In the past few weeks, however, things have suddenly accelerated as the king has moved to show the ultraconservative Saudi religious establishment quite literally who's boss. He sacked the head of the feared religious police and the minister of justice, appointed Nora al-Fayez as deputy education minister, making her the highest-ranking female official in the country's history, and moved to equalize the education of women and men under the direction of a favored son-in-law who has been preparing for years to modernize the nation's school system

Born into the crumbling palaces of desert tribes in 1923 (the precise date was not recorded), he now rules one of the richest countries on earth. When Abdullah was a child, his father had not yet finished his conquests on the Arabian Peninsula or founded the nation-state that bears the family name.The boy was 6 when his mother died, and as her only son he felt he had to take care of his younger sisters even then. "He had a tough childhood," says Abdullah's daughter Princess Adelah. "He took on a lot of responsibility from the time he was very young." The children grew up amid rebellion and insurrection, with their father's rule threatened by the intolerant Wahhabi Brotherhood that had helped bring him to power.As a grown man, Abdullah witnessed the oil boom and the corrosive effects of spectacular greed—and more fanaticism, more insurrection, including the bloody siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in 1979. There were dangerous intrigues within the family, too. When Abdel Aziz died in 1953, the succession passed to his son Saud, who was deposed in 1964 by his half-brother Faisal, who was murdered years later by a nephew. When Fahd took the crown in 1982, Abdullah became crown prince, and after Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995, he became acting king.

He brought a powerful sense of desert tradition to the job. His mother was from the powerful Shammar tribe that extends from Saudi territory deep into Iraq, Syria and Jordan, and before being named crown prince he had been head of the Saudi National Guard, a force made up of tribal levies from all over the country. He was immersed in Bedouin culture—the same traditional Saudi values that frame the world as Abdullah sees it. "You do not see him being more lenient with his family than with the National Guard," Princess Adelah told NEWSWEEK. "He is very straightforward, very honest, and hates injustice." Ambassador Fraker sees him as "someone who in many ways is a throwback to that desert-warrior ethos where men stand by their word, they look each other straight in the eye and they apply a code of honor."

America has signalled a radical new initiative to bring the Taliban into the Afghan political process as part of growing efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution to the war in Afghanistan.The US ambassador to Kabul told the Observer that America would be prepared to discuss the establishment of a political party, or even election candidates representing the Taliban, as part of a political strategy that would sit alongside reinforced military efforts to end the increasingly intractable conflict.

Other ideas being discussed include changing the Afghan constitution as part of potential negotiations, taking senior Taliban figures off UN blacklists to establish dialogue and possible prisoner releases.

William Wood, the outgoing US ambassador to Afghanistan, told the Observer that "insurgencies, like all wars... end when there is an agreement". He said while the US saw "no way there could be power-sharing or an enclave" for the Taliban, "there is room for discussion on the formation of political parties [or] running... for elections. That is very different from shooting your way into power." The key requirement would be respect for the constitution, Wood added.

An investigation by a group of former Israeli soldiers has uncovered new evidence of the military's conduct during the assault on Gaza two months ago. According to the group Breaking the Silence, the witness statements of the 15 soldiers who have come forward to describe their concerns over Operation Cast Lead appear to corroborate claims of random killings and vandalism carried out during the operation made by a separate group of anonymous servicemen during a seminar at a military college.

"This is not a military that we recognise," said Mikhael Manekin, one of the former soldiers involved with the group. "This is in a different category to things we have seen before. We have spoken to a lot of different people who served in different places in Gaza, including officers. We are not talking about some units being more aggressive than others, but underlying policy. So much so that we are talking to soldiers who said that they were having to restrain the orders given."

Manekin described how soldiers had reported their units being specifically warned by officers not to discuss what they had seen and done in Gaza.

The US is prepared to back Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to be the next secretary general of Nato, US and alliance sources say.

The current secretary general, Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, steps down at the end of July. Mr Rasmussen, Denmark's premier since 2001, is already reported to have the backing of France, Germany and the UK.

Mr Rasmussen is a strong supporter of Nato's mission in Afghanistan, sending a contingent of 750 Danish troops

Thousands of Italians have marched through Naples in one of the largest anti-mafia protests of recent years. Police said 100,000 people gathered for the protest, held annually on the first day of spring.

They called for more police action against mafia clans, who have killed more than 900 people in recent decades.

