<p>Riyadh&#39;s Ritz-Carlton will reopen on February 11, the hotel said Sunday, more than three months after it became a holding place of princes and ministers detained in an anti-corruption purge.</p>

<p>The luxury hotel was closed for business since the unprecedented probe was launched on November 4 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has consolidated his grip on power since his shock appointment as heir to the throne in June.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A hotel receptionist reached by phone confirmed to AFP that room bookings were available from noon on February 11.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Ritz-Carlton&#39;s website had last month listed rooms as available from February 14. On Sunday it showed availability from February 11.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Many of the high-profile suspects, including billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, have been released in recent weeks in exchange for what officials have dubbed financial settlements.</p>

<p>Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb has said that $107 billion has been recovered so far in the crackdown in various forms of assets handed over that included property, securities and cash.</p>

<p>Prince Mohammed, the 32-year-old son of the king, has spearheaded the crackdown on corruption among members of the government and royal family over the past three months.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Some critics have labelled Prince Mohammed&#39;s campaign a shakedown and power grab, but authorities insist the purge targeted endemic corruption as the country prepares for a post-oil era.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


The luxury hotel was closed for business since the unprecedented probe was launched on November 4 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton will reopen on February 11, the hotel said Sunday, more than three months after it became a holding place of princes and ministers detained in an anti-corruption purge. The luxury hotel was closed for business since the unprecedented probe was launched on November 4 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has consolidated his grip on power since his shock appointment as heir to the throne in June. A hotel receptionist reached by phone confirmed to AFP that room bookings were available from noon on February 11. The Ritz-Carlton's website had last month listed rooms as available from February 14. On Sunday it showed availability from February 11. Many of the high-profile suspects, including billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, have been released in recent weeks in exchange for what officials have dubbed financial settlements. Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb has said that $107 billion has been recovered so far in the crackdown in various forms of assets handed over that included property, securities and cash. Prince Mohammed, the 32-year-old son of the king, has spearheaded the crackdown on corruption among members of the government and royal family over the past three months. Some critics have labelled Prince Mohammed's campaign a shakedown and power grab, but authorities insist the purge targeted endemic corruption as the country prepares for a post-oil era.

Riyadh's Ritz 'luxury prison' to reopen on February 1

<p>The luxury Riyadh hotel used as a prison during Saudi Arabia&#39;s crackdown on corruption will reopen for business next month, according to a company employee and its website, suggesting authorities are close to settling the cases of many suspects.</p>

<p>Dozens of princes, senior officials and top businessmen were detained and confined in the opulent Ritz-Carlton Riyadh as the government launched the purge in early November. The hotel was closed to normal business.</p>

<p>On Monday, an employee at the office taking bookings for the hotel, who declined to be named, told by telephone that bookings by the public would be accepted from Feb. 14,&nbsp; Reuters reported.</p>

<p>The hotel&#39;s website now accepts bookings from Feb. 14, quoting a rate for its cheapest room of 2,439 riyals ($650) a night.</p>

<p>Official sources told Reuters earlier that Saudi authorities were close to winding up a major part of the crackdown, which would allow them to return the Ritz-Carlton to normal operations.</p>

<p>(With inputs from Reuters)&nbsp;</p>


Dozens of princes, senior officials and top businessmen were detained and confined in the opulent Ritz-Carlton Riyadh as the government launched the purge in early November.

The luxury Riyadh hotel used as a prison during Saudi Arabia's crackdown on corruption will reopen for business next month, according to a company employee and its website, suggesting authorities are close to settling the cases of many suspects. Dozens of princes, senior officials and top businessmen were detained and confined in the opulent Ritz-Carlton Riyadh as the government launched the purge in early November. The hotel was closed to normal business. On Monday, an employee at the office taking bookings for the hotel, who declined to be named, told by telephone that bookings by the public would be accepted from Feb. 14, Reuters reported. The hotel's website now accepts bookings from Feb. 14, quoting a rate for its cheapest room of 2,439 riyals ($650) a night. Official sources told Reuters earlier that Saudi authorities were close to winding up a major part of the crackdown, which would allow them to return the Ritz-Carlton to normal operations. (With inputs from Reuters)

