Two men have received the first round of their allotted 7,000 lashes for the crime of sodomy in the city of Baaha, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, the Australian News Network reports. Andy Towle picked up the story and ran it this morning — you can even see my comment there, right before the discussion devolves into whether Kurds have huge phalluses .

The ANN cites Al-Okaz (العكاظ) newspaper as its source — I surveyed their Web site this morning in an attempt to find the original article, but was unsuccessful (unfortunately, most of the words that I know that would clue me in aren’t the sorts of words that would appear in a big, bold headline in a Saudi newspaper — I’m not skilled enough to find subtle references in headlines).

Just a friendly reminder that as much as people got up in arms about Joe Bob Amhadinejad’s remark about “There are no gays in Iran,” there’s another country that we give loads of money to right next door that’s actively working to get rid of theirs …

Tags: gay-rights, iran, media, newspapers, Saudi Arabia