Word: fahd
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...Fahd's personal wealth, built on a fee levied on every barrel of oil extracted from Saudi land before 1980, is estimated at $18 billion, second only to the wealth of the Sultan of Brunei ($25 billion). He boasts at least 12 royal palaces, ranging from the $2.5 billion Al-Yamamah Palace complex in Riyadh to a "cottage" four times the size of the White House in Marbella, Spain. He owns several jets and yachts, all with gold bathroom faucets; his main yacht, a $60 million craft, is escorted by a vessel that carries Stinger antiaircraft missiles. His fleet...
...Though Fahd's views are tinged with superstition -- he follows the advice of astrologers -- he keeps the Koran at his bedside. He suffers from diabetes, back trouble, a weakness of the heart and shortness of breath, but still chain-smokes Marlboros. He has tried repeatedly, with varying success, to lose weight by methods ranging from diets to occasional visits to a Swiss fat farm...
...Fahd's work habits are erratic. He will disappear for several weeks to relax at one of his houses abroad or on one of his yachts, then return to plow through all the work that has piled up in his absence. He sleeps during the day and often starts work at 11 p.m., then receives top officials and foreign envoys until 6 a.m. Some he keeps waiting for hours while he chats or watches a videotape -- the result not of discourtesy but of a lack of any sense of time pressure. Though his attentions are confined to his wives...
...Fahd's admiration for the U.S. goes back to 1945, when he attended the San Francisco convention that founded the United Nations and became so fascinated by the country that he wanted to stay. He sent all his sons to American colleges, and he stays tuned to CNN on TV sets scattered through his palaces. Nonetheless, the presence of American troops cannot help intensifying the pressures on the kingdom to come further out of its isolation and into the modern world. Whether that can be done while maintaining the system of semifeudal family rule that Fahd has so far adroitly...
...group of Saudi commoners telling their prince outright that the country needed to be shaken up? Preposterous. But these are extraordinary times, as the small group of businessmen pointed out during a meeting two weeks ago with Prince Salman, governor of Riyadh and younger brother and confidant of King Fahd. "This is the biggest challenge we have ever faced," said one entrepreneur, mindful of the menacing forces of Saddam Hussein gathered just 300 miles to the north. Said another, summoning his courage: "We have to confront our internal issues...