Middle East, Saudi Arabia | featured news

Vice President Biden says the "entire world" should unite against Iran for its alleged plot to kill the Saudi envoy to the U.S.

Saudi Arabia will allow women to stand for election and vote, the king announced on Sunday, in a significant policy shift in the conservative Islamic kingdom.

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.

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.

The United States plans to sell up to $60 billion worth of military aircraft to Saudi Arabia, the State Department announced on Wednesday in a move designed to shore up a region overshadowed by Iran.

A Sri Lankan maid whose Saudi employer allegedly hammered 23 nails into her arms, legs and forehead is set to undergo surgery Friday, while government officials meet with Saudi diplomats in Colombo over the incident.