"Some News May Ease Foreigners Fear in Riyadh" Top 5 Page for this destination Riyadh Warnings Or Dangers Tip by anees

shopping, Dinning, or just Hanging out with your friends, male or female friends from opisite gender with being close relative is very normal in any where in the world, but in this city, it can cause headache.
Its becoming more open for group of friends to have lunch or dinner out in one of the hotel or fine restaurants.

Here I've seen this news on Reuters and I think it eases some of the foreigners worries.

Saudi takes steps to curb morality police powers
(Reuters)

14 July 2007

RIYADH - The Saudi Interior Ministry has issued guidelines banning morality police from detaining suspects, after recent deaths in their custody raised questions about the role of the controversial force.

Newspapers reported on Friday and Saturday that the order, which has been distributed to state prosecutors, includes an explicit ban on extracting confessions and inspections of morality police offices to ensure no one is being held there.

The order follows previous efforts to regulate the activities of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, including a royal decree last year that they must deliver suspects to Interior Ministry police officers.

A source close to the affair told Reuters that this week’s order was not intended to be made public. Recent cases have caused embarrassment to the force, which has wide powers to enforce bans on drugs, alcohol and prostitution.

Saudi critics say the body, whose members intervene to stop unrelated men and women from mixing in public and sometimes interrogate people to check if their beliefs fit with Saudi Arabia’s Islamic orthodoxy, is an affront to civil rights.