Saudi Arabia

TED LUCKENBILL, who played for the Philadelphia Warriors in Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game, has died of cancer at the age of 72. The Callaway-Allee funeral home in Crockett, Texas, where Luckenbill lived for 20 years, said he died Sunday in Dallas. Luckenbill starred for the University of Houston from 1958-61. He averaged 16.6 points and 9.7 rebounds while helping Houston to its first two winning seasons under Guy Lewis. Drafted 15th overall by the Warriors in 1961, he played in only 87 NBA games before he was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 23. His professional claim to fame came on March 2, 1962, when he grabbed two offensive rebounds in the final 2 minutes to help Chamberlain hit 100 points in the Warriors' 169-147 victory over New York.

Doris Bedrossian Bobb of Drexel Hill has already had an extended tour in Saudi Arabia. As a civilian, that is. Bobb had traveled with her husband, Arthur, an ophthalmologist, who was part of a Harvard research team trying to eradicate an eye disease in Saudi Arabia. When Bobb stepped off a plane in Saudi Arabia in November 1963, "it was very hazy, very hot," she recalled. "I was overwhelmed. A lot of women arrived and went back on the next plane. " Bobb, now 68, stayed 18 years.

By Mai Yamani The unexpected visibility and assertiveness of women has helped propel what has become known as the Arab spring. Major changes have occurred in the minds and lives of women, helping them break the shackles of the past and demand their freedom and dignity. Since January 2011, images of millions of women demonstrating alongside men have been beamed around the world. One saw women from all walks of life marching for a better future for themselves and their countries.

SAN'A, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has left a hospital in Saudi Arabia more than two months after being badly wounded in an attack on his palace compound in San'a, Yemen's state news agency said Sunday. A Yemeni government official said that Saleh, who checked out of a hospital in the Saudi capital Saturday, had officially asked Saudi authorities to let him return to Yemen along with a medical team. His request appears to have been turned down, at least for now, the official said.

Arab leaders have agreed to send troops to Saudi Arabia after Iraq's Saddam Hussein refused to end his nine-day-old occupation of neighboring Kuwait and instead called for a holy war against rich oil sheiks. Also yesterday, European powers agreed to bolster the U.S. flotilla in the Persian Gulf. But they didn't promise any ground troops to join American GIs digging into the Saudi desert to protect the world's biggest oil exporter from Iraqi forces massed over the northern border in Kuwait.

The rhetorical de-escalation of the crisis in the Persian Gulf continued yesterday as the Saudi defense minister told reporters here that his kingdom could not be used by any nation as a staging ground for non-defensive military action. Sultan ibn Abd al-Aziz, the brother of King Fahd, said Saudi Arabia was "a defensive country" with no interest in initiating hostilities or allowing others to do so from its soil in its name. "The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not a theater for any action (by others)

It's TGIF in the desert, and time to see what your genial host, 1st Sgt. Tony Mottola, is cooking up. Mottola, 42, a Germantown native, is the career Air Force noncom in charge of fun - and counseling. At a hardship post where wine, women and song are all forbidden, Mottola's best form of entertainment is talking. But he does have other resources. Last Friday, as the sun set and desert temperatures dropped into the 80s, Mottola was at the end of a runway, outside the recreation trailer, stirring a pot of beans and tossing steaks on a grill.

Thousands of victims of the 9/11 attacks appealed to the Supreme Court yesterday, asking it to overturn a lower court decision barring lawsuits against Saudi Arabia for supporting acts of terrorism. The petition contended that U.S. intelligence agencies had unearthed ample evidence of the Saudi Arabia government's providing tens of millions of dollars to Islamist charities that in turn funded Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization. U.S. government officials had repeatedly warned Saudi officials in the 1990s that government-backed charities were providing money and logistical support to bin Laden, but they failed to do anything about it, the petition said.

Iraq said yesterday that it decided to pull back thousands of Iraqi pilgrims from Saudi Arabia after the Saudis surrounded them with tanks and armored vehicles. Official Baghdad television quoted a senior Iraqi official who accompanied the pilgrims, who had been headed to Mecca as part of the annual hajj, as saying the Saudis also turned down an Iraqi demand that expenses of the pilgrims be withdrawn from Iraq's assets frozen in Arab and foreign banks. The charges followed recent tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which accuses the Saudis of allowing U.S. and British planes to use its bases to launch air strikes on Iraq.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon announced Friday that it has reached a preliminary agreement on a complex $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, in what would represent the latest major weapons sale to U.S. allies in the Middle East. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will attempt to finalize the arms package next week when he is scheduled to visit the three countries. Ultimately, the deal will need the assent of Congress. Defense officials said they have kept lawmakers apprised of the negotiations and revealed basics of the agreement to lawmakers on Thursday.

