World in brief: Cheney meets with Saudi king
Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday worked to overcome Saudi skepticism over the U.S. military strategy to secure Baghdad and the leadership capabilities of Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki.
Cheney met with King Abdullah at a royal palace in this northern city. The king, while considered an important U.S. ally in the Arab world, increasingly has sent signals that he doubts the effectiveness of President Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq.
Abdullah also has signaled that he sees al-Maliki as a weak leader with too many ties to pro-Iranian Shiite parties to be effective in reaching out to Iraqi’s Sunni minority. Saudi Arabia has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population.
After a four-hour meeting with the king that included dinner, Cheney headed for Aqaba, Jordan, to spend the evening before meetings today.
Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride told reporters after arriving in Jordan that Cheney had “a very good meeting” with the Saudi king. “They discussed a wide range of regional issues and tonight’s meeting served to reaffirm and strengthen old friendships,” she said.
Guaratingueta, Brazil
Pope warns of drug trade’s evils
Drug traffickers will face divine justice for the scourge of illegal narcotics across Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI warned Saturday, telling dealers that “human dignity cannot be trampled upon in this way.”
Brazil and the rest of the region face dangerously high rates of drug abuse and traffickers must “reflect on the grave harm they are inflicting on countless young people and on adults from every level of society,” Benedict said.
“God will call you to account for your deeds,” he said before a cheering crowd of 6,000 on a sprawling lawn outside the “Fazenda de Esperanca,” or “Farm of Hope,” a drug treatment center founded by a Franciscan friar.
Brazil is the world’s second-largest consumer of cocaine, after the United States, according to the State Department.
While surveys show cocaine use has been relatively stable in Brazil for years, drug-related violence is a huge problem, driven by gangs that control street-corner dealing and the transshipment of drugs to Europe and the United States from elsewhere in South America.