Saudi hotel to reopen after being used as prison in corruption purge

<p>BBC&#39;s Washington&nbsp;correspondent Paul Wood has<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38589427#pq=RbIoXb"> published </a>what he knows about the explosive allegation that Russia has compromising personal and financial information over Trump.&nbsp;While the BBC opted not to break the story earlier because they hadn&#39;t seen the alleged recordings themselves, if they do in fact exist,&nbsp;Wood adds more&nbsp;details&nbsp;about the allegations.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Wood describes hearing about the alleged tapes through as many as four sources. It is not clear whether these sources got their information from the same place.&nbsp;The claims here are still allegations.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Wood says &quot;The CIA finds it credible that the Kremlin has such <em>Kompromat</em>--or compromising material--on the next US commander in chief&quot;, and that&nbsp;there is also a joint task force comprising of the CIA and FBI investigating whether Russia sent money to Trump&#39;s election campaign.</p>

<p>Wood saw the report written by&nbsp;the former British intelligence agent, now identified in various world media as&nbsp;Chistopher Steele,&nbsp;alleging&nbsp;that Trump was filmed with a group of prostitutes in the presidential suite of Moscow&#39;s Ritz-Carlton hotel. He states that the BBC decided not to break the story when he was shown the report, which was in the week of the election,&nbsp;because they had not seen the alleged tapes, if such tapes&nbsp;do in fact exist.</p>

<p>The opposition research that prompted Steele&#39;s investigation&nbsp;was initially funded by an anti-Trump super pac (political&nbsp;action committee) during the Republican primaries, but then was funded by an anomyous Democratic Party supporter.</p>

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<h5>He got a message back: there was &quot;more than one tape&quot;, &quot;audio and video&quot;, on &quot;more than one date&quot;, in &quot;more than one place&quot;, and that the material was &quot;of a sexual nature&quot;.</h5>
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<p>While Trump was relentless in his criticism of these reports, likening his&nbsp;situation&nbsp;to&nbsp;Nazi Germany&nbsp;and calling them &quot;sick people [who] put that crap together&quot;, Wood says &quot;these are not political hacks&quot;.</p>

<p>Nobody, not even Trump, disputes that the intelligence briefing describing the above allegations&nbsp;were definitely brought to the attention of President Obama&nbsp;and, indeed, even Donald Trump. But the allegations in the report remain unverified.</p>

<p>Wood points out that both the Washington Post and the New York Times report that the allegations were sufficiently credible to be brought to the attention of the president. On the night&nbsp;the main tape was supposedly made,&nbsp;in 2013, Trump appeared on television in Moscow&nbsp;attending his Miss Universe competition.</p>

<p>Wood does not characterise this as a political hack. He says Christopher Steele&#39;s line of research is &quot;country analysis and commercial risk assessment&quot;, and that Steele&nbsp;&quot;apparently&quot; gave the dossier he collected on Trump to the FBI against the wishes of the firm who employed him.&nbsp;As early as August, Wood was told of this claim&nbsp;by a retired spy, who learned it from&nbsp;the &quot;head of an East European intelligence agency&quot;.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Wood used a go-between to pass questions along to the CIA officers tasked with this file. He got a message back: there was &quot;more than one tape&quot;, &quot;audio and video&quot;, on &quot;more than one date&quot;, in &quot;more than one place&quot;, and that the material was &quot;of a sexual nature&quot;.</p>

<p>Wood says that a Russian specialist says FSB agents are prone to boasting about public figures on which they have tapes. A CIA officer who spoke to Wood said he spoke to an FSB agent, who concluded,&nbsp;&quot;it&#39;s hokey as hell&quot;.</p>

<p>There are&nbsp;still&nbsp;ongoing inter-agency investigations looking into Trump&#39;s connection with Russian money, and it&#39;s not clear what will come of the&nbsp;task force investigating&nbsp;Trump under Trump&#39;s presidency. They may not be allowed to work.</p>

<p>Russia has denied all accusations, and so has Trump. Wood says that Michael Hayden, the former head of both the CIA and NSA, referred to Trump as a &quot;polezni durak&quot;-- a useful fool.</p>

