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A plainclothes policeman catches a woman during a police crackdown on prostitution in Quanzhou, Fujian province, October 29, 2011. China should remove criminal and administrative penalties against sex workers which often lead to serious police abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 14, 2013. The abuses include torture, beatings, physical assaults, fines and arbitrary detentions of up to two years, as well as a failure to investigate crimes against sex workers by clients, bosses and state agents, according to the report. Prostitution is not permitted under Chinese law, although the industry has boomed since the country launched economic reforms in 1978. REUTERS/Stringer

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Saudi Arabia appoints Prince Muqrin as second deputy PM

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Saudi's intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz, brother of Saudi's King Abdullah, gestures during a news conference in Riyadh November 24, 2007. REUTERS/ Ali Jarekji

Saudi's intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz, brother of Saudi's King Abdullah, gestures during a news conference in Riyadh November 24, 2007.

Credit: Reuters/ Ali Jarekji

RIYADH | Fri Feb 1, 2013 6:55am EST

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has appointed former intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz second deputy prime minister.

Holders of the postition have gone on in the past to be crown prince and third in line to lead the world's top oil exporter, where the ruling family controls most senior government posts and, in the absence of elections, wields near absolute authority.

Muqrin, who is about 70, headed Saudi intelligence until he was replaced in July, and is the youngest son of the kingdom's founder Abdulaziz ibn Saud.

"His Royal Highness Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, adviser and special envoy to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is appointed second deputy to the prime minister," said a Royal Court decree carried by the state news agency SPA.

Strategically important U.S. ally and the birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia faces long-term domestic worries such as growing energy consumption and high youth unemployment, as well as fears about regional instability after the Arab Spring.

The succession beyond King Abdullah, who is nearly 90 and the fifth of Ibn Saud's sons to reign, is a sensitive subject among the al-Saud dynasty's hundreds of princes.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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