Rebels in Yemen target Saudi airport
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Yemen's Houthi rebels on Wednesday targeted an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia with bomb-laden drones, causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire, the kingdom's state television reported. The attack threatened to escalate Yemen's grinding war.
No one was hurt in the assault, but the damaged passenger plane at Abha airport served as a reminder of the danger that Houthi rebels pose to Saudi Arabia, which nearly six years ago launched a bombing campaign that has devastated the Arab world's poorest country.
The Iran-aligned Houthis soon claimed responsibility for the assault, with military spokesman Yehia Sarea stressing that the Houthis consider Abha airport to be a military, not civilian, target.
Col. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen, said forces earlier intercepted and destroyed two drones launched by Houthis toward the country's south. He condemned the assault as a "systematic and deliberate attempt to target civilians."
Saudi activist released from prison
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- One of Saudi Arabia's most prominent political activists was released from prison Wednesday, her family said, after serving nearly three years on charges that sparked an international uproar over the kingdom's human-rights record.
Loujain al-Hathloul, who pushed to end a ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in 2018. She was sentenced in December to almost six years in prison under a broad counterterrorism law. Held for 1,001 days, with time in pretrial detention and solitary confinement, she was accused of crimes such as agitating for change and pursuing a foreign agenda -- charges that rights groups describe as politically motivated.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities on her release.
Her release this year was widely expected as the judge suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence and gave her credit for time already served, putting her release date sometime in March.
Although released, al-Hathloul will remain under strict conditions, her family has said, including a five-year travel ban and three years of probation.
Throttle issue noted in fatal jet crash
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A malfunctioning automatic throttle may have caused the pilots of a Sriwijaya Air jet to lose control, resulting in the Boeing 737-500's crash into the Java Sea last month, Indonesian investigators said Wednesday.
National Transportation Safety Committee investigators said they are still struggling to understand why the jet nosedived into the water minutes after taking off from Jakarta on Jan. 9, killing all 62 people on board.
The investigators issued a preliminary report that provided new details of the pilots' struggle to fly the plane from almost as soon as it became airborne.
The lead investigator, Nurcahyo Utomo, said the left engine's throttle lever moved backward on its own while autopilot was engaged, reducing the power output of that engine before the jet plunged into the sea.
He said pilots of previous flights had reported problems with the automatic throttle system on the 26-year-old jet.
Twitter blocking tied to India protests
NEW DELHI -- Twitter said Wednesday that it has suspended some Indian accounts after it was served with several blocking orders by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology over the past 10 days because of farmer protests.
The social media company said in a blog post that the accounts will continue to be accessible outside India. None of the suspended accounts belonged to journalists, news organizations, activists or politicians, as doing so "would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law," it said.
The company said such an action would also go against its "principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression."
The move comes after Twitter temporarily blocked hundreds of accounts last week, including those of news websites and activists. Online anger ensued soon after, and the company subsequently restored access to those accounts, prompting the Indian government to serve it with a noncompliance notice.
The clampdown on Twitter accounts comes as thousands of farmers have camped outside New Delhi for over two months in a protest against new agricultural laws they say will devastate their earnings. The government says the laws will boost production through private investment.