<p>During the election, Clinton called Trump a &quot;puppet&quot; of Russia&#39;s leader Vladimir Putin.</p>

<p>Wood points out that a New York Times opinion&nbsp;piece from the summer written by former CIA director Michael Morrell wrote, &quot;In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr Putin had recruited Mt Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation&quot;.</p>

<p>Wood closed the piece declaring Americans will need to look at all the facts and judge for themselves.</p>

<p>(WION)</p>


The BBC correspondent, who before the election had seen the report alleging Russia had compromising info on Trump, describes what he knows

BBC's Washington correspondent Paul Wood has published what he knows about the explosive allegation that Russia has compromising personal and financial information over Trump. While the BBC opted not to break the story earlier because they hadn't seen the alleged recordings themselves, if they do in fact exist, Wood adds more details about the allegations. Wood describes hearing about the alleged tapes through as many as four sources. It is not clear whether these sources got their information from the same place. The claims here are still allegations. Wood says "The CIA finds it credible that the Kremlin has such Kompromat--or compromising material--on the next US commander in chief", and that there is also a joint task force comprising of the CIA and FBI investigating whether Russia sent money to Trump's election campaign. Wood saw the report written by the former British intelligence agent, now identified in various world media as Chistopher Steele, alleging that Trump was filmed with a group of prostitutes in the presidential suite of Moscow's Ritz-Carlton hotel. He states that the BBC decided not to break the story when he was shown the report, which was in the week of the election, because they had not seen the alleged tapes, if such tapes do in fact exist. The opposition research that prompted Steele's investigation was initially funded by an anti-Trump super pac (political action committee) during the Republican primaries, but then was funded by an anomyous Democratic Party supporter. He got a message back: there was "more than one tape", "audio and video", on "more than one date", in "more than one place", and that the material was "of a sexual nature". × While Trump was relentless in his criticism of these reports, likening his situation to Nazi Germany and calling them "sick people [who] put that crap together", Wood says "these are not political hacks". Nobody, not even Trump, disputes that the intelligence briefing describing the above allegations were definitely brought to the attention of President Obama and, indeed, even Donald Trump. But the allegations in the report remain unverified. Wood points out that both the Washington Post and the New York Times report that the allegations were sufficiently credible to be brought to the attention of the president. On the night the main tape was supposedly made, in 2013, Trump appeared on television in Moscow attending his Miss Universe competition. Wood does not characterise this as a political hack. He says Christopher Steele's line of research is "country analysis and commercial risk assessment", and that Steele "apparently" gave the dossier he collected on Trump to the FBI against the wishes of the firm who employed him. As early as August, Wood was told of this claim by a retired spy, who learned it from the "head of an East European intelligence agency". Wood used a go-between to pass questions along to the CIA officers tasked with this file. He got a message back: there was "more than one tape", "audio and video", on "more than one date", in "more than one place", and that the material was "of a sexual nature". Wood says that a Russian specialist says FSB agents are prone to boasting about public figures on which they have tapes. A CIA officer who spoke to Wood said he spoke to an FSB agent, who concluded, "it's hokey as hell". There are still ongoing inter-agency investigations looking into Trump's connection with Russian money, and it's not clear what will come of the task force investigating Trump under Trump's presidency. They may not be allowed to work. Russia has denied all accusations, and so has Trump. Wood says that Michael Hayden, the former head of both the CIA and NSA, referred to Trump as a "polezni durak"-- a useful fool. During the election, Clinton called Trump a "puppet" of Russia's leader Vladimir Putin. Wood points out that a New York Times opinion piece from the summer written by former CIA director Michael Morrell wrote, "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr Putin had recruited Mt Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation". Wood closed the piece declaring Americans will need to look at all the facts and judge for themselves. (WION)

Four sources to possible claims of Trump-Russia blackmail: BBC's Paul Wood

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Riyadh's Ritz 'luxury prison' to reopen on February 1

Saudi hotel to reopen after being used as prison in corruption purge

Four sources to possible claims of Trump-Russia blackmail: BBC's Paul Wood