Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, receives Sheikh Abdullatif Aal Al-Sheikh, chief of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai'a), and his team in Jeddah, Sunday. The Hai'a chief congratulated him on his selection as the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince complimented the Hai'a for its services to society and prayed to Almighty Allah for the continued preservation of the Kingdom's security and stability. — SPA Ahmad Abdullah Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Several rioters were arrested after they allegedly broke into the premises of a court in the Qatif governorate of the Eastern Province late Saturday and torched the plastic shades covering the area. Firefighters were able to douse the fire in time and prevented it from spreading. Security sources said the arrested arsonists admitted to their sabotage act. Sources put the number of arrested at five, including one individual apprehended in Saihat for encouraging acts of vandalism. The instigators of the Al-Awamiyah unrest are playing into the hands of a foreign government to provoke security forces and drag them into direct confrontation. These instigators, sources said, are then spreading all kinds of canards on social networks and other media tools. On Friday, a gunman was killed during an attack on a police station and four security personnel were wounded in a separate assault on their patrols in the same region. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has hit out at a Russian official for his remarks on security issues in the Eastern Province, saying his comments were a “blatant interference” in the internal affairs of the Kingdom. It accused Konstantin Dolgov, Russian Foreign Ministry's Commissioner for Human Rights, of diverting attention from the “massacres” that were being committed by Moscow's ally, Damascus, in Syria. Saudi Arabia “noted with strong disapproval” remarks by Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry said in a late Saturday statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. Dolgov's statement last week had expressed “great concerns” over clashes in Qatif governorate. The Kingdom said it has always “refrained from interfering in Russia's affairs and policies toward unrest within its borders that has killed many. “The Kingdom hopes that such strange remarks do not aim at diverting attention from the brutal and savage massacres the Syrian regime is committing against its people with support from well-known parties that set obstacles in the face of any effort to end bloodshed in Syria.” — With input from agencies