CAIRO - The deputy leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen slammed Saudi Arabia's policy of allowing the United States to launch deadly drone strikes from bases in the kingdom, calling on Saudis, in a new audio message released Wednesday, to revolt against the ruling family. Saeed al-Shihri's statement appeared to back up al-Qaeda denials this week that he was killed in a drone attack. The Saudi national was reported killed by a U.S. drone strike earlier this year by Yemeni security officials, based on alleged Saudi intelligence.

Unless he can quickly raise $270,000, a Saudi man will soon face court-ordered surgical paralysis from the waist down, Amnesty International reports. Justice in Saudi Arabia in the 21st Century still revolves around the principle of lex talionis , better known to Westerners as "an eye for an eye. " The case stems from 2003, when, Ali al-Khawahir, then 14, stabbed a friend in the back. The crime caused al-Khawahir's friend to be paralyzed from the waist down. Finding him guilty in the assault, the court in the town of Al-Ahsa sentenced al-Khawahir to "qisas" - retribution - or pay the victims's family one million Saudi riyals in "blood money.

MONUMENT, Colo. - The fatal shooting of Colorado's top prisons official when he answered the front door at his house highlights a troubling reality for the nation's judges, prosecutors, and other legal officials: At a time when attacks on them are rising, it's difficult for them to remain secure, even when they are off duty. Investigators do not know why Tom Clements, 58, was shot at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at his home just north of Colorado Springs. They could not rule out any possibilities, including that it was a random shooting or that it was an attack related to Clements' job, authorities said.

CAIRO - An Islamic summit that opened in Egypt on Wednesday lay bare the multiple divisions within the Muslim and Arab worlds, with conflicting approaches to the Syrian civil war exposing the Sunni-Shiite sectarian fault lines that have torn the region for years. Egypt's Islamist leader sharply criticized President Bashar al-Assad's embattled regime in his address to the summit, though he hedged his comments by making only an indirect call for the Syrian to step down. The Syrian government "must read history and grasp its immortal message: It is the people who remain and those who put their personal interests before those of their people will inevitably go," Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said.

In this month marking the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, here's a look at slavery around the world. Match the nation with the year it abolished slavery. 1. Brazil. 2. China. 3. Haiti. 4. Iran. 5. Korea. 6. Mauritania. 7. Portugal. 8. Russia. 9. Saudi Arabia. 10. Zanzibar. a. 1723; serfs in 1861. b. 1761. c. 1804. d. 1888. e. 1894. f. 1897. g. 1906. h. 1928. i. 1962.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's top cleric on Friday warned against the mixing of the sexes, saying it poses a threat to female chastity and society, as the kingdom prepares for the first time to grant women seats on the country's top advisory body. Delivering his traditional Friday sermon, the grand mufti, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik, said authorities must adhere to sharia, or Islamic law, by ensuring men and women are separated as much as possible at all times. The cleric's comments came weeks ahead of allowing women to be members of the 150-member Shura Council, the country's top advisory body.

SANA'A, Yemen - Gunmen in Yemen opened fire on the car of a Saudi Arabian army officer working with his embassy's military section on Wednesday, killing him and his Yemeni bodyguard, officials from both countries said. Yemeni officials said the Saudi officer, who had diplomatic status, was traveling to the embassy when he was shot by gunmen wearing army uniforms in another car. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. Saudi Arabia maintains close ties with Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world and home to an al-Qaeda branch considered to be the terror network's most dangerous.

Abdullah al-Luhaymi spends weekend nights cruising around the Saudi capital Riyadh on his motorbike before stopping to meet friends, usually at an American-style fast-food joint. Each month he has more to choose from. "This is where we like to eat and watch people, this is the best area in Riyadh," the 29-year-old university graduate says, sitting on his Kawasaki. He's parked outside Dunkin' Donuts and just down the road from Applebee's, Elevation Burger and Krispy Kreme. People wait in lines to be served.

British girl found safe with teacher LONDON - A 15-year-old British schoolgirl who sparked an international search when she went missing along with her math teacher was found safe and well in France on Friday, police said. Megan Stammers was located along with Jeremy Forrest, 30, a teacher at her school, said police in the southern England county of Sussex. France's Sipa news agency said the pair were in a car when they were found in the city of Bordeaux in southwestern France.