Saudi Arabia | featured news

The spirit of the Arab Spring broke the steel gates of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today as one by one Saudi women started their engines, defying the country’s notorious ban on women driving, the only place in the world where women are not permitted to drive.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who underwent surgery in Saudi Arabia for a shrapnel wound, would return to Yemen within days, his vice president said on Monday.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh left Yemen and flew into Saudi Arabia on Sunday for medical treatment, pitching Yemen deeper into turmoil after months of protests against his three-decade rule.

Saudi officials say that about 1,000 Saudi troops have entered Bahrain, and opposition groups denounced the move as a foreign occupation.

Defying a government ban on all kinds of public demonstrations, a group is planning a "Day of Rage" protests Friday in Saudi Arabia.

Stocks tumbled Thursday, hit first by new worries about global growth and then by reports that Saudi police had fired on protesters.

Oil prices turned lower on Monday as reassurances from Saudi Arabia that extra supply needs had been met soothed market fears over the spread of protests to oil-producer Oman.

U.S. crude jumped to a 28-month high of $100 a barrel on Wednesday, as investors weighed the risk of Middle East unrest spreading from Libya to bigger exporters including Saudi Arabia.

An official with Saudi Arabia's communications authority says it has blocked Facebook because the popular social networking website doesn't conform with the kingdom's conservative values.

A Saudi bombmaker believed to be working with al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing is a key suspect in the parcel bomb plot against the United States, a U.S. official said on Saturday.