Saudi Arabia

A court convicted a man of publicly talking about his sexual exploits and sentenced him to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes, his lawyer said. Lawyer Sulaiman Jumeii said he plans to appeal the court's ruling and is confident that the sentence, which includes a ban on travel and talking to the news media for five years after his release, will be revoked. The lawyer said there is no specific law in the Saudi penal code "that defines punishment for talking or bragging." He maintains that his client, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, was duped into talking by a Lebanese satellite TV channel, and was unaware in many cases that he was being recorded.

A shootout between Saudi security forces and Al Qaeda militants at a checkpoint in the south of the country killed two militants and a soldier. Security forces at the checkpoint stopped a car carrying three men, two of whom were disguised as women, officials said. When a female inspector approached to check the identities of those dressed as women, the three opened fire. Two of the militants were wearing explosives vests and had hidden hand grenades in their clothes.

Two Al Qaeda militants killed in a recent shootout had sneaked into Saudi Arabia from Yemen and were planning to carry out a massive attack, the Interior Ministry spokesman said. Four explosives belts -- three of them ready to use -- were found in the car used by the militants in Tuesday's shootout, which suggests that at least four people were going to take part in the attack, ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Mansour Turki said. He said six Yemeni accomplices who were coordinating with the two militants -- Youssef Shihri and Raed Harbi -- were also arrested.

Saudi Arabia's king waived the flogging sentence of a female journalist charged with involvement in a risque TV show, the second such pardoning in a high-profile case by the monarch in recent years. King Abdullah's decision to waive 22-year-old journalist Rozanna Yami's sentence of 60 lashes follows intense international media attention. Yami was charged with helping coordinate a talk show on a Lebanese channel featuring a Saudi man describing what appeared to be his active sex life.

About 240 Saudi villages have been evacuated and scores of schools closed because of fighting that has spilled over from Yemen. Saudi Arabia launched a military offensive last week after Yemeni rebels seized Saudi territory along the mountainous border. The rebels said the Saudis had been allowing Yemeni troops to use the area to launch attacks on their bases.

U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia are operating under the threat of imminent terrorist attack, not only from huge car bombs and chemical weapons but also from a possible new threat, powerful mortars that can fire projectiles long distances, Defense Secretary William J. Perry said Saturday. About 700 school-age children and other family members of U.S. military personnel are being ordered to leave Saudi Arabia to reduce the size of the American military community in Riyadh, the capital.

The Clinton administration said Friday that it suspects the bombing of the U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia on June 25 will be linked to Iran or some other terrorist-sponsoring country and warned that the United States will retaliate if that is true. Defense Secretary William J.

Six Muslim militants have confessed to the truck bombing that killed 19 U.S. airmen in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi opposition figure said Wednesday, but he predicted it would be weeks before authorities announce the details. The U.S. Embassy and Saudi officials in the kingdom refused to comment Wednesday on the report by a Saudi opposition organization and have released no details about the inquiry into the June 25 explosion at a U.S. military housing complex in Dhahran.

Saudi Arabia agreed Wednesday to let U.S. military officials relocate more than 4,000 American troops in that country in hopes of preventing more terrorist attacks, pledging to pay half the estimated $200-million cost. The accord, announced jointly here and in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, followed two days of negotiations between Defense Secretary William J. Perry and top Saudi officials, including the country's reigning monarch, King Fahd.

The Clinton administration is having increasing difficulty getting Saudi Arabia to share information from its investigation of the truck-bombing that killed 19 American airmen in Dhahran on June 25. U.S. officials, for example, were unable to confirm from their Saudi counterparts reports from London on Wednesday that the Saudis had obtained confessions from six suspects in the bombing.