The world's most luxurious rail station... that the King of Saudi Arabia has ordered to be built in just four years

Commuters on London Underground will no doubt cast an envious eye at these pictures of what will shortly become the world's most luxurious metro system.

Looking more like the inside of five-star hotel, the proposed network, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will boast a space age design featuring marbled walkways, gold-plated walls and, naturally in one of the hottest places on earth, air conditioning.

The facade will apparently be designed to let in light while keeping out the harsh desert sun, while the overall shape is meant to recall the country's wind-blown sand dunes.

Amazingly, the new six-line network has been ordered to be completed by the ruling King Abdullah in just four years - the amount of time it took builders in New York to renovate just one station.

Saudi official: Kingdom 'warned the United States IN WRITING about Boston Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2012

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012, long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and injured hundreds, according to a senior Saudi government official with direct knowledge of the document.

As many as 4 million Muslims make pilgrimages annually to the Grand mosque in the city of Mecca. Tsarnaev sought to join them for an 'Umrah' journey, a trip that happens outside of the month reserved for the annual Hajj

The Saudi warning, the official told MailOnline, was separate from the multiple red flags raised by Russian intelligence in 2011, and was based on human intelligence developed independently in Yemen.

Citing security concerns, the Saudi government also denied an entry visa to the elder Tsarnaev brother in December 2011, when he hoped to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the source said. Tsarnaev's plans to visit Saudi Arabia have not been previously disclosed.

I can assure you that the last has still not been heard of these brothers. We shall see

Actor Omar ordered out of country because his good looks would drive women to distraction

Criminal looks: The internet is awash with speculation that this is the man who was kicked out of Saudi Arabia for being too handsome

The internet is awash with speculation that this is the man who was kicked out of Saudi Arabia for being too handsome. 

Omar Borkan Al Gala, a poet, actor, and photographer from Dubai, is reported to be one of three men removed from a festival in Riyadh earlier this month by religious police in the conservative Islamic kingdom.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices in Saudi - where there are strict rules governing interaction between men and women who aren't related - had the men deported back to Abu Dhabi in case women should 'fall for them'.

A report in Arabic newspaper Elaph which said: 'A festival official said the three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they are too handsome and that the Commission [for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices] members feared female visitors could fall for them.'

His identity was revealed by Jezebel who reported that he had been deported back to United Arab Emirates.

Sex parties, a gym and a spa: Inside the Saudi prisons where terrorists caught in Saudi Arabia are sent

Islamic terrorists – some of whom fought and killed British soldiers in Afghanistan - caught in Saudi Arabia are to receive 'luxury rehabilitation'.

The conservative oil rich state is hoping to steer jailed al-Qaeda militants away from religious extremism with counselling, spa treatments and exercise at a luxury rehabilitation centre in Riyadh, news agencies there are reporting.

The luxury facilities, which the country has spared no expense on providing, include Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a gym and a television hall. 

For those who have shown signs of good behaviour, two day breaks may be granted for those who wish proximity with their wives, in special 'suites' which are part of the complex.

The program will accommodate around 3,000 prisoners in 5 centres in the kingdom but it is the new facility in Riyadh, however, which is to offer prisoners a 'taste of luxury as an incentive to moderate their beliefs'.

Won't you love to be a terrorist!?

Bizzare: Three men deported from Saudi Arabia for being 'too irresistible to women'

Three men were forcibly ejected from a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia amid concerns they were 'too handsome' for women to resist.

Religious police in the conservative Islamic kingdom removed the trio, all from the United Arab Emirates, from the Jenadrivah Heritage and Culture Festival in Riyadh on Sunday.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices in Saudi - where there are strict rules governing interaction between men and women who aren't related - had the men deported back to Abu Dhabi in case women should 'fall for them'.

As in seriously!? In this age and time?

Female Liberation: Saudi women are now allowed to cycle?

I am keenly interested in these Arab countries and the way their women are treated. Take Saudi Arabia for instance, the country's religious police are now said to be encouraging women to get on their bikes – even motorised versions.

 Riyadh paper Al-Yawm reports the news of their two-wheeled liberation as if it were some kind of enlightened breakthrough in the social order of a notoriously misogynist state. The deceit is that women, who were always banned from bicycles and motorbikes, are now going places – alone and even under their self-generated power.

In fact, the "unnamed official" who made the announcement added that women will be allowed to pedal only around parks and other "recreational areas". They will also have to be dressed in full Islamic body coverings, and – in a darkly comic stipulation that evokes images of tandems – they will have to be accompanied by a male relative.

So cycling alone, and indeed towards possible gainful employment, will remain illegal, along with voting, many sports, and a host of other basic activities many would consider a human right.

For how long can this continue?

Re: Saudi Arabian paralysis sentence

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a man to be paralysed in retribution for causing the paralysis of a friend when he was 14 years old.

The reported sentencing to paralysis for a Saudi man for a crime he committed as a 14-year-old has been condemned as "grotesque" in some quarters.

The punishment, which was reportedly handed down to 24-year-old Ali al-Khawahir for stabbing his friend in the back 10 years ago is unbelievable and laughable.

Khawahir will be paralysed from the waist down unless he pays 1m Saudi riyals (£177,000) in compensation to the victim, according to Amnesty International, who quoted reports in Saudi Arabian media.

In this age and time, should these kind of judgements be obtained?

NO MERCY: Saudi Arabia executes 7 for juvenile crime despite UN appeal

Saudi Arabia has publicly executed seven men convicted of an armed robbery they committed as minors. The execution was carried out despite a UN appeal for clemency.
The men were executed by a firing squad "as a punishment to them and to deter others" from carrying out similar crimes, the Saudi interior ministry said.

In 2009, the seven were convicted of "forming a gang that carried out several armed robberies and thefts with the help of other people" in 2005 – when they were less than 18 years of age – and sentenced to death.The execution was "implemented a while ago at a public square in Abha," where the defendants were "shot dead," not beheaded as is customary for executions in the kingdom, a witness said.

The men were to be executed a week ago, on March 5, but Saudi King Abdullah’s eldest son reportedly ordered a one-month postponement, promising new investigation.The case came into the spotlight after one of the convicts managed to contact a reporter and claimed he was tortured and threatened into confessing.

Numerous human rights groups have appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt their sentences and review the case. Amnesty International called the execution “sheer brutality.”

The executions came a day after the UN again urged the kingdom to halt its plans to kill the seven, alleging they did not receive a fair trial.

"In countries that have not abolished the death penalty, capital punishment may be imposed only following a trial that complied with fair trial and due process safeguards," said Christof Heyns, the United Nations' special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

Armed robbery is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, along with rape, murder and drug trafficking.The latest executions bring the total number of those killed by the death penalty in Saudi Arabia this year to 26. According to various estimates, the country executed 69 to 76 people in 2012.

Saudi Arabia may replace beheadings with shootings

The Saudi government may abandon public beheading as the form of execution in favor of shooting its criminals, the influential daily Al-Watan daily reported. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the word still practicing beheadings. Crimes including murder, armed robbery, rape, trafficking in drugs and many others are punishable by death in the gulf country, with more than 75 people given capital sentences annually in the past few years.