Authorities arrested 88 members of a large al Qaeda cell that was reportedly planning assassinations in Saudi Arabia as well as other attacks both inside and outside the country; the suspects, all Saudis except for three Yemenis, had contacts with terror groups abroad, and 59 of the suspects had served previous jail terms for similar offenses. Gunmen fired on a police patrol in Awamiyah, wounding an officer and setting a nearby oil pipeline on fire. A court upheld a sentence of 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for a Saudi blogger for alleged crimes against Islam. Three members of Saudi Arabia’s religious police assaulted a British man and his Saudi wife in Riyadh.
