Saudi Arabia’s exports—dominated by petroleum products—easily outweigh its imports of items such as foods, machinery, vehicles, textiles, and raw materials including plastics, chemicals, and rubber. In 2002 Saudi Arabia exported commodities amounting to $63.7 billion, while imports amounted to only $37 billion. The United States is the country’s largest trading partner, followed by Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Saudi Arabia is one of the largest contributors of development aid, both in term of volume of aid and in the ratio of aid volume to GDP.
TAIF: Saudi diplomatic missions will appoint lawyers to defend Saudi citizens who are arrested on any charges during their stay abroad and will pay bail for them under new regulations approved by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.
The daily said starting next year, the budget of the Foreign Ministry would include provisions under the title, "Expenses of catering to the judicial requirements of Saudi citizens abroad."
It said the amount of money required would be decided by the Foreign and Finance ministries and the allocation would be used to pay the fees of lawyers, bail and other costs until the citizen is released and sent home.
The Saudi missions will follow up with the legal entities in countries concerned to make sure that the citizens receive a fair trial before they are either acquitted or convicted, the new regulations stipulate.
According to these regulations, the citizen will pay back the money spent on him abroad after returning to the Kingdom if he was arrested for negligence or for deliberate mistakes. He will also have to pay any financial settlements related to the alleged crime.
The diplomatic missions will send comprehensive reports about any such cases to the Foreign Ministry. They will also continue to provide citizens with legal counseling and help them choose qualified lawyers for civil contracts, personal affairs and correspondence with foreign governments.
The Foreign Ministry is being requested to contract an experienced American law firm with strong ties to other legal entities in order to assist with legal cases involving Saudi citizens in the United States.
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A suicide attacker detonated explosives near a police station in Pakistan's capital on Sunday, killing more than 10 police officers, officials said.
The blast occurred in a kiosk in front of the police station, said Naeem Iqbal, a police spokesman. Television footage showed wounded security forces being taken away and ambulances rushing to the area.
Just moments before the explosion, an Associated Press reporter passed by the scene and saw more than 20 security forces gathered nearby.
After the blast, a traffic intersection in the area was splattered with blood. Body parts were scattered as far as about 50 yards from the scene, and shattered glass also covered the area, which police cordoned off.
Rana Akbar Hayat, a senior government official, told reporters near the scene that more than 10 people were killed and that they had been targeted by the attacker.
The blast came as thousands of Islamists were gathered not far away to mark the one-year anniversary of a deadly military crackdown on a radical mosque. It was not clear whether the events were linked.
The explosion also came following recent threats of revenge from militants in Pakistan angered by a paramilitary operation against insurgents in the tribal northwest.
A new government that came to power following February elections has sought to end militancy in the country primarily through peace deals with extremists.
That approach has earned criticism from U.S. officials, who say the deals will simply give time for militants to regroup and intensify attacks on foreign forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
About a week ago, as militants in the northwest increasingly began threatening the key city of Peshawar, the government launched a paramilitary operation in Khyber tribal region to flush out the extremists.
That operation has been halted while officials try to negotiate peace through tribal elders, but Pakistani Taliban leaders promised revenge for the government's show of force.
Violence levels have fallen in Pakistan since last year, but attacks still occur.
In June, a suicide car bomber killed at least six people near the Danish Embassy in Islamabad. A statement attributed to al-Qaida took responsibility for that blast, which was believed to have targeted Denmark over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The United Arab Emirates canceled billions of dollars of Iraqi debt Sunday and moved to restore a full diplomatic mission in Baghdad, evidence of Iraq's improved security and growing acceptance of its Shiite-led government.
The Abu Dhabi government announced the debt relief and the naming of a new ambassador to Baghdad shortly after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began a visit to the wealthy Gulf nation.
The news was sure to bolster al-Maliki's government, which has been urging Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors to forgive loans made during Saddam Hussein's regime and restore diplomatic relations.
Al-Maliki, who has been in office since May 2006, thanked the UAE for the debt cancellation, telling local businessmen it was a 'swift and courageous' decision.
The Emirates' official news agency, WAM, quoted the president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as saying he hoped canceling the debt would lighten the 'economic burden' facing Iraqis and he urged the country to unite behind al-Maliki's government.
WAM said the debt was $4 billion excluding interest. A UAE official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said the total debt was $7 billion with interest.
Iraq has been appealing for relief of at least $67 billion in foreign debt _ owed mostly to Arab nations that have been reluctant to forgive Iraq's belligerence during Saddam Hussein's regime.
In addition, the U.N. Compensation Commission says $28 billion remains to be paid for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq now gives 5 percent of its oil revenue to meet the compensation claims.
Al-Maliki's American backers also have pushed Arab states to restore ties with Iraq, where violence has declined by 70 percent over the past year. Neighboring Jordan named an ambassador last week, and Kuwait and Bahrain say they will soon follow suit.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the U.S. welcomed the UAE decision to cancel the Iraqi debt, appoint an ambassador and reopen their embassy in Baghdad.
