Yemen PM to return from Riyadh after attack on Saleh

RIYADH: Yemen’s prime minister will return home later on Tuesday from Saudi Arabia, where he has been recovering from injuries suffered in a June assassination attempt on President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a government source said.

65 killed in Karachi violence: officials

Yemen’s Saleh comes out of surgery, future unclear

SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was recovering from an operation in Saudi Arabia to remove shrapnel from his chest while a truce between his troops and a tribal federation appeared to be holding.

Protesters, interpreting Saleh’s absence as a sign that his grip on power was weakening, celebrated on the streets of Sanaa where they have been staging anti-government demonstrations since January.

“Who is next?,” asked one banner held up by a protesters in a sea of red, white and black Yemeni flags, referring to the wave of uprisings in Arab world that has seen the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt toppled and inspired uprisings elsewhere.

Saleh was wounded on Friday when a rocket was fired into his presidential palace in Sanaa, killing seven others and injuring his closest advisers. He is being treated in a Riyadh hospital.

He left as acting president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the vice president who is seen by many as having little power. Leaving Yemen at a time of such instability, even for medical care, could make it hard for Saleh to retain power.

Early on Monday, a truce between troops loyal to Saleh and the Ahmar group, leader of Yemen’s Hashed tribal federation, appeared to be holding, offering some respite after two weeks of fighting in the capital in which more than 200 people have been killed.

Key in the coming days will be any news of Saleh’s condition and any signals from Saudi Arabia on whether he will be able to return to Yemen – or whether Riyadh will apply pressure on Saleh to step down.

Saleh, a political survivor who has ruled the impoverished country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula for nearly 33 years, had so far managed to remain despite the defection of his top generals and ambassadors.

Saleh has exasperated his former U.S. and Saudi allies, who once saw him as a key partner in efforts to combat Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, by repeatedly reneging on a Gulf-brokered deal for him to quit in return for immunity.

“The kingdom (Saudi Arabia) will convince Saleh to agree to the Gulf-brokered exit so that the situation can be resolved peacefully and without bloodshed,” said Saudi analyst Abdulaziz Kasem.

Saleh’s fall could also give renewed impetus to protest movements around the region.

“The departure of Saleh is a turning point not just for the Yemeni revolution but also is a huge push for the current changes in the Arab region and is the start of the real victory,” said Zaki Bani Rusheid, a leading figure in Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian political scientist Hassan Nafaa agreed: “The ‘Arab Spring’ will continue, Arab people are in a state of total rejection of their current ruling systems.”

17 dead in Yemen, Saleh loses US favour

SANAA — Yemeni security forces shot dead at least 17 protesters on Monday as Gulf states offered their mediation and Washington reportedly pulled the plug on embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“The death toll has gone up to 17,” said Sadeq al-Shujaa, head of a makeshift field hospital at a square in central Taez after security forces opened fire on demonstrators marching on the local governorate headquarters.

Witnesses said the demonstrators stormed the courtyard of the governorate and that plainclothes gunmen and rooftop snipers also took part in the gunfire to push them back.

The bloodshed, a day after another protester was shot dead in Taez, 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital, sent the death toll to more than 100 in a crackdown on protests in the impoverished state since late January.

Saleh, a longtime US ally in Washington’s fight against Al-Qaeda, appears to be losing American support.

The US government is taking part in efforts to negotiate the president’s departure and a transitional handover of power, according to a report in the New York Times on Sunday.

US officials have told allies they see Saleh’s position as untenable due to the widespread protests, and believe he should leave office, the paper said. Negotiations on his departure had been launched more than a week ago.

The talks centred on a proposal for Saleh to hand over to a provisional government under his vice-president until new polls. The principle is “not in dispute”, an unnamed Yemeni official told the paper.

With the timing still to be worked out, the focus for Washington remains on keeping its Saleh-backed counter-terrorism operation in Yemen unaffected, the Times reported.

The opposition Common Forum on Saturday offered its “vision for a peaceful and secure transition of power”, calling on Saleh to hand power to Vice-President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who would be a caretaker president.

But the president, who has adopted a defiant tone over the past week, on Sunday told the opposition to end protests and remove roadblocks, offering a “peaceful transition of power through constitutional ways”.

Youth protesters staging sit-in protests, however, said they would accept nothing short of an end to Saleh’s autocratic rule along with the departure of top figures in his regime.

Oil-rich Gulf states also said late on Sunday that they are seeking to mediate between Saleh and the opposition.

“The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have agreed to begin contacts with the Yemeni government and opposition with ideas to overcome the current situation,” it said after a meeting of foreign ministers in Riyadh.

On the ground in Sanaa, soldiers who have sided with protesters intervened on Monday to prevent police from taking on thousands of demonstrators camped at a square in central Sanaa.

