DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi security forces today shot dead five suspected terrorists believed to be involved in a foiled attack on the world's biggest oil processing complex, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. A sixth suspect was arrested.

The shootings came after security forces raided two houses in the Saudi capital of Riyadh that had been under surveillance, said Lt. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, chief spokesman for the ministry.

Earlier today, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television quoted Saudi security sources as saying the forces exchanged fire with the suspected terrorists for about two hours. Police said they confiscated weapons and ammunition from the house in the suburb where the suspects had been holed up, according to the report.

The Saudi branch of al-Qaida claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, the first ever on Saudi Arabia's vital oil infrastructure. The attack was foiled when security guards fired at two vehicles laden with explosives outside the gates to Abiqaiq, which processes about two-thirds of the country's oil before it is exported.

Two guards and two would-be suicide bombers were killed.

MANILA, Philippines — Police filed charges of rebellion today against 16 people suspected of plotting to overthrow Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, as dozens of protesters attempted to storm the legislature, officials said.Among those charged were former opposition Sen. Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, a veteran of past coup attempts in the 1990s, five members of the House of Representatives, a communist rebel leader and some soldiers.Arroyo on Friday declared a state of emergency to quash what she called a coup plot. The decree has provoked a backlash, with even some supporters accusing Arroyo of needlessly curbing civil liberties.About 100 left-wing protesters, yelling anti-government slogans, barged into the House of Representatives building today to denounce the decree and the arrest of a leftist lawmaker, but were pushed back by police, officials said.Only two of those charged today with rebellion have been detained, while the others remain at large.

PARIS — Niger has become the second African country with confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, a lab official said today.Ilaria Capua, chief of the laboratory in Padua, Italy, said the tests were confirmed today and the government of the impoverished West African country had been informed.The H5N1 strain had earlier been confirmed in Nigeria, Niger's southern neighbor, and officials had said in mid-February they were investigating whether it had surfaced in Niger.Experts have been particularly concerned about the spread of H5N1 to Africa, which is unprepared for such a health crisis because of its weak infrastructure. The virus is believed to have spread unchecked in Nigeria before it was identified, and Nigeria's efforts to contain it have been hampered by a lack of resources and information.In Niger, a senior Health Ministry official said the virus was detected in Illela, a small village 45 miles from the border with Nigeria. He had no word on how many birds may have died or any other details.Capua, speaking at a bird flu conference in France, said she feared the arrival of the virus in a second African country was "just the prelude to the virus becoming endemic in Africa."