Tag: SAUDIARABIA

The Middle East may be once again on the brink of ornithological warfare, now that Saudi Arabian officials have detained an Israeli bird suspected of espionage. The bird was first spotted in a rural area of the country, wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet that read 'Tel Aviv University.' Officials promptly took the creature into custody, and accused it of being a Mossad spy. Its tag would ...

On Saturday, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia unexpectedly blocked access to Facebook, amid concerns that the social networking site had been posing a threat to the country's conservative moral code. When news of the ban first broke, it appeared that Saudi Arabia was following in the footsteps of Bangladesh and Pakistan, both of which had blocked Facebook earlier this year in the wake of the 'Everybody ...

Maybe you heard the (literally) big news yesterday that Mecca, the Islamic holy city in Saudi Arabia, has built a clock that will rival Greenwich's classically Euro-imperialist time standard. Putting aside our nation's ad nauseum demagoguery against the 1.57-billion-strong, worldwide faith of Islam, you have to admit that the new clock is quite an awesome achievement. Islam as a religion is a ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Saudi Arabia has apparently executed its planned boycott of BlackBerry messaging services, prompting both U.S. and Canadian governments to intervene. With Turkey, India and the United Arab Emirates all considering similar bans, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly hopes to broker a resolution because residents have "a ...

On Sunday, telecom regulators from the United Arab Emirates announced their plans to suspend e-mail, instant messaging and Web-browsing services for BlackBerry users, due to manufacturer RIM's refusal to allow the government to monitor the data sent across its network. Now, another major Middle East country has instituted a similar ban that, unlike the UAE's, will go into effect very soon. On ...

Multi-billionaires in Dubai and Abu Dhabi may soon have more trouble doing business on the go, as officials in the United Arab Emirates have announced that, as of October, BlackBerry users will no longer be able to send e-mails or instant messages within the country. As the New York Times reports, Sunday's announcement comes after a lengthy standoff between the Middle East nation and Research in ...

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced back in October that it had passed a resolution allowing Web addresses to be written in non-Latin alphabets. Well, you flouters of the Roman script, your day has finally arrived as the first of those sites have just gone live. While some non-Latin characters were previously allowed in Web addresses, they always had to ...

According to the Arab News, a Saudi man, who was busy in Iraq participating in "what he described as 'jihad'," found the time to send his wife a text message, alerting her that he had divorced her. This is the first documented divorce in Saudi Arabia executed by text message, according to a Reuters report at Yahoo! News. Under Islamic Sharia Law, a man need only say "I divorce you" three times to ...

We're no strangers to religious nuts condemning "morally offensive" television in America, but we usually manage to keep the real loons out of positions of power. Apparently, no such luck in Saudi Arabia, where a judge has issued a decree saying that owners of satellite television stations that air immoral content could and should face prosecution and possibly the death penalty. Though no ...

Chances are you've received some unwanted calls, text messages, and even voice messages in your day. But, we're guessing you've never received voicemail quite like the sort that is under watch of the Saudi Arabian government. Should any Saudi citizen receive a message from Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri, the government is warning, you must report it by Saturday or face arrest. ...

You've probably never heard of Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan, but there is the chance that no one will ever hear from him again. Fouad is the latest blogger to become a victim of censorship by a totalitarian regime. The Saudi Arabian government arrested Fouad for criticizing religious extremism and several figures close to the Saudi royal family on his blog, alfarhan.org. Fouad isn't unique in Saudi ...