Thirteen people were shot and wounded late on Sunday as police clashed with tens of thousands of demonstrators in the Red Sea city of Hudaydah, according to witnesses.

Police opened fire as the protesters marched on the city’s main local government building, they said.

In renewed clashes on Monday in Hudaydah, witnesses reported that dozens of people were wounded by police gunfire and rocks, while hundreds needed treatment for tear-gas inhalation.

The demonstrations in Taez and Hudaydah were part of a renewed spurt of protests for Saleh to end his three-decade rule.

The tide appeared to turn against Saleh on March 18 when regime loyalists gunned down 52 demonstrators in Sanaa, sparking widespread condemnation abroad and a string of defections from his camp.

But boosted by two huge pro-regime rallies in the capital and previous US statements on the battle being waged against al-Qaeda in Yemen under its ally Saleh have produced shows of defiance by the president.

Syrian leader to address nation amid unrest

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar Assad is to address the nation Wednesday for the first time since unprecedented protests erupted in this tightly controlled Arab country, a speech seen as a crucial test for his leadership and one that may determine Syria’s future.

Assad is expected to announce constitutional amendments and sweeping reforms, including an end to nearly 50 years of widely despised state of emergency laws that give the regime a free hand to arrest people without charges. On Tuesday, Assad fired his Cabinet in another move designed to pacify the anti-government protesters.

Syrian TV says Assad will speak at midday Wednesday.

While his overtures are largely symbolic, they represent a moment of rare compromise in the Assad family’s 40 years of iron-fisted rule.

They came as the government mobilized hundreds of thousands of supporters to take to the streets in rallies in the capital and elsewhere Tuesday, in an effort to show it has wide popular backing.

The coming days will be key to determining whether Assad’s concessions will quiet the protest movement, which started after security forces arrested several teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall in the impoverished city of Daraa in the south.

The protests then spread to other provinces and the government launched a swift crackdown, killing more than 60 people since March 18, according to Human Rights Watch. The violence has eased in the past few days and some predict the demonstrations might die out if the president’s promises appear genuine.

However, small protests in various cities have continued, according to reports, in addition to a sit-in by a few hundred people in the restive Daraa.

Videos posted on YouTube showed anti-government demonstration in the town of Douma, just outside the capital, and another in the southern town of Inkhil on Tuesday, but the videos could not be independently verified.

Since the protests erupted March 18, thousands of Syrians appear to have broken through a barrier of fear in this tightly controlled nation of 23 million.

“Syria stands at a crossroads,” Aktham Nuaisse, a leading human rights activist, said Tuesday. “Either the president takes immediate, drastic reform measures, or the country descends into one of several ugly scenarios. If he is willing to lead Syria into a real democratic transformation, he will be met halfway by the Syrian people.”

Assad, who inherited power 11 years ago from his father, appears to be following the playbook of other autocratic leaders in the region who scrambled to put down popular uprisings by using both concessions and brutal crackdowns.

The formula failed in Tunisia and Egypt, where popular demands increased almost daily — until people accepted nothing less than the ouster of the regime.

The unrest in Syria, a strategically important country, could have implications well beyond its borders, given its role as Iran’s top Arab ally and as a front line state against Israel.

Syria has long been viewed by the U.S. as a potentially destabilizing force in the Middle East. An ally of Iran and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, it has also provided a home for some radical Palestinian groups.

In London, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Tuesday on the Syrian government and Assad to prove they can “be responsive to the needs” of their own people.

In January, Assad, a 45-year-old British-trained eye doctor, said his country was immune to the kind of unrest roiling the Mideast because he is in tune with his people’s needs.

So far, few in Syria have publicly called on Assad to step down. Most are calling for reforms, annulling emergency laws and other stringent security measures and an end to corruption. AGENCIES

Soaring livestock prices hit Eid sacrifices in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Most of Pakistan’s Muslims will be unable to join in Eid celebrations with the traditional animal sacrifice this week as cattle prices have more than doubled in the wake of the country’s fatal floods.

After two months of catastrophic late summer flooding swept hundreds of thousands of animals away, livestock traders say supply is so short that they have had to hike prices beyond the means of lower and middle class families.

The annual Islamic holiday, which falls from November 17 to 19 in Pakistan, is marked by the ritual sacrifice after morning prayers of sheep, goats, cows and other livestock whose meat is then shared with the poor.

But the average price of a goat has climbed to 21,000 rupees (250 dollars), according to an AFP survey of markets in five cities across Pakistan — a sum far too high for most families in the impoverished and largely

Still hopeful for peace process success : Abbas

GAZA: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that moving to the face-to-face negotiations with Israel without making a progress in the indirect proximity talks will be “absurd and useless.”

