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Saudi King Abdullah has successful back operation

Agence France-Presse

RIYADH // Saudi King Abdullah has "successfully" undergone a new operation on his back, the royal cabinet announced today.

The operation, to correct "a ligamentary slackening in the upper back" of the monarch, in his 80s, ended at dawn, a statement quoted by the official SPA news agency read.

The king had already undergone a similar operation in October last year.

In November 2010 he was operated on in New York for a slipped disc complicated by a blood clot that put pressure on his spine, and underwent a further operation the following month before convalescing for a month in Morocco.

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