Saudi financier of Al-Qaida nailed

DUBAI: Yemen has arrested a man described as Al-Qaida's top financer in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a security source said yesterday, and seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean have been kidnapped in north Yemen.

Militant activity in Yemen, a revolt in the north and a secessionist movement in the south, has unsettled Western governments and Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.

Saudi Arabia brought an Al-Qaida campaign of violence launched in the kingdom in 2003 under control, but fears are that Yemen will become the staging post for a revival of the effort to bring down the US-allied Saudi royal family.