Saudi police beat us up, say British Shia pilgrims - Independent Online Edition > Middle East: "A group of British and American Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca say they were illegally detained and brutally beaten by Saudi religious police. The men, who suffered physical mistreatment as well as verbal abuse during their incarceration, claim they were arrested because they are Shia and Westerners. The Foreign Office is expected to raise the matter with the Saudi government although the authorities in the country say they have already started an investigation. The eight men were among a group of 35 British and American nationals on a two-week visit to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina when they were arrested. They say the religious police, a powerful force in the Sunni kingdom, waded in after an argument developed between the group and a Sunni worshipper at a shrine. The men, now back in this country, claim the police repeatedly struck them with chair legs, sticks and heavy hand-held radios."
Video: Israeli soldiers fire tear gas at 6-year-old children on their way to school The new school year started four days ago in the occupied West Bank, and Israeli soldiers have fired tear gas and hurled stun grenades at Palestinian elementary school students on at least two occasions already. In the Nablus -area village of Burin , which is surrounded by illegal Jewish-only Israeli settlements , Israeli forces stormed an elementary school Wednesday, firing tear gas and stun grenades at students after a settler’s vehicle traveling nearby the school was allegedly hit with a rock thrown by a Palestinian youth. Many children were treated at the scene for tear-gas inhalation, reported Ma’an News Agency . One day earlier, Israeli forces in Hebron fired up to 15 tear gas canisters and five stun grenades at small children as they made their way to school Tuesday morning. Video of the attack — recorded and posted to YouTube by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)...
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