King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, will inaugurate on March 7 the second year of the Shoura Council's fifth session with an annual Royal speech addressing the Kingdom's domestic and foreign policies. Abdullah Bin Muhammad Bin Ibrahim Aal Al-Sheikh, Chairman of the Shoura Council, said the assembly would once again be honored by the presence of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and that he expected a detailed and comprehensive address from the King. “The contents of the King's speech to the Shoura Council are regarded as a work-approach for the Council, paving the way for it to achieve more and setting out the goals to which the state aspires over the year,” Aal Al-Sheikh said. “With the speech the Council commences its studies, sessions and proposals in the light of aims and outlines set out by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.” Aal Al-Sheikh said the Kingdom's Shoura Council was a product of “our Islamic Shariah” and that it “contributed in proffering sound opinion, sincere advice and wise decisions”. “It has also served to expand the decision-making base and succeeded in building bridges for interaction with numerous countries through its delegations at parliamentary arenas around the world,” he said. The Council's successes, Aal Al-Sheikh said, had “matched the aspirations, hopes and ambitions of the rulers and the public”, adding that the Shoura over the past year had held 77 sessions and issued 111 decisions on a variety of issues, notably regulations regarding the judiciary, Shariah advocacy, penal procedures, railways, private centers for the disabled, and protection from sources of radiation, as well as approving amendments and addition to existing articles such as those governing social insurance, commercial mortgages and cooperative health insurance. “The march of modernization and the development of the Shoura Council's work will not stop,” Aal Al
