The Cabinet condemned on Monday violence leading to the death and injury of hundreds of innocent people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Uganda and Iraq, and called upon the people of the latter to “maintain brotherhood and unity” and “work for a swift formation of government for greater security and stability”. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency, Minister of Culture and Information Abdul Aziz Khoja said that the weekly meeting, presided over by Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation, heard a review of the recent Haj Supreme Committee meeting from its chairman Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior. Khoja added that the Cabinet noted reports from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force on Saudi Arabia's achieving the largest commitment to FATF's 40 Recommendations for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. The Kingdom, the Cabinet noted, was ranked top of Arab countries and among the top ten out of the G20 group. Two agreements signed between the Kingdom and Egypt in Sharm Al-Sheikh on Oct. 14, 2009 for the exchange of nationals sentenced to prison and for combating drug smuggling and dealing were approved by the Cabinet, while the Minister of Education was authorized to hold talks with UNESCO on establishing the Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz International Program for the Culture of Dialogue and Peace. The Cabinet further approved proposals from the President of Youth Welfare to permit sports clubs to found sports academies on their designated properties. The decision rules that the academies be founded by the clubs themselves through contracts with the private sector, that they not grant degrees, and that the Presidency of Youth Welfare – in collaboration with the ministries of Interior, Municipal and Rural Affairs, and Finance – produce regulations defining the propose of the academies, conditions for their establishment, and methods of procedure. Income from academies, the decision states, goes to founding clubs. The Cabinet also gave its approval for the Kingdom to join the 1992 International Sugar Agreement.
