RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) – Clerics in Saudi Arabia, a staunch U.S. ally and the country of Osama bin Laden’s birth, dismissed Washington’s assertions it observed Islamic rites in disposing of the al Qaeda leader’s body in the Arabian Sea.

Bin Laden, shot dead by U.S. forces in a raid on a compound in Pakistan on Monday, was placed in a weighted bag and dropped into the north Arabian Sea from the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson, the U.S. military said.

RIYADH (Reuters) – The killing of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden removed a source of shame for some in the country of his birth but for others the al Qaeda leader was a hero who stood up for Islam against the West.

Bin Laden was killed in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan on Monday, ending a nearly 10-year worldwide manhunt for the leader of the global Islamist militant network that orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

JEDDAH (Reuters) – Sara Abbar knew what would happen when she and her 28-year-old daughter tried to register to vote in Saudi Arabia’s municipal elections.

The vote, set for September, ruled out in advance any participation by the country’s 9 million women.

RIYADH, April 20 (Reuters) – Dar al-Arkan (4300.SE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Saudi
Arabia’s biggest property developer, reported a 31.5 percent
drop in first-quarter net profit, the company said in a bourse
statement on Wednesday, missing analyst forecasts.

Dar al-Arkan made 273 million riyals ($72.8 million) in the
three months to end-March, down from 398.6 million in the same
period a year earlier.

RIYADH, April 19 (Reuters) – Saudi Basic Industries Corp
(SABIC) (2010.SE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) expects second-quarter results to be better
than the previous one and the chemicals maker sees demand to be
similar for the rest of the year, its chief executive said.

The world’s biggest petrochemical firm by market value
posted a forecast-beating 42-percent jump in first quarter
profit on Monday. [ID:nLDE73H1FJ].

RIYADH, April 17 (Reuters) – HSBC’s Saudi affiliate SABB
bank 1060.SE said it covered 100 percent of its bad loans and
will continue to book reserves in 2011, an executive said on
Sunday.

“There is no doubt that at the end of last year we reached
our full reserves for the bad loans and the level will continue
this year,” the bank’s Chief Risk Officer Alaa Jabri told
Alarabiya television in an interview.

JEDDAH/RIYADH (Reuters) – Dozens of unemployed university graduates and teachers staged rare protests in two Saudi cities on Sunday to demand jobs and better wages in the biggest Arab economy, which is struggling to reduce joblessness.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s No. 1 oil exporter and a U.S. ally, is an absolute monarchy that does not tolerate public dissent. There is no elected parliament or political parties, and newspapers tend to carry the official line.

JEDDAH, March 22 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s banks are set to
double lending to the private sector this year and see higher
profits than last year partly due to government handouts of more
than $100 billion, said the top-executive at the country’s
biggest lender by assets.

“The economic effect of the stimulus that the king has
announced has a turbo charging effect because more money will be
injected into the economy and this money will be looking for
financial services and opportunities,” Abdul-Kareem Abu Al-Nasr,
chief executive officer of the National Commercial Bank (NCB)
told Reuters on Tuesday.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, March 20 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s
economy is reasonably insulated from the regional turmoil and
the central bank has seen no abnormal capital outflows, its
governor Muhammad al-Jasser said on Sunday.

Revolts have been sweeping through the Arab world since
December, shaking the world’s top oil exporter’s neighbours
Bahrain, Oman and Yemen, while raising debt insurance costs and
pressuring markets across the Gulf.