Meeting Saudi Arabia's 'Mr. Everything'
Diplomats call him “Mr Everything” and this, I thought, might just be my chance to meet him, or at least get a close-up look for the first time.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is one of Saudi Arabia’s most dynamic and powerful figures.
“You are invited by the royal court”, an Information Ministry official told me cryptically in a Saturday phone call, without mentioning the prince.
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A story of grief, poverty and pain
Huda stares at the three photographs hanging on her living-room wall.
“The loss has torn my heart apart,” she says to me.
Huda’s husband Abdul Karim al-Suwaid and her two eldest sons, Mohammed and Jumaa, were killed on August 28, 2012 in government airstrikes on the local Kfar Nabel marketplace where they worked.
Huda’s husband owned a butcher’s shop in the market, which he ran with his 20 and 19 years old sons.
“The regime’s air force destroyed my life. I am now a widow, and my remaining children are now orphans,” said 45-year-old Huda.
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Iraqis mock leaders for grieving over damaged sofa
Iraq's prime minister and speaker of house have become the laughingstock of the nation after images were published of them staring solemnly at a white couch that was littered with water bottles and stained with blood when hundreds of protesters stormed into parliament on Saturday.
In response, hundreds of Iraqis have posted images on social media of themselves similarly standing, and grieving over their own sofas, lampooning the politicians' concern over the sofa as Iraq continues to be embroiled with bloodshed and instability.
Continue reading on The New Arab
