions for crimes including "apostasy", a charge often used to stifle free speech, dissenting views, and any critical scrutiny of Islam. This video discusses the current ongoing cases of 3 Saudi dissidents who are being targeted by their country's religious and political oppression.Raif Badawi, Turki Al-Hamad and Hamza Kashgari.   www.shafaqna.com/english End

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - Saudi Arabia is planning to buy 30 German Dingo 2 armoured vehicles worth about 100 million euros, Bild am Sonntag reported in its Sunday edition. Quoting sources close to the talks on a deal, the paper said Riyadh could eventually purchase up to 100 of the mine resistant, ambush protected Dingos. The Dingo 2 is advertised by its maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann as “the safest and best-protected wheeled vehicle in its class” with an “outstanding performance on…