RIYADH, Dec 21, 2009 (AFP) – A Saudi man was beheaded by the sword on Monday after being convicted of stabbing his father to death, the interior ministry said.

Khaled bin Saleh al-Owfi was found guilty of stabbing his father several times in the chest causing his death, said a ministry statement carried by the SPA state news agency.

Owfi, who also stabbed and injured his brother, had consumed pills of a banned stimulant, known locally as Captagon, the statement said.

His decapitation in the western region of Mecca took to 66 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year.

In 2008, Saudi Arabia put 102 people to death.

Under the strict version of Islamic sharia law enforced in Saudi Arabia, the death penalty can be imposed for rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

via Saudi beheaded for stabbing father to death.

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HONG KONG, Dec 31, 2009 (AFP) – Hong Kong’s roads read like pages ripped from a luxury car magazine.

Hundreds of ultra-flash motors from Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches to Aston Martins, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, inch through traffic on the city's clogged and smoggy roads.

Even taxes of 120 percent don’t deter Hong Kong’s uber-rich from splashing out on the latest super-expensive boy’s toys — with dealers seeking to import as many supercars as they can get their hands on.

In the lead-up to Christmas, Marchy Lee’s CarPro showroom contained a Lamborghini Murcielago LP650-4. There were only 50 ever made and this was the last one on sale in Asia. Price on the road? A bank account-buckling 800,000 dollars.

Or, there’s always the cheaper option, a stunning black and gold Ferrari 430 Scuderia — a snip, at 520,000 dollars.

via Hong Kong’s roads clogged with supercars.

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The Saudi foreign minister said the international community needed to get tougher with Israel.

“The reason why a solution cannot be reached is the preferential treatment that Israel gets,” he said. “When other countries violate international law, they get punished, except for Israel. If war crimes are committed, other countries get punished, except Israel.

“Israel has become in the international community like a spoiled child,” he said. “It does what it wants without being questioned or punished.”

via Saudi FM: Israel acting like spoiled child | Middle East.

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TEHRAN, IRAN (AP) – Iran set a one-month deadline Saturday for the West to accept its counterproposal to a U.N.-drafted nuclear plan and warned that otherwise it will produce reactor fuel at a higher level of enrichment on its own.

The warning was a show of defiance and a hardening of Iran’s stance over its nuclear program, which the West fears masks an effort to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

via Iran warns West it will make its own nuclear fuel.

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…the White House’s response to last week’s attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit could rank as one of the low points of the new president’s first year. Over the course of five days, Obama’s Obama’ reaction ranged from low-keyed to reassuring to, finally, a vow to find out what went wrong. The episode was a baffling, unforced error in presidential symbolism, hardly a small part of the presidency, and the moment at which yet another of the old political maxims that Obama had sought to transcend – the Democrats’ vulnerability on national security – reasserted itself.

via Democrats’ worst nightmare: Terrorism on their watch – Ben Smith and Carol E. Lee – POLITICO.com.

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