Abbas said during a religious ceremony to commemorate Prophet Mohamed”s Night Journey, better known as al-Esra night or Shab-e- Mairaj, that “if there is no progress in the proximity talks, what would be the benefits of moving to the direct talks?”

“The direct talks will be then absurd and useless, therefore, we had informed all the international parties that we want to achieve a progress first,” said Abbas. “These are our ideas and we wait to hear from the Israeli side.”

The United States, which failed to bring the two sides to direct talks, proposed four-month proximity talks to bridge the gaps between them and agree on the outlines of the permanent status issues.

The proximity talks were officially launched by U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell on May 9.

“Since the beginning of the proximity talks, we spoke about the six major issues, known as the permanent status issues. We agreed to focus first on the issues of borders and security,” said Abbas.

Gaza aid ship sets sail from Greece

ATHENS: A Gaza aid ship has left Greece for Egypt under Israeli pressure, but Libyan organisers say it intends to defy the Jewish state”s blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

The ship”s agent and the Greek foreign ministry said the vessel chartered to a charity headed by a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi departed on Saturday for the Egyptian port of El-Arish.

“All the ship”s documents are in order, they indicate as its destination the Egyptian port of El-Arish,” said Petros Arvanitis, the agent of the cargo ship Amalthea.

Greek foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras said his office had “received assurances from the Libyan ambassador that the boat would head for El-Arish”.

But the Gaddafi Foundation that organised the shipment said later the ship”s destination is Gaza.

“The ship is heading toward Gaza as planned,” Youssef Sawan, the charity”s executive director, told media by telephone from Tripoli.

“This is a purely humane mission, it is neither provocative nor hostile,” he added.

Earlier, an Arab-Israeli lawmaker also told media that the ship”s crew – six Libyans, a Moroccan, a Nigerian and an Algerian – intended to head to Gaza in a bid to defy the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian enclave.

“The ship is heading into Gaza as originally planned,” said Ahmed Tibi, who is in contact with the charity headed by Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader and widely seen as heir apparent.

Kyrgyz leader warns of risk of further violence

ASTANA: Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayevaon Monday warned that the risk of further violence in the impoverished Central Asian nation remained.

At least 294 people were killed last month in southern Kyrgyzstan in clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, the worst ethnic violence to grip the region since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

“There may be other outbursts,” Otunbayeva told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

“We cannot yet say that everything has calmed down and that we can get down to reconstruction.”

Punjab govt. waking up to militant threat: Qureshi

ISTANBUL: The provincial government in Punjab heartland is coming out of denial about the threat from militants there, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Tuesday.

Asked when Pakistan might launch a crackdown on militant groups in the eastern province of Punjab, Qureshi said some lower level militants had been picked up and some eliminated.

“I think some major incidents have taken place in Lahore and woken the Punjab government up,” Qureshi told foreign media in an interview at the end of a regional summit in Istanbul.

“I think they are coming out of the denial that they were living in.”

Suicide assaults on two Ahmadi mosques in the eastern city of Lahore last month killed more than 90 people and outraged Pakistanis.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz is Punjab”s chief minister, was quoted in the Pakistani media this weekend as voicing solidarity with the Ahmadi minority sect by describing them as brothers.

The Punjab government has been criticised in past for shirking any confrontation with militant groups, who have been dubbed the Punjabi Taliban.

Several militant groups thrive in the impoverished, rural areas of Pakistan”s heartland.

Qureshi said Pakistan”s next priority in the fight against Taliban is the remote North Waziristan tribal region.

Qureshi said the army was moving toward an offensive in North Waziristan in a “calculated fashion” after an earlier successful operation in South Waziristan.

“Our next priority is going to be North Waziristan but we have to time our operations in line with our resources,” he said. “At the moment we are consolidating our position in South Waziristan.”

Qureshi said Pakistan”s military successes in the tribal belt and areas like Swat and Malakand had forced some militant leaders to flee outside the Pakistan-Afghanistan theatre, and move to other countries with a known al Qaeda presence.

“Our information is that they have gone into different areas, Somalia, Yemen and other destinations,” he said. “The tribal belt is no longer the safe haven that it used to be.”

Qureshi, who met his Afghan counterpart for confidence building talks in Istanbul on Monday, said relations had improved markedly in the two years since a democratic government took power in Pakistan.

Pakistan has lived in fear that a friendship between old foe India and Afghanistan posed a risk of encirclement.

Asked whether India”s presence in Afghanistan was still worrying Pakistan, Qureshi said; “The security challenges that Afghanistan faces can be helped more by Pakistan than India can help them. So I think that an exaggerated presence would not be in order.”

India”s Interior Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is due to hold bilateral talks with his counterpart on the sidelines of a regional ministerial meeting in Islamabad on June 26.

“We have to spend time to bridge the trust gap and think of confidence building measures that will restore the shaken confidence on both sides,” Qureshi said.

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