The executions came on the same day a Saudi-led regional coalition ended a ceasefire in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is battling Shiite Houthi rebels.
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Economist agree with the Labor Department, and it is not atypical for jobless claims to rise during the last week of December. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Sheikh Nimr’s supporters say he supported only peaceful demonstrations and eschewed all violent opposition to the government.
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Of the 47 executed, one was a Chadian national while another was Egyptian.
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Reprieve said s heikh Nimr, Ali al-Ribh, Mohammad Shioukh and Mohammad Suweimal were all arrested in 2012 following their involvement in anti-government protests.
The executions took place in the capital, Riyadh, and 12 other cities and towns, the Interior Ministry statement said.
Iran’s foreign ministry had said on Monday it was willing to talk to Saudi Arabia after months of escalating tensions, but any chance of a rapprochement appeared to be derailed on Saturday as officials and clerics lined up to denounce the kingdom.
– Reuters pic, January 2, 2016.Saudi Arabia will pay “a high price” for executing prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr today, Iran’s foreign ministry said.
Activists in the Shia district of Qatif have warned of possible protests in response to the executions. The UK has close ties with Saudi Arabia.
Notably absent from the list, however, was Nimr’s nephew, Ali al-Nimr, whose arrest at the age of 17 and alleged torture during detention sparked condemnation from rights watchdogs and the United States.
The 56-year-old cleric, Nimr Al Nimr, was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in the kingdom’s east, where the Shiite minority complains of marginalisation.
“The execution of Sheikh al-Nimr will have serious consequences and bring about the end of the Al-Saud (royal family’s) rule”, his office said.
Haitham al-Jubouri, another Shiite lawmaker, said “the execution of Mujahid Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by the Saudi terrorist regime represents the beginning of the end of the Saud (ruling family)”.
“Wrong, misled, and mistaken are those who think that the killing will keep us from our rightful demands”, Mohammad al-Nimr tweeted shortly after the media reported the execution of Sheikh Nimr along with 46 other people.
Al-Nimr, who was in his 50s, had been a vocal critic of Bahrain’s monarchy, which forcibly suppressed protests in 2011 with the help of Saudi troops.
“This is an inhumane act that proves the impotence of human rights and democracy in Saudi Arabia”.
“We were expecting and hoping that the voice of moderation and political settlements would prevail”, Mohammed Al Nimr said.
Saudi Arabia has been hit by repeated Islamic State (ISIS) bombing and shooting attacks in 2015, which experts say piled on pressure to carry out harsh reprisals.
Al-Nimr’s brother Mohammed al-Nimr told the Associated Press he is shocked by the move, because “we thought the authorities could adopt a political approach to settle matters without bloodshed”.
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An worldwide rights group which works to abolish the death penalty has condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 people, saying two were teenagers when they were detained.
