Saudi Arabia

Israel's recent hunt for Palestinian bomb-makers and gunmen in Nablus shut down the West Bank city, forcing thousands into their homes under a military-imposed curfew. Reports of barricaded streets and armored convoys vividly convey Israel's hegemony in this conflict. They also reinforce the impotency of Palestinian leaders whose warring philosophies have compromised their ability to advocate for their people. But most of all they underscore the Bush administration's apparent lack of interest in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is planning a trip to Saudi Arabia, an official said, for talks expected to focus on regional stability and the sectarian fighting in Iraq and Lebanon. "The two heads of state will discuss issues of the Islamic world, bilateral ties and the situation in the Middle East," Mohammad Hosseini, Iran's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told the Iranian news agency IRNA. He did not say when the trip would be made, but other news agencies reported that it would take place this weekend.

JERUSALEM -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday to agree to peace talks that would include three issues that have bedeviled Middle East negotiations since 1979. Late last evening, Olmert had not agreed to allow negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to include discussions about the status of Jerusalem, the borders of an eventual Palestinian state or the question of whether Palestinian refugees who fled, or were forced to leave, their homes would have a right to return to Israel.

As Ethiopian troops made haste toward Mogadishu at the request of Somalia's legitimate government, the 22-member Arab League demanded that Ethiopia withdraw its troops "immediately." In other words, the idea of national sovereignty, the hallmark of international law, means little to the Arab League. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Sudan claim not only to understand international law but also to follow it. Of course, such countries have broken nearly every international convention on human rights, but for these countries to demonstrate outright disdain for the very foundation of international law is reprehensible.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The exiled leader of Pakistan's second-largest opposition political party was scheduled to fly home today, party officials said, a move that could upset the country's fragile balance before parliamentary elections. Also, two suicide bombers killed at least 18 people yesterday morning in almost simultaneous attacks on Pakistani security forces, including workers from the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI. Government officials said they would allow the return of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a bitter rival of President Pervez Musharraf, the army chief who deposed Sharif in a bloodless military coup in 1999.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors that is expected to total $20 billion over the next decade, at a time when some U.S. officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq. The proposed package of advanced weaponry for Saudi Arabia, which includes satellite-guided bombs, upgrades for its fighter planes and new naval vessels, has made Israel and some of its supporters in Congress nervous.

WASHINGTON -- After a year of oil prices so high that analysts warned they might hit $100 a barrel soon, prices are falling, financial speculators are running for the exits and analysts are pondering whether oil could fall below $30 a barrel by spring. Oil cost $41 a barrel on average in July 2004, when its price began its climb. It's not farfetched to think that it might fall to that soon. Back then, gasoline sold nationally for about $1.90 a gallon. There's no guarantee that it'll happen again, but several factors point to at least a few months of lower oil and gasoline prices: Oil production globally is no longer drum-tight.

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- There's no substitute for being there, as has been illustrated by the reaction to an image of Laura Bush's alleged abaya-wearing incident during her recent visit to the Middle East. Unlike most who have commented, I was there. The controversial photo shows Mrs. Bush donning a black headscarf decorated with the iconic pink bows signifying breast cancer awareness. It was the only time Mrs. Bush covered her head during the trip, and the episode lasted perhaps a minute.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi security officials said yesterday that they had broken up a vast terrorist ring, arresting 172 men who planned to blow up oil installations, attack public officials and military posts, and storm a prison to free terrorist suspects. The wide-ranging plot was uncovered over seven months, officials said, as one lead yielded another, allowing authorities to seize a cache of weapons buried in the desert and more than $5.3 million in cash. The government referred to the ring as a "deviant group," the phrase often used to describe the ideology of al-Qaida.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pleaded with Arab allies yesterday to shore up the beleaguered Shiite-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, despite a rising conviction among the Sunni Muslim regimes that Baghdad is pursuing a sectarian agenda aimed at oppressing Iraq's Sunnis. On the first stop of a rare joint visit to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the two senior Bush administration officials sought to assure leaders from several Persian Gulf countries gathered at this Red Sea resort that it was in their interest to see al-Maliki succeed, arguing that Iraq could serve as a bulwark against expansionism by Shiite-led Iran.

