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...strict religious and social conservatism that dates to the 18th century pact made between Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, a puritanical preacher, and the founder of the Saud dynasty Mohammed ibn Saud. And many conservatives resent the social changes the King is pushing. "Those around King Abdullah use his peaceful positions to impose secular values," says conservative cleric Mohsen al-Awajy. "But Saudi society is a special, tribal society, and neither King Abdullah or anyone else can impose his own interpretation of Islam. They can do nothing without Islam. There is no Saudi Arabia without Islam. There is no royal...
Some democracy activists argue that Saudi rulers could do more, but use religion as an excuse for the slow pace of reform. "The idea is to delay the reforms based on the idea that society wouldn't accept drastic changes," says Mohammad al-Qahtani, a reform advocate and professor at the Saudi Foreign Ministry's diplomatic training institute. Awadh al-Badi, a political scientist at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, says the reason that King Abdullah and the royal family are still cautious on women's rights is that they themselves are products of Saudi culture...
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs made matters worse by repeatedly answering questions about the Administration's position on the "use of federal dollars for abortion" by insisting that federal law already prohibits the practice. Gibbs was referring to the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal dollars for abortions under Medicaid, with exceptions for rape and incest. But the law is only limited to Medicaid, and Gibbs' insistence that existing law prohibits direct federal funding of abortion continues to rankle many Catholics...
Read "Why Obama Won't Use the M-Word for Honduras' Coup...
...plan was unsurprisingly rubber-stamped this week by the Moscow City Council, which is dominated by Luzhkov's supporters. The city's Department of Housing and Public Works described how it would work: the air force would use cement powder, dry ice or silver iodide to spray the clouds from Nov. 15 to March 15 - and only to prevent "very big and serious snow" from falling on the city, said Andrei Tsybin, head of the department. This could mean that a few flakes will manage to slip through the cracks. Tsybin estimated that the total cost of keeping the storms...