Saudi Arabia, Yemen | featured news

A militant who fought alongside Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and is now the leader of a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda in South Yemen has struck a deal with the United States and Saudi Arabia to send 5,000 Al-Qaeda fighters into Syria according to reports out of the Middle East.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who underwent surgery in Saudi Arabia for a shrapnel wound, would return to Yemen within days, his vice president said on Monday.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh left Yemen and flew into Saudi Arabia on Sunday for medical treatment, pitching Yemen deeper into turmoil after months of protests against his three-decade rule.

A Saudi bombmaker believed to be working with al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing is a key suspect in the parcel bomb plot against the United States, a U.S. official said on Saturday.

Air travelers from Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and nine other countries will face full-body pat downs before boarding airliners under new security screening procedures targeting foreign passengers announced by the United States on Sunday.

Yemen has arrested a man described as al Qaeda's top financier in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a security source told Reuters on Sunday, and seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean have been kidnapped in north Yemen.