WORLD IN BRIEF

Car Bombers Try to Storm Oil Plant in Saudi Arabia

ABQAIQ, Saudi Arabia -- Two cars exploded at the gates of Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq oil facility on Friday when security forces fired at suicide bombers trying to storm the world's biggest oil processing plant, officials said.

Al-Qaeda purportedly asserted responsibility for the attack. The assertion was posted on a Web site frequently used by terror groups, but there was no way to check its authenticity.

Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said oil and gas output were unaffected by the "terrorist attempt," the first direct strike on a Saudi oil target since al-Qaeda launched attacks aimed at toppling Saudi Arabia's monarchy in 2003.

Oil prices jumped $2 a barrel on news of the attack in the world's largest oil exporter.

Most Saudi oil is exported from the Persian Gulf via the huge producing, pumping and processing facility at Abqaiq in the mainly Shiite Eastern province. The prospect of an attack on Saudi crude facilities has deeply worried nations reliant on Saudi oil, which makes up one-sixth of the world's exports, or 7.5 million barrels a day.

Security adviser Nawaf Obaid said Saudi security forces fired on three cars at the outer gates of the Abqaiq facility, one mile from the main entrance. One car was carrying gunmen, and two others that were packed with explosives rammed the gates, he said. All the attackers were killed.

Security sources in Riyadh, the capital, said four attackers and two security officers were killed and two other officers wounded. The blast after the shootout slightly injured eight workers, including some from the Indian subcontinent, the sources said.

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asia

· NEW DELHI -- A court convicted nine people and sentenced them to life imprisonment for burning a group of Muslims to death in communal riots that swept the state of Gujarat in 2002. The trial has been seen as a key test of the Indian courts' ability to deliver justice in cases arising from the riots.

The nine Hindus were convicted of taking part in an attack on a Muslim-owned bakery that left at least 14 people dead on the night of March 1, 2002. Eight other Hindus were acquitted in the case. An earlier trial had ended in acquittals for all the defendants after a key witness changed her testimony. India's Supreme Court ordered a retrial in the state of Maharashtra, where Friday's verdict was delivered.

-- John Lancaster