Yemen

Saddam's wife and daughter are reported to be living in Yemen:

Saddam Hussein's wife and her youngest daughter are currently living in Yemen, a newspaper reported here on Thursday.

Quoting Arab sources, Al-Rai Al-Aam said Sajida Kheirallah Telfah and daughter Hala as well as two children Sajida adopted prior to the fall of Saddam's regime, were all in Sanaa.

The sources said Saddam's wife opted not to follow her eldest daughters Raghad and Rana, who were granted asylum in Jordan where they arrived from Syria, having taken refuge there two weeks after the US-led war against their father's regime.

Sajida also spent some time in Syria before settling in Sanaa in a house provided by the Yemeni authorities, the Kuwaiti daily said.

Sajida married her cousin Saddam 40 years ago in Egypt, where he had fled after taking part in a failed assassination bid against then Prime Minister Abdel Karim Kassem.

However, Yemen denies this:

A YEMENI official overnight denied a Kuwaiti press report that Saddam Hussein's wife and her youngest daughter were in Sanaa, but confirmed that the duo had been invited to take refuge in the country.

Quoting Arab sources, the Al-Rai Al-Aam daily said Sajida Kheirallah Telfah and daughter Hala as well as two children Sajida adopted prior to the fall of Saddam's regime, were all in the country's capital.

But an official from Yemen's foreign ministry denied the report.

"The information about the recent arrival in Sanaa of Mrs Sajida and her daughter Hala is wrong," the source said on condition of anonymity.

"Yemen is not opposed to welcoming family members of former Iraqi officials ... because (their) wives and children had nothing to do with what happened in Iraq," the source added.

Meanwhile, Yemeni authorities have arrested one major Al-Qaeda leader and are on the trail of another:

Yemeni security forces are pursuing a second top al-Qaida figure after capturing the alleged mastermind of the terror network's most dramatic attacks in Yemen, the bombings of the destroyer USS Cole and a French oil tanker, government officials said Wednesday.

Abu Ali al-Kandahari is one of two top al-Qaida leaders in Yemen, according to security reports published in the Yemeni press.

The other, Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, was arrested by security forces that surrounded his hide-out west of the capital, San'a, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. Four men, believed to be al-Ahdal's guards, were also arrested.

Al-Kandahari is believed to be hiding in the northern provinces of Marib and Jawf, and security forces are closing in on him, said officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

He is reported to have replaced Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi after he was killed by a missile fired from a U.S. drone last year. Al-Harethi was thought to have been Osama bin Laden's top deputy in Yemen.

And to top off the Yemen news, the country has recently decided to send their "state-hired Muslim clerics" to a traning program. The goal is to "eliminate militant language" in their sermons.

Yemen reportedly has started a training program for state-hired Muslim clerics, or imams, to eliminate militant language in their sermons.

So far, 200 imams have registered to begin the course, World Tribune.com reported Tuesday.

Yemeni officials said the course by the Islamic Affairs Ministry will seek to revise sermons given Fridays to crowds in mosques. The sermons will eliminate references to jihad, or holy war, against the West or Israel.

In addition, officials said, imams will voice opposition to Muslim suicide bombing attacks. They said mosques have often been used by al-Qaida and related groups to recruit suicide bombers and those for other missions.