Jidda

• Arab conflicts: Saudi Royals spend billions to buy peace

  As one nation after another has battled uprisings across the Arab world, the one major country spared is also its richest -- Saudi Arabia, where a fresh infusion of money has so far bought order. The kingdom is spending $130 billion to pump up salaries, build housing and finance religious organizations, among other outlays, effectively neutralizing...

• Laying out cities, Saudis see window to modernity

  Just off a desert road about an hour's drive from this port city, an enormous arched gate capped by three domes rises out of the sand like the set for a 1920s silent film fantasy. It is, instead, a fantasy of contemporary urban planning, the site of what one day will be King Abdullah Economic City, a 65-square-mile development at the edge of the Re...