Saudi women monitored with electronic tracking

Denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving, women in Saudi Arabia are now monitored by an electronic system that tracks any cross-border movements.

Since last week, Saudi women's male guardians began receiving text messages on their phones informing them when women under their custody leave the country, even if they are travelling together.

Manal al-Sherif, who became the symbol of a campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy a driving ban, began spreading the information on Twitter, after she was alerted by a couple.

The husband, who was travelling with his wife, received a text message from the immigration authorities informing him that his wife had left the international airport in Riyadh.

"The authorities are using technology to monitor women," said columnist Badriya al-Bishr, who criticised the "state of slavery under which women are held" in the ultra-conservative kingdom. Read more >>

MI6 Recruited Underpants Bomber

A double agent allegedly recruited by MI5 and MI6 was a British passport holder, according to American media reports. The man is said to be from the Middle East, but to have grown up in Europe and become a British citizen.

UK and Saudi agents were involved in penetrating a plot by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to detonate a sophisticated underwear bomb aboard an American jetliner, NBC said, citing unnamed security sources. The alleged bomber has not been identified publicly. Officials said the bomb - a refined version of an "underwear bomb" used in two previous failed plots - was driven from Yemen to Saudi Arabia and was being examined by US experts at FBI labs in Virginia.

British officials were reportedly left "slack-jawed" by the leaks and detailed reported in the US media, the Times reported, quoting Whitehall officials. MI5 recruited the agent and MI6 coordinated with Saudi intelligence, who had already infiltrated the Yemen-based group, the Daily Telegraph said. More...