Organised crime in Italy is dominated by four mafia clans: Sicily's Cosa Nostra; the Camorra around Naples; Calabria's 'Ndrangheta; and the Sacra Corona Unita, in Puglia. The Italian authorities have hit the Cosa Nostra hard in recent years, says the BBC's Mark Duff in Milan, but other groups maintain their grip and have seen their influence spread. The global economic downturn has also thrown up fresh money-making opportunities for the mafia - such as lending cash to credit-starved businessmen.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has unveiled a series of measures to offset falling oil revenues that account for about 50% of the national budget. He proposed to cut the 2009 budget by 6.7% and increase sales taxes. Mr Chavez also pledged salary cuts for senior public officials, but a 20% rise in the minimum wage.

His announcement came shortly after the government had sent army to take control of the country's key airports and sea ports.

"We are preparing a decree to eliminate luxury costs - the acquiring of executive vehicles, redecorating, real estate, new headquarters, promotional material and unnecessary publicity, corporate gifts."

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany says he will stand down, as his government's popularity plummets amid the global financial crisis.

Badly hit by the global credit crisis, Hungary received a $25.1bn (£17bn) IMF-led loan last October.

"I hear that I am the obstacle to the co-operation required for changes, for a stable governing majority and the responsible behaviour of the opposition," he was quoted as saying on Saturday by Reuters news agency. "I hope it is this way, that it is only me that is the obstacle, because if so, then I am eliminating this obstacle now. "I propose that we form a new government under a new prime minister."

Until the last few minutes of his history-making appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, the president seemed to be on track for a political victory, mixing personable good humour with a seriousness appropriate to the times. But then one ill-considered crack about his bowling score of 129 - "It was like the Special Olympics or something," Obama said - sent the White House once again into a mode that is becoming increasingly familiar: damage control.

The remark was a rare failure of Obama's legendary televisual poise, but it was the second time in a week that his powers of communication had failed him. At a White House ceremony with Irish taoiseach Brian Cowen on Tuesday, a teleprompter mix-up caused him to thank himself for hosting himself, drawing attention to what critics say is an overreliance on prepared texts.

He is trying to convince the Labour Party to join, correspondents say. If he fails to do so, they say, he will be forced to form a narrow coalition with hard-line Israeli parties. The two-week extension sets 3 April as Mr Netanyahu's new deadline.

But Mr Netanyahu has also been seeking the support of the centrist Kadima party. If Kadima also joins the coalition line-up, party leader and current Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni could keep her position, although talks have so far proved inconclusive. Ms Livni has demanded Mr Netanyahu sign up to a two-state solution with the Palestinians before she joins the government.

If Kadima sees through its stated intention to lead the opposition, Likud is expected to try to bring in smaller hard-line parties like Jewish Home, National Union and United Torah Judaism. That would give it a solid right-wing majority of 65 in the 120-seat parliament.

A new row over French protectionism has broken out, as EU leaders hold a summit in Brussels on the economic crisis. It followed the news that carmaker Renault was moving some production from Slovenia to create 400 jobs in France. The European Commission said it would seek urgent clarification. It comes only weeks after the EU agreed France could give state aid to its carmakers.

The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels says the row over Renault could not have come at a worse moment for the EU, just as its leaders are calling on the US and others to tackle the global crisis by avoiding all forms of protectionism.

The argument erupted after French industry minister Luc Chatel told French radio that Renault would relocate part of its production from Slovenia to a plant at Flins, near Paris, creating 400 jobs there. A Renault spokeswoman said the company intended to increase production both in Slovenia and France and the shift was intended to meet a shortfall in capacity at its Slovenian plant. It denied the move was linked to a pledge to keep jobs in France in exchange for state aid. But EU competition commission Neelie Kroes told the BBC she was highly surprised and was seeking urgent clarification from the French authorities. Ms Kroes said she had received a pledge from Mr Chatel just a few weeks ago that an $8bn state bail-out for carmakers would not be linked to moving jobs to France, our correspondent reports.

North Korea has confirmed the arrest of two female US journalists, saying they were detained for illegally entering North Korean territory.

The news came after the North restored a cross-border military hotline with South Korea severed earlier this month. The North also indicated it will reopen a border crossing which links the South with a joint Korean industrial zone, just inside the North.

There have been conflicting reports about where the women were detained. South Korean reports have suggested they were on Chinese territory.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has demanded concrete policy changes from the US as the price for new relations between the two states.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has demanded concrete policy changes from the US as the price for new relations between the two states. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he had seen no change in America's attitude or policy, singling out US support for Israel and sanctions against Iran. But he also said that if President Barack Obama altered the US position, Iran was prepared to follow suit. President Obama on Thursday offered "a new beginning" in relations with Iran.

BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba says that a minimum requirement for Iran would be a move by Washington to ease US sanctions.

"The Iranian nation has shown that it can forget hasty behaviour but we are awaiting practical steps by the United States," Aliakbar Javanfekr, an aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told Reuters.

