Word: kingdoms
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...here is the wonderful twist. Britain's dramatic artists have often found their strength in cataloging their kingdom's weaknesses. Now a new generation is raising its collective voice to sing the blahs. This familiar tune was heard in the late 1970s in stage and television drama; it took only a few years for graduates of those media to make their mark in film. Three provocative examples from this year's crop: Wetherby, written and directed by David Hare of the BBC and the National Theater; Dance with a Stranger, written by Playwright Shelagh Delaney (A Taste of Honey...
After weeks of feverish anticipation and frenzied publicity, the world's most glamorous and relentlessly observed twosome arrived in the capital of what was once their kingdom's richest possession. By the time they stepped off their plane on Saturday morning at Andrews Air Force Base, all the RSVPs had been sent out, thank you, and the A list firmly separated from the B. Washington had settled in to gawk and gossip about the royal heroic couplet...
...country where women are not allowed to drive, let alone vote, Saudi Arabia's top religious leader took one small step toward gender equality last week when he banned the practice of forcing women to marry against their will. Calling such coercion "un-Islamic" and "a major injustice," the kingdom's Grand Mufti, Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Asheik, proclaimed that fathers and male guardians who try to force their daughters into wedlock should be thrown in jail until the men change their minds. He made it clear that forced marriages originated as a pre-Islamic custom and are antithetical...
...Saudi economy has been severely squeezed by shrinking oil revenues. The kingdom currently earns only $37 billion annually from oil, vs. $100 billion four years ago. One result: its budget deficit for 1983 and 1984 totaled $22 billion. Its trade deficit is also large, $20 billion per year. So the Saudis have had to dip into foreign-exchange reserves, estimated at just under $100 billion, that were built up during the oil rush...
Another way the Saudis are trying to cope with their cash squeeze is by cutting government spending. This year's budget reduces military outlays 20%, to $17.8 billion, softening the Saudi market for U.S.-made weapons and stirring worry in the Pentagon over the kingdom's defense capability. Subsidies on food, electric power and gasoline are down 20%. The Riyadh government is also slashing money for new industrial projects. Two refineries worth $1.5 billion were canceled after 15% of the construction had been completed. Particularly hurt by the cutbacks are American and South Korean contractors who have been building...