Saudi king hospitalised with gall bladder inflammation

Saudi Arabia's 84-year-old ruler King Salman was admitted to hospital in Riyadh yesterday for gall bladder inflammation, the royal court said, prompting the postponement of the Iraqi prime minister's high-profile visit. It is rare for Saudi Arabia to report on the health of the ageing monarch, who has ruled the top oil exporter and the Arab world's biggest economy since 2015. King Salman is the second reigning monarch in the Gulf to be hospitalised after Kuwait's 91-year-old emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was admitted to hospital last week, at a time when the region is gripped by the twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and a plunge in crude prices.

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