Saudi King Takes Full Charge Again

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd announced today his illness is over and he is resuming full powers, the staterun Saudi Press Agency reported.

“I have finished my recuperative period,” the king told his brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, to whom he had handed the reins of state on New Year’s Day.

The king said he is resuming full powers after finishing convalescence following his illness in late November, whose nature never was officially divulged. U.S. officials said he suffered a stroke.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil exporter.