Saudi king to go undergo more surgery on Friday

Saudi Arabia's elderly King Abdullah will undergo surgery on Friday to stabilise vertebrae in his spinal column.
The king, thought to be around 86 or 87, underwent surgery on his back in New York in November after a blood clot complicated a slipped spinal disc. The kingdom's health minister said afterward that his health was "very reassuring".
"King Abdullah… will undergo an operation on the afternoon of December 3 to stabilise some vertebrae in his spinal cord and complete the earlier surgery he underwent," the court statement said.
It did not say where the new surgery would take place, but there has been no official word of the king leaving the United States.
A frail Crown Prince Sultan, who has health problems of his own, has returned home to govern the world's largest oil exporter while Abdullah is away for an unspecified period.
The Gulf Arab kingdom is keen to show its allies in Washington and elsewhere there will be no power vacuum despite the health of its octogenarian rulers.
King Abdullah, who came to power in 2005, is the sixth leader of Saudi Arabia, whose political stability is of regional and global concern.
It controls more than a fifth of the world's crude oil reserves, is a vital U.S. ally in the region, a major holder of dollar assets and is home to the biggest Arab bourse.