Protest in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 15 — Saudi police arrested up to 150 people for staging a rare public protest in the capital to call for reforms in the conservative Islamic kingdom, the interior minister said Wednesday.

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After demonstrators blocked traffic, police fired tear gas and moved in, arresting ''no more than 150 individuals who gathered carrying banners,'' the interior minister, Prince Nayef, told the official Saudi Press Agency. Witnesses had said there were hundreds of protesters, men and women, most of them young.

''What happened was just a limited gathering in al-Olaya street,'' Nayef told the agency. ''They are a small bunch ... this won't happen again.''

I'll bet.