Saudi Arabia

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cargo planes ferrying Moroccan troops arrived in Saudi Arabia yesterday to join 3,000 Egyptian soldiers in defending the Saudis against a possible attack by Iraqi troops occupying neighboring Kuwait. Syrian troops are also expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia soon - unconfirmed reports said some arrived today - and a senior Egyptian defense official told The Washington Post that his country was prepared to send three or four more divisions if needed. On the tense waters of the Persian Gulf, meanwhile, two Iraqi tankers were turned away when they tried to dock in the United Arab Emirates in violation of a United Nations ban on trade with Iraq.

When terrorists target U.S. soldiers overseas the first temptation is to ask whether Americans should be there. The question is legitimate, especially as 19 victims of Tuesday's truck bomb in Saudi Arabia come home in caskets. But it needs rephrasing. Ask not whether U.S. personnel should avoid risky neighborhoods, but whether U.S. interests require them to be there, never mind the danger. If the answer is yes, then focus on lowering the risk. And in Saudi Arabia, it is yes. This may seem obvious, but already the choir of those who reject any U.S. casualties is tuning up. The Saudi case would seem to provide it with more choruses.

WASHINGTON - A decade after hijackers mostly from Saudi Arabia attacked the United States with passenger jets, the Saudis have emerged as the principal ally of the United States against al-Qaeda's spin-off group in Yemen and at least twice have disrupted plots to explode bombs aboard airlines. Details emerging about the latest unraveled plot revealed that a Saudi double agent fooled the terror group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, passing himself off as an eager would-be suicide bomber.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia closed its Cairo embassy Saturday and recalled its ambassador following protests over a detained Egyptian human-rights lawyer in a sharp escalation of tension between two regional powerhouses already on shaky terms due to uprisings in the Arab world. The unexpected Saudi diplomatic break came after days of protests by hundreds of Egyptians outside the Saudi Embassy in Cairo and consulates in other cities to demand the release of Ahmed el-Gezawi. Relatives and human-rights groups say he was detained for allegedly insulting the kingdom's monarch.

A federal district court judge, ruling in New York, on Thursday day turned down a motion by lawyers for thousands of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and commercial insurers that lost billions at ground zero that Saudi Arabia be reinstated as a defendant in their lawsuit seeking compensation. Judge George B. Daniels said the issue had been examined by federal district court judge Richard Conway Casey in 2005, and he found no grounds for sustaining the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia.

In late January 2000, two young men who would later participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon met with a young Saudi in San Diego. The Saudi, Omar al-Bayoumi, had earlier been the focus of a Federal Bureau of Investigation antiterrorism probe and had close ties to the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles. He offered to put up the two hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, in his apartment for a short time, helped them find a place of their own, and gave them money.

Iraqi leader calls for united nation BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister called Sunday for unity and greater political stability to ensure the country's security after the end of the U.S. military presence. Speaking at a televised celebration in Baghdad, Nouri al-Maliki warned Iraqis against "excessive joy" over the departure of U.S. troops, saying the country's security situation remains perilous. The last U.S. combat soldiers left Dec. 18. Maliki called on all Iraqis to unite in the interest of the nation and stressed that Iraq needs stability if it hopes to remain secure and rebuild.

HONOLULU - The sale of $30 billion worth of F-15SA fighter jets to Saudi Arabia has been completed, boosting the military strength of a key U.S. ally in the Middle East to help counter Iran, the Obama administration announced Thursday. Under the agreement, the United States will send Saudi Arabia 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more. Production of the aircraft, which will be manufactured by Boeing Co., will support 50,000 jobs and have a $3.5 billion annual economic impact in the United States, the White House said.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Women in Saudi Arabia will not need a male guardian's approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time, a Saudi official said Wednesday. The change signifies a step forward in easing the kingdom's restrictions against women, but it falls far short of what some Saudi reformers are calling for. Shura Council member Fahad al-Anzi was quoted in the state-run al-Watan newspaper as saying that approval for women to run and vote came from the guardian of Islam's holiest sites, the Saudi king, and that therefore women will not need a male guardian's approval.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A report given to a high-level advisory group in Saudi Arabia claims that allowing women in the kingdom to drive could encourage premarital sex, a rights activist said Saturday. The ultraconservative stance suggests increasing pressure on King Abdullah to retain the kingdom's male-only driving rules despite international criticism. The activist, Waleed Abu Alkhair, said the document from a well-known academic was sent to the all-male Shura Council, which advises the monarchy.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's monarchy moved into a critical period Saturday after the death of the heir to the throne opened the way for a new crown prince. The most likely candidate is a tough-talking interior minister who has led crackdowns on Islamic militants but also has shown favor to traditions such as keeping the ban on women's voting. A state funeral is planned for Tuesday in Riyadh for Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, 80, who died in New York after an unspecified illness, the official Saudi Press Agency said.