Sanaa: Heavy fighting between rival army units shook Yemen's capital on Friday, killing two soldiers in what could signal the start of a power struggle just days after autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to end his 33-year rule. The clashes pitted Central Security forces commanded by Saleh's nephew, Colonel Yehia Saleh, against troops from the First Armored Division, headed by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected and joined the...
01:35 AM, Nov 26, 2011
Beirut: The Syrian military vowed on Friday to "cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood," saying recent attacks on elite security forces marked a dangerous escalation in the country's 8-month-old crisis. The defiant statement signaled the country's violence is worsening as President Bashar Assad tries to quash the most serious threat to his family's 40-year dynasty, under ever increasing international pressure. Damascus faced the possibility of sweeping economic sanctions...
09:58 PM, Nov 25, 2011
Sanaa: President Ali Abdullah Saleh's agreement to step down failed to halt anti-government demonstrations or prevent violence on Thursday as regime supporters killed five protesters demanding that the ousted leader be put on trial for crimes ranging from corruption to bloodshed during the current uprising. Saleh signed the US-backed power-transfer deal, brokered by neighboring countries, on Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh in exchange for immunity from prosecution. It sets...
11:08 PM, Nov 24, 2011
Egypt remains tense as its enters its 6th day of unrest. Military police poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday in hopes of stopping clashes between protesters and police. ...
09:21 AM, Nov 24, 2011
United Nations: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the transition of power in Yemen, saying all sides should now honour their commitments to immediately bring to an end all violence and refrain from further provocations. The political settlement agreement, signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, was an "important step for the people of Yemen in moving their country forward towards a better future," Ban's spokesperson said in a statement. In...
08:55 AM, Nov 24, 2011
Riyadh: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a deal on Wednesday under which he will step down after 33 years in power and 10 months of protests against his rule that brought the country to the brink of civil war. Celebrations erupted in the capital Sanaa as Saleh inked the agreement that made him the fourth leader to be forced from power in 10 months of mass protests that have...
07:33 AM, Nov 24, 2011
Sana'a: A Yemeni criminal court has sentenced 10 Somalis to 10 years in prison after convicting them of piracy in Yemen's territorial waters, the state-run Saba news agency reported. The court based in Mukalla, the provincial capital city in Yemen's southeast province of Hadramout, said that the convicts were arrested while they were targeting Yemeni and foreign ships in the Yemeni territorial waters in the Gulf of Aden as their...
09:58 AM, Nov 20, 2011
Sanaa: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Monday he was ready to step down within 90 days of reaching a deal on a formal process for implementing a Gulf initiative aimed at ending the nine-month-old crisis in his country. Saleh, who has so far refused to sign the accord proposed by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council in April, told France's Channel 24 television in an interview that he had...
02:43 AM, Nov 15, 2011
Taiz: At least 17 people were killed in heavy clashes in the Yemeni city of Taiz on Friday, a day after a UN envoy began a new mission to push President Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit under a Gulf peace plan. Witnesses and medical staff said at least 30 people were also injured when Saleh's Republican Guards shelled some districts in Yemen's third largest city, a hotbed of anti-Saleh protests,...
04:34 AM, Nov 12, 2011
United Nations: The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously passed a resolution that calls on Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down and transfer power to his deputy as it condemned human rights violations and demanded an immediate end to attacks on civilians by security forces. The resolution, which came a day after Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi was killed, stresses that Gulf Cooperation Council's initiative should be implemented that...
08:28 AM, Oct 22, 2011
Beirut: Energised by the killing of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, thousands of protesters in Syria and Yemen poured into the streets on Friday and said their longtime rulers will be next. Syrian President Bashar Assad's security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least 24 people nationwide, according to activists. It did not stop the crowds from chanting, "Your turn is coming, Bashar." Yemenis delivered a similar message to President Ali...
05:16 AM, Oct 22, 2011
United Nations: The UN Security Council called on Friday for Yemen's president to immediately accept a deal to transfer power to his deputy and end escalating violence in the strategically located Middle East nation. The council unanimously adopted a resolution expressing serious concern at the worsening security and deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen "due to the lack of progress on a political settlement and the potential for the...
04:14 AM, Oct 22, 2011
Beirut: The first fled to exile, the second is on trial and the third Arab ruler to be toppled in an Arab revolt died at the hands of rebels he once dismissed as rats. The killing of Muammar Gaddafi sends a bleak message to Syrian and Yemeni presidents still resisting demands for change that the longer they hold out, the higher the price of failure. Tunisia's leader Zine al-Abidine Ben...
03:29 AM, Oct 22, 2011
Sanaa: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Wednesday he would sign a Gulf peace deal calling for a transfer of power only if the United States, Europe and Gulf Arab states gave him unspecified guarantees. Violence in Yemen, where thousands have been demonstrating for months demanding that Saleh end his 33 years in power, has spiked since he returned from Saudi Arabia in September after treatment for injuries sustained...
01:37 AM, Oct 20, 2011
Sanaa: Clashes between troops loyal to Yemen's embattled president and his rivals on Monday left at least 18 people killed and 30 wounded in the capital Sanaa and the city of Taiz, according to medical, security and tribal officials. They said eight followers of a powerful tribal leader who defected to the opposition in March were killed in pre-dawn clashes with forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the...
12:24 AM, Oct 18, 2011
Sanaa: Eight Yemenis, including five protesters, were killed in a new upsurge in violence in the capital on Sunday, hospital officials and witnesses said, and President Ali Abudllah Saleh said he expected China and Russia to block UN moves to end his rule. The two countries joined forces to veto a European-sponsored resolution against Syria earlier this month but were not expected to block the resolution on Saleh which is...
12:02 AM, Oct 17, 2011
Sanaa: Yemeni officials rowed back from President Ali Abdullah Saleh's statement that he would step down within "the coming days", and opponents dismissed the offer on Sunday as yet another delaying tactic to try and stay in power. Saleh, 69, has defied protests all year against his three-decade rule, reversing repeated pledges to quit. The United States and Saudi Arabia worry that unrest risks tipping the dirt-poor nation into civil...
12:17 AM, Oct 10, 2011
Sanaa: Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would step down in 'the coming days' after months of protests against his 33-year rule that risked tipping the dirt-poor country into civil war, but the government said his exit was not imminent. "I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," Saleh said in a speech on state television. Opponents...
02:22 PM, Oct 09, 2011
Sanaa: Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he would leave power in the coming days, the closest the veteran leader has come to announcing he plans to step down after nine months of mass protests against his 33-year rule. "I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," Saleh said in a speech on state television. Saleh...
07:59 PM, Oct 08, 2011
Washington: President Barack Obama, marking the 10th anniversary of the US military campaign in Afghanistan, said on Thursday that al Qaeda was on the ropes but "enormous challenges" remain to rebuild the country. "In delivering justice to Osama bin Laden and many other al Qaeda leaders, we are closer than ever to defeating al Qaeda and its murderous network," Obama said in a statement. A US drone strike a week...
01:18 AM, Oct 08, 2011
