U.S. State Dept: Armenia among world’s safest countries for travel

January 11, 2018 By administrator

The US Department of State has listed Armenia among the countries where tourists can travel without taking special security measures.

In its latest Travel Advisories for US Travelers, it has rated the country as a destination with the lowest safety and security risk.

Armenia thus appears on Level 1, where travelers are recommended to only exercise normal precaution. The list also includes Georgia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Liberia and Chile.

Countries such as France, United Kingdom and Spain are on Level 2, which warns of heightened risks to safety and security, recommending increased caution.

Russia is on Level 3, i.e. – the group of countries where tourists are advised to avoid visiting. The Department recommends consulting the Advisory for additional information for travelers in those areas. Earlier, Turkey, Nigeria, Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras were on the list.

Level 4 comprises the “Do Not Travel” list which highlights a “greater likelihood of life-threatening risks”. This year it includes Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Libya, Mali, Somali, South Sudan and Central Africa.

Saudi liberal gets 10 years in jail, 1,000 lashes

May 8, 2014 By administrator

RIYADH – Agence France-Presse
A woman activist steps out of her car after driving on a highway in Riyadh. Raef Badawi’s network had announced a ‘day of liberalism’ and called for an end to the influence of religion on public life in Saudi Arabia. AP Photo
A Saudi court sentenced Raef Badawi, the founder of a human rights group, to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes May 8 over “insulting Islam,” an activist said.

Badawi, who has been behind bars since June 2012, has also been ordered to pay a fine of one million riyals, said the head of the network, Suad al-Shamari.

“He is a prisoner of conscience,” said Shamari, pointing out that there is “no criminal charge against him.””The ruling is unjust,” she told AFP.

Badawi was sentenced in July 2013 to more than seven years in jail, in addition to 600 lashes, for insulting Islam, the religion of the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Concretely, the founder of the Saudi Liberal Network had criticised the role of the notorious religious police. But an appeals court overturned the ruling, sending the case back for retrial.

Prior to his arrest, Badawi’s network had announced a “day of liberalism” and called for an end to the influence of religion on public life in Saudi Arabia.

Shamari said the network’s website had “criticised some clerics, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (religious police), in addition to religious fatwas (edicts) considered harmful to Islam.”

She said the government was not behind prosecuting Badawi, stressing that “clerics have filed a lawsuit against him.”

“The government tries to appease them (clerics) at our expense sometimes,” she lamented. The Saudi Liberal Network has been active only online, Shamari said. “Our activities remain virtual.”
May/08/2014

1,400 Saudi militants fight in Syria: Report

February 9, 2014 By administrator

Some 1,400 Saudi Arabian citizens have joined foreign-backed militant groups which are fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a report says.

Saudi Arabia’s newspaper Al Watan said in a recent report that most Saudi militants, who have poured into Syria after the outbreak of the crisis in 2011, are teenagers.

The report added that around 20 percent of the Saudi militants who have returned home say they had been deceived into fighting with the Syrian government.

In December 2013, the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) released a report which indicated that between 3,300 and 11,000 militants from over 70 countries have been fighting against the Syrian government from late 2011 to December 10, 2013.

“These figures include those who are currently present (in Syria) as well as those who have since returned home, been arrested or killed,” said ICSR, which is a partnership of five universities based at King’s College London.

Eighty percent of the foreign militants are Arabs and Europeans, mostly from France and Britain, ICSR added.

According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are supporting the militants fighting in Syria since the deadly violence erupted in March 2011.

Source: PressTV