News: Iran summons newspaper over Saudi king death headline

An Iranian newspaper was told Monday it faces a court hearing over an article which is allegedly offensive to Saudi Arabia's ailing King Abdullah.

The king, who is breathing with the help of a tube due to pneumonia, is in hospital in Riyadh, prompting frenzied debate about the future of the oil-rich Gulf state.
Iranian newspapers are running daily reports on his health, partly explained by an often tense relationship -- most recently over falling world oil prices -- between the Sunni kingdom and Tehran's Shiite regime.
Vatan-e-Emrooz, a conservative daily, has been summoned over a front page story on January 6 headlined with a Persian expression often interpreted as "may I hear the news of his death".
Use of the expression -- Khabar-e-Margesh -- is usually regarded as an insult.
The official IRNA news agency said Vatan-e-Emrooz was summoned because its report may have "violated national interests," but it did not say when a court hearing would take place.
The story also carried sub-headings, including; "Signs of collapse of Saudi Arabia," "Death of Abdullah and $200 oil," "Wahabism equals terrorism," and "Crisis of succession of Abdullah."
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and the biggest producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, to which Iran also belongs.