Ivory Coast: Anti-immigrant violence leads to evacuations

Bullet-riddled buses brought the first Malian citizens, pictured above, out of Ivory Coast on Saturday in the latest effort to rescue African immigrants caught in anti-foreigner attacks in Ivory Coast.

Evacuees said armed men at roadblocks opened fire as they fled their homes in western Ivory Coast in buses sent by the Mali government.

Since the rebellion began, government forces have burned shantytowns housing immigrants in the Ivory Coast commercial capital, Abidjan, and dozens of Malians and other civilians have allegedly been killed in one town in western Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo denied Saturday that foreigners were being targeted.

England: Police arrest three in terrorism plot

Three men have been charged with possessing materials that could be used to carry out terrorist acts, police said Saturday.

Scotland Yard said the suspects were charged with possessing materials for the “preparation, instigation or commission” of terrorist acts.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the men had been plotting to release gas, possibly cyanide, on the London subway system.

Kuwait: Authorities arrest senior al-Qaida member

Kuwaiti police have arrested a senior member of al-Qaida who was helping to plan a car bomb attack on a Yemeni hotel frequented by Americans, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Police arrested a 21-year-old Kuwaiti identified only by the initials “M.F.” two weeks ago, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba said.

According to Al-Anba, the arrested Kuwaiti told police that a Yemeni national identified as Osama al-Yemeni was to drive a bomb-wired car into an unidentified hotel in the Yemeni capital, San’a.

Yemen: U.S. jets patrol Yemen in al-Qaida search

U.S. fighter jets have patrolled Yemen’s northern border with Saudi Arabia as Yemeni forces hunt for al-Qaida operatives, a security official said Saturday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. jets were patrolling the border provinces of Marib and Jawf, strongholds of Muslim militants where the al-Qaida terror group is believed to be active.

Earlier this month, a Hellfire missile from a CIA unmanned Predator drone killed six men, including al-Qaida’s alleged top operative in Yemen.

Syria: Dissident released

President Bashar Assad unexpectedly freed a prominent dissident from prison Saturday in what human rights activists hoped could be a sign that he means to resume a trend toward greater freedom.

Riyahd Turk, 74 with diabetes and high blood pressure, was released on humanitarian grounds, said a one-line announcement on the state-owned Syrian Arab News Agency.

Turk was one of 10 intellectuals arrested last year – a clampdown seen as the end of the so-called “Damascus Spring” under Bashar Assad.