Marialou Anobas doesn't use the word "lucky" to describe herself because, as she sees it, surviving a hotel bombing and winning the lottery in the same lifetime requires more than just good fortune. Instead, the registered nurse will simply say somebody has a plan for her life, and the winding road that led her from her native Philippines, to Saudi Arabia, to Kuwait, to the United States, to winning $250,000 in Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing becomes more fulfilling every day. Anobas was one number away from claiming the $60 million jackpot.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - -Just as President Barack Obama arrived in the Middle East yesterday to deliver his long-planned appeal for mutual understanding, the Arab world heard unexpectedly from another voice: Osama bin Laden, accusing the American president via audiotape of sowing new seeds of hatred. The evident attempt by al-Qaida's leader to undercut Obama's speech to Muslims today served as a reminder of the hurdles confronting the United States in the region and of the magnitude of the task facing the president as he works to "reset" U.S. ties with Muslim countries.

Ron Smith posits a fictional, all-powerful Israel lobby that "controls Congress on matters related to" Israel and is "able to suppress free debate and shape American foreign policy" ("So much for changing one-sided Mideast policy," Commentary, March 13). But reality is different. For instance, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just returned from the Middle East, where she blasted Israel for its planned demolition of residential buildings illegally constructed by Arabs in Jerusalem and scolded Israel about expansion of "settlements."

Gifts of gems pass quickly through the hands of Condoleezza Rice Arab leaders showered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with jewelry worth more than a quarter of a million dollars last year, including at least $316,000 in gem-encrusted baubles from the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, making her one of top recipients among U.S. officials of gifts from foreign heads of state and government and their aides in 2007. In January, Jordan's King Abdullah II gave Rice an emerald and diamond necklace, ring, bracelet and earrings estimated to be worth $147,000, according to the State Department's annual inventory of such items released yesterday just in time for Christmas.

Karzai seeks Saudi help for talks with Taliban KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan's president said yesterday that he has repeatedly asked Saudi Arabia's king to facilitate peace talks with the Taliban. Hamid Karzai said Afghan officials have traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in hopes of ending his country's six-year conflict but there have not been any negotiations so far. Saudi Arabia is a leader of the Sunni Muslim world and the location of Islam's two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina.

Finding Nouf By Zoe Ferraris Houghton Mifflin / 306 pages / $24 One of the best developments in contemporary crime fiction of late is how willing, even eager, writers are to explore uncharted territory. What with the miniboom of translated Scandinavian novels by Arnaldur Indridason, Karin Fossum and Jo Nesbo (to name just a handful), Deon Meyer's and Michael Stanley's criminal investigations in the wilds of Africa and Matt Beynon Rees' elegant mysteries set in Palestinian territories, readers have an embarrassment of global riches to choose from.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Is Sen. Barack Obama the future "soft power" president of the United States? My current trip to Brazil and one a few months ago to Saudi Arabia - two countries that could hardly be more different - have convinced me that he would have a chance for a transformative global impact. "Soft" may sound weak or pejorative, but it's not. Unlike American "hard" power, which is exercised through our military and economic clout, soft power relies on our moral, notional and cultural exports.

BAGHDAD -- Young, lonely and struggling to make a mark. The U.S. military presented yesterday a profile of foreign fighters, who are blamed for about 90 percent of the suicide bombings that have claimed thousands of lives in Iraq. It was based on interrogations of 48 men captured by U.S.-led forces here in the past four months, Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith told reporters at a briefing inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Smith said most militants were single men in their late teens and early 20s recruited by al-Qaida in Iraq, a largely homegrown Sunni Arab militant group that the U.S. military says is led by foreigners.

BAIJI, Iraq -- The Baiji refinery may be the most important industrial site in the Sunni Arab-dominated regions of Iraq. On a good day, 500 tanker trucks will leave the refinery filled with fuel with a street value of $10 million. The sea of oil under Iraq is supposed to rebuild the nation and then make it prosper. But at least one-third, and possibly much more, of the fuel from Iraq's largest refinery is diverted to the black market, according to U.S. military officials. Tankers are hijacked, drivers are bribed, papers are forged and meters are manipulated - and some of the earnings go to insurgents who are still killing more than 100 Iraqis a week.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- President Bush urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries yesterday to take into account the toll that high oil prices are having on the American economy, gingerly touching on an issue that has begun to color the last year of his presidency and dominate the presidential election campaign. Speaking to a group of Saudi entrepreneurs and later in an interview with reporters, Bush expressed his concern about the economy in some of his starkest language yet, saying that rising oil and gasoline prices are causing hardship for American families.