Middle East, Saudi Arabia | featured news

Saudi Arabia urged Iran on Saturday to allow a daughter of Osama bin Laden, who fled house arrest and sought refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran, to leave the country if she wishes.

Muslim pilgrims holding white umbrellas against the blazing sun clambered up a rocky desert hill for prayers Thursday during the annual hajj, a day after torrential rains that killed at least 77 people.

A Saudi court sentenced a female journalist Saturday to 60 lashes for her work on a controversial Arabic-language TV show that aired an episode in which a man bragged about his sex life, two sources told CNN.

Three detainees from Guantanamo Bay were transferred to Saudi Arabia "under appropriate security measures," the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday, in another step toward President Barack Obama's goal of closing the prison for terrorism suspects.

President Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah on Wednesday on the eve of a much-anticipated speech in Cairo intended to repair America's damaged image with the Islamic world.

Days after a Saudi court decided to allow the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a man 39 years her senior, the kingdom's justice minister said he plans to enact a law that will protect young girls from such marriages, according to local media reports.

A Saudi judge recently refused to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man -- a union apparently arranged by the girl's father to settle his debts -- a lawyer in the case told CNN.