"The Iranian nation has shown that it can forget hasty behaviour but we are awaiting practical steps by the United States," Aliakbar Javanfekr, an aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told Reuters. "The Obama administation so far has just talked," he added, calling for Obama to make "fundamental changes in his policy towards Iran".

In an unusually swift reaction to Obama's overture, presidential aide Javanfekr said Iran welcomed "the interest of the American government to settle differences". But he said the Obama administration "should realise its previous mistakes and make an effort to amend them." "By fundamentally changing its behaviour America can offer us a friendly hand," he told Reuters."Unlimited sanctions which still continue and have been renewed by the United States are wrong and need to be reviewed." Javanfekr singled out US backing for Israel, Iran's main enemy in the region, saying that: "Supporting Israel is not a friendly gesture."

I would like to speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I would like to speak clearly to Iran's leaders.  We have serious differences that have grown over time.  My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran and the international community.  This process will not be advanced by threats.  We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.

he United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations.  You have that right -- but it comes with real responsibilities, and that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization.  And the measure of that greatness is not the capacity to destroy, it is your demonstrated ability to build and create.

Three former American secretaries of state and a former secretary of defense were in Moscow on Thursday for informal meetings with top Russian officials in an attempt to pull relations between the United States and Russia out of a tailspin before the countries’ presidents meet for the first time next month. The flurry of so-called track two diplomacy by figures outside government was another gesture of outreach to Russia. A month ago, the Obama administration sent a letter proposing a dialogue on curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions that could diminish American needs for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

Henry A. Kissinger, who is now 85, the architect of the original détente policy with the Soviet Union in the 1970s, led one group of three former American officials on a visit to the Russian capital. They are advocating a new round of international arms-reductions talks intended to eliminate all nuclear weapons. Separately, James A. Baker III, who was secretary of state when the Berlin Wall fell, was in Moscow for a conference on the politics of Caspian Sea oil and natural gas riches that both Russia and the West are maneuvering to obtain access to.

The visits by the former warhorses of American diplomacy toward Russia were seen as testing the waters for President Obama’s intention to, as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. put it, “press the reset button” on bilateral relations.

Record numbers took to the streets of France yesterday in the biggest demonstrations since Nicolas Sarkozy's election, to protest about his handling of the economic crisis. Unions estimated that more than three million people took part in demonstrations across the country, in the second general strike over the economic crisis in two months. Police put figures at about 1.2 million. With one in three people supporting the protest, it had the highest public backing for a strike in a decade.

Teachers and doctors protested against his long-standing reform plan, saying public-sector job cuts would kill schools and hospitals. University staff are continuing their seven-week strike against higher education reform with sit-ins and occupations. Private-sector employees, including supermarket cashiers, bank clerks and car workers, took to the street over poor pay, factory closures and the return of a traditional French scourge: unemployment, now rising at its fastest rate in 10 years.

The general strike disrupted transport, schools, airports, government offices and even state theatres. Unions demanded job protection, an increase in the minimum wage and a U-turn on Sarkozy's early move to cut taxes for the mega-rich. But the government has insisted there will be no concessions.

An Iranian blogger convicted of insulting the country's religious leaders has died in jail after taking a drug overdose.Omidreza Mirsayafi, 29, died in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on Wednesday, just over a month after a judge gave him a two-and-a-half year sentence for posting comments on his blog about figures including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini .

Human rights campaigners called for prison officials to be prosecuted after Mirsayafi took extra doses of tranquilisers prescribed by prison doctors. He was suffering from depression and had previously attempted to commit suicide, according to a fellow inmate.

His death followed that of Amir Hossein Heshmatsaran, founder of an Iranian opposition group called the National Unity Front, who died on 6 March while serving an eight-year sentence. Heshmatsaran's family alleged that he had died because of negligence, after suffering a stroke.

An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers' accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza. One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home. Another speaker at the seminar described what he saw as the "cold blooded murder" of a Palestinian woman.

The testimonies were published by the military academy at Oranim College. Graduates of the academy, who had served in Gaza, were speaking to new recruits at a seminar.

"[The testimonies] conveyed an atmosphere in which one feels entitled to use unrestricted force against Palestinians," academy director Dany Zamir told public radio.

The Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table over its controversial nuclear programme. Mr Hu told North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il to co-operate with efforts to resume stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear activities.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Mr Kim a day earlier that China wants to "actively push forward" the deadlocked negotiations. China's chief delegate to the nuclear talks, Wu Dawei, visited North Korea without fanfare in February seeking a breakthrough, South Korean and Japanese media reported at the time. Beijing has not confirmed the trip.

China has been hosting the talks which had been making progress until North Korea abruptly stopped disabling its nuclear programme last August. Talks in December failed to resolve a dispute with the US over how to verify the North's full range of past nuclear activities.