Word: abdullah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Saud. And Saudi women still can't drive and legally can't even leave the house to shop, let alone get a job, without a male family member's permission. Yet under the guidance of a few members of the Saudi royal family - in particular the current King, Abdullah - the kingdom is slowly changing. Mixed-gender workplaces are becoming more common, especially in banks and good hospitals, where female doctors are not unusual. "People used to say, 'Why is she working? Why does she need the money?' Now they say, 'It takes a woman to solve a problem,'" says Norah...
...Beirut, and got personal during the 2006 war in Lebanon, when Assad implied that the King and other Arab leaders who had criticized the Hizballah raid on Israel that sparked the conflict were "half-men." Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2008, and last year King Abdullah boycotted the Arab League Summit in Damascus. (See pictures of Syria's suspected nuclear reactor...
...King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia doesn't usually travel light. An official visit from the 86-year-old monarch typically involves an entourage large enough to fill at least five jet airliners and includes a mobile medical clinic, a handful of his four wives and 22 children, and an ample selection of senior royal advisers and cabinet ministers...
...fact that the King showed up with just one plane in Damascus on Wednesday didn't seem to faze a beaming Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was waiting at the airport with a red-carpet welcome. Abdullah's visit is a particularly sweet foreign policy triumph for Assad, who became persona non grata after many in the international community accused Syria of involvement in the 2005 car-bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut. In the past year, however, the Syrian leader has hosted a growing number of heads of state and world leaders, including French...
Still, in the short term, Abdullah's visit is at least a sign that the leaders of the Arab Middle East have backed away from a regional confrontation. However, with Israel threatening to shut down Iran's nuclear program the old-fashioned way - by military strikes - if an alliance of Western nations can't do so through negotiations, it's unlikely that peace will hold for long...