'We appreciate the Emiratis' recognition that a secure and prosperous Iraq is in the interests of everyone in the region. Prime Minister Maliki and the government of Iraq should also be applauded for their continued outreach to their neighbors, and their efforts to advance a positive agenda through regional diplomacy,' said Johndroe, who was in Japan with President Bush at the Group of Eight meeting of major powers.
In Abu Dhabi, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Abdullah al-Shehi, the UAE's former head of mission in India, was named ambassador to Iraq. The country said last month that an appointment was upcoming.
The UAE withdrew its ambassador to Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and after one of its diplomats was kidnapped and later released.
Sunni militant groups like al-Qaida in Iraq, mistrustful of the government, have warned Arab states not to open embassies in Baghdad. The capital's first major car bomb of the war struck the Jordanian Embassy, killing 19 people in the summer of 2003. Diplomats from Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey and Sudan have all been either killed, wounded or kidnapped in Iraq.
Al-Maliki chided his Arab 'brothers' at an April conference of Iraq's neighbors in Kuwait, saying he found it 'difficult to explain why diplomatic exchange has not taken place.' Most major Western diplomatic missions in Baghdad are located in the U.S.-protected Green Zone.
Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Labid Abbawi, said Sunday that the country plans to open consulates soon in Detroit, Michigan, and San Diego. He told The Associated Press they chose those cities because they have large Iraqi communities.
Afghan officials said fighter aircraft battling militants accidentally killed up to 27 Afghans walking to a wedding ceremony in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday, the second military attack in three days with reports of civilian deaths.
The U.S. military blamed the claims on militant propaganda and said its missiles only struck insurgents.
President Hamid Karzai had already ordered an investigation into allegations that missiles from U.S. helicopters struck civilians on Friday in eastern Afghanistan, though the Defense Ministry said Sunday that attack on the Nuristan-Kunar border killed or wounded 20 militants.
U.S. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the two incidents were being investigated. He noted that militants hide among and intimidate civilians.
U.S. spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said the military has repeatedly seen militants falsely claim civilian were killed.
'Whenever we do an airstrike the first thing they're going to cry is 'Airstrike killed civilians' when the missile actually struck militant extremists we were targeting in the first place,' Perry said. 'At this time we don't believe we've harmed anyone except for the combatants.'
In a statement, Karzai cited allegations by Tamim Nuristani, the governor of Nuristan province, that 15 civilians were killed and seven wounded in the Friday attack. During a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, top Afghan officials prayed for any innocent lives lost, a presidential palace statement said.
'The killing and wounding of our countrymen as the result of airstrikes is news that always makes us sad,' Karzai said.
In the second incident early Sunday, the chief government official in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province said villagers reported that as many as 27 people walking in a group toward a wedding were killed in a bombing. Up to 11 other people were wounded, Haji Amishah Gul said.
Nuristan provincial police chief spokesman Ghafor Khan said that fighter aircraft attacked a group of militants near the village of Kacu, but that one of the missiles went off course and hit the wedding party. Khan said many militants were killed in the attack as well.
Both officials relied on reports called in by telephone from villagers. The area was too remote for officials or reporters to reach.
Gul said the group killed included men, women and children. Six of those wounded were taken to the provincial hospital in Jalalabad. Lal Wazir, an Afghan who helped bring the wounded to the hospital, said the airstrike occurred at 6:30 a.m.
'The wedding participants were on their way to the groom's house,' Wazir said outside the hospital, his tunic covered in blood after carrying some of those wounded.
'They stopped in a narrow location for rest. The plane came and bombed the area. There were between 80 to 90 people altogether. We have carried six of the injured to this hospital, and more might be coming. The exact number of casualties is not clear,' he said.
A U.S.-led coalition statement said an airstrike killed several militants in Nangarhar.
The issue of civilian casualties has caused friction between the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO troops, and has weakened the standing of Western-backed Karzai in the eyes of the population.
Karzai has repeatedly called for better coordination between Afghan and foreign troops in pursuing militants through populated areas, and for international troops to cut down on civilian casualties. Deaths of ordinary Afghans caused a huge outcry last year, but there have been fewer accusations of such killings in recent months.
McKiernan said NATO uses a 'very judicious and strict application of lethal force.'
'Civilian casualties are very, very important in this campaign. One is one to many,' he said. 'I do think we have ... the right procedures in place to mitigate and minimize any collateral damage to people or material.'
Perry said Sunday that military reports still indicated that the Friday airstrike by coalition helicopters in Nuristan hit two vehicles carrying militants who had attacked a NATO base with mortars.
Karzai suggested that Afghan civilians may have been fleeing at the time of the strike because of a warning from the U.S. coalition.
'Coalition forces are saying that this operation was against armed insurgents in the area, but Gov. Nuristani is insisting that three hours before this airstrike, people were informed by international forces that they should leave the area because of a possible airstrike against insurgents,' Karzai said in a statement.
Elsewhere, in the southern province of Helmand _ the country's other hotly contested region _ a clash killed seven Taliban and two police, provincial police Chief
