Customs agents at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport thwarted at dawn Monday an attempt to smuggle several kilograms of cocaine into Lebanon from Brazil, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said a 37-year-old Brazilian was arrested after the agents found 6 kilos of the drugs stashed "professionally" in a briefcase with a double bottom.

Ethiopia has flown home over 50,000 citizens in Saudi Arabia after a crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich state, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.

"We projected the initial number to be 10,000 but it is increasing," foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told Agence France Presse, adding that the final total once the mass airlift ends is now expected to be around 80,000.

At least 16 people were killed when Somalia's Shebab insurgents attacked a police station Tuesday, with a suicide car bomber blasting open the compound before commandos entered spraying gunfire, an army officer said.

Witnesses reported bodies strewn around the blast site, the latest in a string of bombs and shootings in the central Somali town of Beledweyne claimed by the al-Qaida-linked Shebab.

Scores of Ethiopians gathered outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Addis Ababa Friday to protest over a crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich state that officials say has left three Ethiopians dead.

The protest, organized by an opposition group, was quickly broken up by police and activists said up to 100 people were arrested.

Ethiopia has warned of an increased threat from Somalia's al-Qaida-linked Shebab, saying the country should expect more attacks, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The announcement comes after two Somali nationals were killed last month when a bomb they were making exploded in Addis Ababa. Officials said they planned to target crowds gathered for a World Cup qualifying match.

Thousands of Africans, mostly Ethiopians, surrendered to Saudi authorities for a second day on Tuesday as Addis Ababa announced the death of three citizens during clashes in the Gulf kingdom.

The men, women and children could be seen lining up under the blazing sun in the poor Manfuhah neighborhood of the capital waiting to be packed into buses to carry them to deportation centers.

The Ethiopian government is repatriating its citizens living in Saudi Arabia illegally, after reports that an Ethiopian was killed by Saudi police, officials said Saturday.

Last April, the Saudi government issued an amnesty period giving illegal immigrants seven months to gain legal status or leave the country.

Four Ethiopians were killed in a bomb blast on a bus near the Sudanese border, the information minister said Thursday, as security forces remain on high alert following attack warnings.

"One minibus was blown up on the road and four people were killed," Information Minister Redwan Hussein told AFP, adding it was not known who the attackers were.

Jailed Ethiopian political activists are tortured and held in appalling conditions, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday, in a report dismissed by the government as lies.

Former detainees in the capital's Maekelawi prison describe "being slapped, kicked, and beaten with various objects, including sticks and gun butts, primarily during interrogations", the report said.

Two Somali nationals died when a bomb they were making detonated in their home in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, as thousands gathered to watch a football match, officials said Monday.

"The ones who died were of Somali origin," Ethiopia's Minister of Information Redwan Hussein told AFP.