RIYADH (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss efforts to put pressure on Iran, stabilize Yemen and to urge the Saudis to engage with Iraq ahead of the U.S. withdrawal. Gates, fresh from a three-day visit to Afghanistan, also may discuss Kabul's attempts to pursue reconciliation with Taliban insurgents. U.S. defense ...

Sunni Islam's top cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, died on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia of a heart attack suffered while boarding a plane, Egyptian officials and state media said. Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning -- was in Riyadh to attend the King Faisal awards ceremony, the official MENA news agency said. Tantawi ...

Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning -- died on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia of a heart attack, the official MENA news agency reported. Tantawi, 81, was in Riyadh to attend the King Faisal awards ceremony, it said. He died in the Saudi Arabian capital "after a sudden heart attack," MENA said.

Saudi security forces confiscated books of a well-known reformer and critic of the royal family from stalls at the kingdom's annual international book fair, a Saudi civil rights group said Saturday. The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association said in a statement that Saudi security officers stormed a ...