UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the use of cluster bombs by the Saudi-led coalition against residential neighborhoods in Yemen may amount to a war crime.
Violent protests in Iran against Saudi Arabia's execution of a dissident Shi'ite cleric come as the Islamic Republic is itself preparing a mass execution of Sunni political prisoners.
Imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi—winner of the EU's Sakharov Prize—has suffered fainting spells and deteriorating health owing to his lengthy hunger strike.
The UN resolution on a democratic transition in Syria assumes this can happen under Assad's rule. The US is now openly blocking with Russia over support for the dictatorship.
Human Rights Watch called on the US to cancel a pending arms sale to Saudi Arabia in the absence of serious investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen.
Kurdish strongman Masoud Barzani has invited a Turkish military force into his territory, with the apparent aim of driving the PKK from northern Iraq.
A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh to death for apostasy and abandoning his Muslim faith after he protested the kingdom's religious police.
Saudi Arabia has executed 151 people so far this year, the highest number since 1995—contributing to a global spike in use of the death penalty.
Saudi Arabia's high court upheld the death sentence of Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, found guilty of sedition over Arab Spring protests.
Abdel-Karim al-Khadar, a rights advocate and opponent of Islamist extremism, was senteced to 10 years by a Saudi "anti-terrorist" court for criticizing the regime.
Citing "damning evidence" of war crimes, Amnesty International is calling for the suspension of transfers of certain arms to the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen.
The US Department of Defense announced the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainee Abdul Shalabi to Saudi Arabia, brining the population of the prison camp to 114.
