ng's
official title is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The modern
Saudi state was founded in 1932 by ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman AL
SAUD (Ibn Saud) after a 30-year campaign to unify most of the
Arabian Peninsula. A male descendent of Ibn Saud, his son ABDALLAH
bin Abd al-Aziz, rules the country today as required by the
country's 1992 Basic Law. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in
1990, Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000
refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops to deploy on its
soil for the liberation of Kuwait the following year. The continuing
presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil after the liberation of
Kuwait became a source of tension between the royal family and the
public until all operational US troops left the country in 2003.
Major terrorist attacks in May and November 2003 spurred a strong
on-going campaign against domestic terrorism and extremism. King
ABDALLAH has continued the cautious reform program begun when he was
crown prince. To promote increased political participation, the
government held elections nationwide from February through April
2005 - for half the members of 179 municipal councils. In December
2005, King ABDALLAH completed the process by appointing the
remaining members of the advisory municipal councils. The country
remains a leading producer of oil and natural gas and holds
approximately 25% of the world's proven oil reserves. The government
continues to pursue economic reform and diversification,
particularly since Saudi Arabia's accession to the WTO in December
2005, and promotes foreign investment in the kingdom. A burgeoning
population, aquifer depletion, and an economy largely dependent on
petroleum output and prices are all ongoing governmental concerns.

Senegal
Independent from France in 1960, Senegal was ruled by the
Socialist Party for forty years until current President Abdoulaye
WADE was elected in 2000. Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the
nominal confederation of Senegambia in 1982, but the envisaged
integration of the two countries was never carried out, and the
union was dissolved in 1989. A southern separatist group
sporadically has clashed with government forces since 1982, but
Senegal remains one of the most stable democracies in Africa.
Senegal has a long history of participating in international
peacekeeping.

Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbs