Saudi authorities investigate gay wedding

Saudi investigators are grilling some 50 people, mostly expatriates, for allegedly attending a gay wedding in the city of Medina, Agence France-Presse reports. The suspects deny they were attending a gay marriage, which is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, saying they took part in a ceremony to mark the wedding of a Chadian friend, Arab News said. But investigators say that invitations to the February 25 ceremony indicated it was a gay function and point to the suspicious behavior of guests, who fled the venue at the sight of police cars, some leaving their vehicles behind. Police raided a rest house where the ceremony was under way after a tip-off from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, the paper said. One of the two Chadians involved told police that he was "rehearsing for his legal marriage," which was due to take place two days later.