Experts tell us the North American shale oil boom is responsible for low prices despite Middle East unrest. But the price slump serves Western aims of weakening Russia and Iran.
A failed US commando raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen comes as Saudi Arabia has suspended aid to the country in response to the growing power of Shi'ite Houthi militants.
Hundreds of thousands from across Saudi Arabia converged on a village for the funeral for victims of a sectarian attack, chanting "Sunnis and Shi'ites, we are brothers!"
Saudi Arabian rights activists reported that authorities had arrested Suad al-Shamari, a prominent women's rights advocate, for insulting Islam.
A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced three lawyers to between five and eight years in prison for accusing the country's justice system of arbitrary detentions on Twitter.
Sh'iite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was convicted of sedition and other charges in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to death—posing greater sectarian tensions in the Gulf states.
Amnesty International charges that Saudi Arabia is persecuting activists and government critics, especially targeting the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association.
Warplanes flying from the USS George HW Bush carried out the first US air-strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, with planes from five Arab countries also participating in the raids.
The Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against ISIS that may take three years to complete, involving a coalition of some 40 countries.
Saudi Arabia carried out a sweep of suspected terrorists as ISIS threatened to take Mecca and destroy the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, calling it a bastion of idolatry.
Border Guard patrols along Saudi Arabia's rugged mountain frontier with Yemen report mounting interceptions of hashish, weapons and other contraband.
The capture of an ISIS commander by the Lebanese army prompted Syrian jihadist forces to seize a village in the Bekaa Valley, sparking gun battles that have left some 20 dead.
