Saudi offiicals issue warnings about protest
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi officials stepped up warnings Friday over a planned protest that will see women get behind the wheel to challenge male-only driving rules, saying that even online support for the demonstration could be grounds for arrest.
Women who obtained driver’s licenses abroad plan to drive Saturday as part of the protest in Saudi Arabia. Though no specific Saudi law bans women from driving, powerful clerics who hold far-reaching influence over the kingdom’s ruling monarchy enforce the rule.
Saudi Arabia has adopted some reforms in recent years, including allowing women to sit on the national advisory council and a decision by King Abdullah to permit women to vote and run in municipal elections in 2015.
But the driving ban appears to retain the backing of senior clerics, who also refuse to amend codes such as requiring women to obtain a male guardian’s approval to travel.
Clerics warn that “licentiousness” will spread if women drive.
India says 10 injured in shelling on border
SRINAGAR, India – An Indian official says at least 10 civilians have been wounded as Pakistani troops fired guns and mortar shells at more than a dozen Indian border posts overnight in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
A paramilitary officer said Friday, on the customary condition of anonymity, that Indian guards retaliated and an exchange of gunfire lasted several hours.
Local civil administrator Shantmanu says the wounded included four children in three villages. The official uses only one name.
India on Wednesday accused Pakistani troops of firing on at least 50 Indian border posts, calling it the most serious violation of a 2003 cease-fire accord.
The gunfire resumed Thursday night after a lull during the day.
The countries have fought two wars over control of Kashmir, which is divided between them
Small tsunamis hit Japan after big quake
TOKYO – An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck early Saturday off Japan’s east coast, the U.S. Geological Survey said, triggering small tsunamis but causing no apparent damage.
Japan’s meteorological agency said the quake was an aftershock of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck the same area in 2011, killing about 19,000 people and devastating the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.
Tsunamis of up to 15 inches were reported Saturday at four areas along the coast, but a tsunami advisory was lifted less than two hours after the quake.
Japanese television images of harbors showed calm waters. The quake hit at 2:10 a.m. Tokyo time about 170 miles off Fukushima, and it was felt in Tokyo, some 300 miles away.
Associated Press
