Qatar Amir in Saudi for first foreign trip

Source: Khaleej Times (Read full story)

Qatar Amir His Highness Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani landed in Saudi Arabia on Friday on his first foreign foray since acceding to the throne in June, state news agency SPA said. Shaikh Tamim flew in to the port city of Jeddah and will meet the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, and perform the Umrah pilgrimage to nearby Makkah, Islam’s holiest site, the agency said. The Saudi monarch is also currently in Mecca where he will celebrate the Eid, SPA said. The 33-year-old Shaikh Tamim came to power on June 25 following the abdication of his father, Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, an unprecedented event in the Arab world.

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Kuwait remembers triumph against Iraqi invasion 1990

Source: Kuwait News Agency (Read full story)

Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait was an attempt to uproot the Kuwaiti identity. This catastrophe came to an end after a mutual effort by the Kuwaiti leadership and people, whom together worked to gather international support to liberate the country. Led by the then Amir the late Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the then Crown Prince the late Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, and then Foreign Minister and current Amir His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwait managed to overcome the 204-day long aggression. The efforts to retain Kuwait’s soil and sovereignty began with the Jeddah conference in October 1990, an event which formulated an initial Kuwaiti stance in resisting the Iraqi occupation and the right to liberate the country.

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Bahrain unveils stiffer penalties for ‘terror acts’

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

Bahrain’s King Hamad has decreed stiffer penalties for “terror acts” in the country rocked by an uprising since 2011, the official BNA news agency said Thursday. Under a new law, suspects convicted for bomb attacks will be sentenced to life imprisonment or to death in cases of casualties, BNA said. The minimum penalty for an attempted bombing is 10 years behind bars. The crimes previously carried unspecified jail terms. Suspects found guilty of “raising money for a terrorist organization” will be handed jail terms ranging 10 years to life.

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US Embassy in Abu Dhabi one of several to close in region over security fears

Source: The National (Read full story)

The US embassy in the capital and consulate in Dubai will be closed tomorrow – along with 20 others in the region – as part of a worldwide security alert.  The US state department last night issued a warning of a possible Al Qaeda attack “particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and possibly occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula”.The attacks, the warning stated, could occur “in the period between now and the end of August”. The state department’s warning came a day after it announced that its embassies in the region would be closed on Sunday instead of reopening as normal after the weekend.

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GCC most vulnerable to cyber attacks

Source: Arabian Gazette (Read full story)

A survey of Bahrain’s information technology (IT) experts have revealed fears that the GCC is highly vulnerable to attacks by cyber criminals. Conducted by IT solutions provider Gulf Business Machines (GBM), the research was aimed at uncovering online security threats in the GCC region. About 71 percent of the surveyed professionals in Bahrain believed that the GCC had become more vulnerable to cyber attacks with the growth in the use of social media within companies. It was estimated that 33 percent of cyber crimes were staff-related, while more than one-fourth of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the frequency of regular proactive screenings to ensure the security of IT infrastructure and critical data.

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Lash and jail for Saudi web activist Raef Badawi

Source: BBC News (Read full story)

A Saudi online activist has been jailed for seven years and sentenced to 600 lashes for urging religious liberalization, his lawyer has said. The activist, Raef Badawi, co-founded the Free Saudi Liberals website, an online forum for public debate. He was arrested last year and convicted on Monday of setting up a website that undermined general security. Amnesty International considers Mr Badawi a political prisoner and has called for his immediate release. Mr Badawi was originally charged with apostasy, or abandonment of religion, a crime in Saudi Arabia that carries with it the death penalty.

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