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January 26, 2015

Obama to Head to Saudi Arabia to Meet New King 
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President Obama is cutting his trip to India short in order to visit
Saudi Arabia to pay respects following the death of King Abdullah and to
meet Saudi Arabia's new king, Salman. Over the weekend, many world
leaders traveled to Saudi Arabia to offer condolences, including Russian
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, British Prime Minister David Cameron,
French President François Hollande and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi. Meanwhile, human rights groups are urging the new king to
pardon dissident blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in
prison and 1,000 lashes for charges including insulting Islam.

Christophe Deloire, general secretary of Reporters Without Borders:
"There can be different kings. The religious police, they succeed to
control the whole country, to control information in that country. They
succeed to condemn journalists, bloggers, to put them in jails, to
inflict them penalties with lashes. So we hope that international
pressure in that case, in the Raif Badawi case, will be a success and
that the new king, Salman, will pardon Raif Badawi and that really
things will change in that country."

 

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