CNN is following the story of Fawza Falih, currently detained in Quraiyat Prison, set to be executed for "witchcraft."

Reacting to the sentence, Human Rights Watch said in a media release:

"The religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence against absurd charges that have no basis in law."

Check out the letter HRW sent to Saudi King Abdullah here.

Watch CNN's report on the case here.

It was raining today in Beirut, and rival factions in Lebanon gathered on the streets of the country's capital to mourn their slain leaders.

In Martyr's Square, at the heart of the pristine, rebuilt center of Beirut, tens of thousands of March 14th supporters chanted and held up placards in honor of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, assassinated this day three years ago.

Meanwhile, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, there was a sea of umbrellas as Hezbollahs supporters showed their own strength in numbers on the day of the funeral of an accused terrorist mastermind who was killed in a car bomb in Damascus earlier this week.




There are many intertwined fault lines in Lebanon today.


One clash opposes the pro-Western, Siniora government against the pro-Syrian Shiite Hezbollah faction. This has has caused a seemingly intractable deadlock on the election of a Lebanese president and heightened sectarian tensions.

Another dangerous threat to Lebanon's stability: extremist Sunni forces, that came to the world's attention last June in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr El-Bared. They battled the Lebanese army for weeks and are suspected of planting roadside bombs targetting U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon.

And finally, the possibility of another Hezbollah-Israel war seems closer today than even a few days ago. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to avenge the death of Imad Mughniyeh and has blamed Israel for his killing. Israel denies any involvement.

Why the country has not yet descended into chaos may be down to the factional leaders, who are still in command of their followers. They may not see that it is in anyone's interest for another internicine conflict in Lebanon.

But what happens if the country's youth let their frustrations boil over?

What do you think of the events in Lebanon? Email us at mideast@cnn.com or add a comment below.

On this Valentine's Day Eve, here is reaction from Saudi Arabia on the religious police's ban of red roses - and all things red - on February 14th.

A flower retailer there tells CNN religious police sometimes try to "entrap" vendors by using foreign visitors :

“In one particular case, in a sweets store, the Religious Police went in ahead of time – they sent an expat in and tried to get the retailer to sell them a heart shaped box. The expat pleaded with the vendor – who had hidden away all the red and all the heart shaped boxes. The vendor felt bad for the expat and agreed to sell him a heart shaped box. Once that happened, the religious police arrested the vendor.”

-- Thanks to CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom for the update.

(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia has asked florists and gift shops to remove all red items until after Valentine's Day, calling the celebration of such a holiday a sin, local media reported Monday.

With a ban on red gift items over Valentine's Day in Saudi Arabia, a black market in red roses has flowered.

"As Muslims we shouldn't celebrate a non-Muslim celebration, especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women, " Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari, a scholar in Islamic studies, told the Saudi Gazette, an English-language newspaper.

Every year, officials with the conservative Muslim kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice clamp down on shops a few days before February 14, instructing them to remove red roses, red wrapping paper, gift boxes and teddy bears. On the eve of the holiday, they raid stores and seize symbols of love.

The virtue and vice squad is a police force of several thousand charged with, among other things, enforcing dress codes and segregating the sexes. Saudi Arabia, which follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism, punishes unrelated women and men who mingle in public.

Ahmed Al-Omran, a university student in Riyadh, told CNN that the government decision will give the international media another reason to make fun of the Saudis "but I think that we got used to that by now."

"I think what they are doing is ridiculous," said Al-Omran, who maintains the blog 'Saudi Jeans.' "What the conservatives in this country need to learn is something called 'tolerance.' If they don't see the permissibility of celebrating such an occasion, then fine -- they should not celebrate it. But they have to know they have no right to impose their point of view on others."

Because of the ban on red roses, a black market has flowered ahead of Valentine's Day. Roses that normally go for five Saudi riyal ($1.30) fetch up to 30 riyal ($8) on February 14, the Saudi Gazette said.

"Sometimes we deliver the bouquets in the middle of the night or early morning, to avoid suspicion," one florist told the paper.

CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report

From 1991 to 2003, the Iraqi flag looked very similar to the post invasion design, except that the Takbir was allegedly printed in Saddam Hussein's handwriting:

From 1963 to 1991, the Iraqi flag featured the same three colored stripes with three stars and no coranic script. The second longest lasting Iraqi flag looked like this:

Although the new emblem is still controversial, the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan raised the new flag today. "God is Great" (sans stars) is now hovering over the Kurdish Parliament, despite the fact that many Kurds wanted a different design, that included a yellow sun, symbolizing their ethnic minority.

There's been a lot of flag angst in Iraq, not least when in 2004, the US-controlled Iraqi Governing Council proposed this model, designed in London, and rejected en masse by Iraqis:





How long will the newest design last? Does it symbolize Iraqi unity?

The only people in Iraq who are 100% happy with the new emblem may just be the country's flagmakers.

-- Posted by Hala Gorani