A controversy over the spending of millions of dollars on a overseas businessman’s farm in Saudi Arabia has boiled over in Parliament with accusations of bribery.

New Zealand spent more than $11.5 million to help establish a demonstration farm in Saudi Arabia - but does not have any contractual rights to access it.

Saudi Arabia has executed 85 people so far in 2015, already almost hitting the total number for 2014.

Spending millions of dollars on a Saudi businessman's farm was not "compensation" paid to clear the way for a free trade deal, officials say.

Prime Minister John Key has met dignitaries and enjoyed a Burger Fuel meal in Kuwait, on the final stop of his Gulf States tour.

Prime Minister John Key has met with the Saudi Arabian king and raised the issue of human rights.

Agency and United States military personnel have been pulled out of Yemen amid escalating sectarian violence in recent weeks.

Except for the machine guns and guard towers, the al-Hair high-security prison for terrorists looks remarkably like a hotel - especially the conjugal-visit wing.

Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger whose punishment of 1000 lashes prompted international condemnation, may now face the death penalty.

Enjoy low oil prices while they last, though how long that will be is anyone's guess, writes Brian Fallow.

A Saudi historian has sparked outrage by claiming Western women drive cars because they do not care if they are “raped by the roadside”.

Saudi officials deny they blurred out US First Lady Michelle Obama, but her decision not to wear a headscarf, and don blue, not black at the late King's funeral, is controversial.

The things you have to do to keep on side with your oil merchant, writes Brian Rudman. Wouldn't a card and pohutukawa blossoms been enough for the Saudi king?

Did the PM realise it would happen as Auckland was celebrating its 175th anniversary? The tribute to the King that he issued suggests his advisers were not giving much thought to the gestures.

He ruled over one of the most repressive regimes in the world - so why were the flags on the Harbour Bridge flying at half mast for the late Saudi King?

Late Saudi King Abdullah was hailed as "a strong advocate for women" - so why are four of his daughters reportedly under house arrest?

The international outcry over restrictions on freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia escalated as an array of Nobel prizewinners published an open letter calling on the country's academics to condemn the public flogging of the blogger Raif Badawi.

The oil price decline of 2014 upended the geopolitical chessboard. Worth watching in 2015 will be who can recover and dominate play - Opec, Vladimir Putin or US shale drillers.

The site in Mecca where the Prophet Mohamed is said to have been born is about to be "buried under marble".

Saudi Arabia will need to keep cutting oil output to sustain prices above $100 a barrel as global oil demand weakens, analysts say.

Saudi Arabia is removing barriers on one of the world's most-restricted major stock exchanges as the government tries to boost non-oil industries.

Saudi Arabia has warned against Western or regional intervention in Iraq, as the country's ambassador to London joined international calls for a new government to be established in Baghdad.

A prominent Saudi cleric has sparked outrage by saying that online conversations between men and women are religiously forbidden.

Saudi Arabia has introduced a series of new laws which define atheists as terrorists, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.

China carries out more executions than any other country, a new report has estimated.

The royal put on a particularly awkward display when he indulged in a spot of knife dancing at the start of his three-day tour of the Middle East.