One protester was shot dead and five wounded in clashes with Yemeni government supporters near the Sana’a university campus yesterday, a reporter said, while four others were killed in Aden on Friday.
The first death in Sana’a in a week of similar clashes came as government supporters, armed with guns, batons and rocks, tried to break into the campus and students responded by hurling stones.
The reporter saw the body of the student, hit by a bullet, as the clashes raged outside the university.
Five students were also wounded, one of them seriously, according to medics.
Tribesmen and plainclothes police also attacked the students during the clashes, the reporter said, adding that police did not intervene, but blocked the roads leading to the campus.
Later, supporters of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh dispersed the protesters and took control of the area around the university campus and surrounding roads, the correspondent said.
On Friday, at least four anti--regime protesters were wounded by Saleh supporters, who attacked a demonstration armed with batons and axes.
Students have tried for the past week to march on the presidential palace, but have been intercepted by regime supporters.
Protests continued early yesterday in the main southern city of Aden, where fierce clashes on Friday killed four and injured 17 people, five of them soldiers, according to medics and witnesses.
EGYPT
Egypt’s military, after promising to deliver civilian rule in six months, warned workers using their new freedom to protest over pay that strikes must stop, in a move businessmen said yesterday could have come sooner.
The military council, under pressure from activists to speed up the pace of reform, has adopted a softly-softly approach since taking power after the downfall of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, but it said late on Friday that labor unrest threatened national security.
It issued the order, effectively banning strikes, after millions celebrated across Egypt with fireworks, dancing and music to mark a week since Mubarak, 82, was swept aside after 30 years, triggering a cascade of Middle East protests.
“I think it is a very late decision. The army should have given a firm statement for all kinds of sit-ins to stop, immediately after Mubarak stepped down,” Sami Mahmoud, a board member of the Nile Company food distributor, said yesterday.
“Though this statement should have come way earlier, I think the army was just allowing people to take their chance to voice their demands and enjoy the spirit of freedom,” said Walid Abdel--Sattar, a businessman in the power industry.
“It’s Not The Time For It,” said yesterday’s banner headline in the state-owned Akhbar Elyom newspaper, urging the nation to end work stoppages which were causing “a state of paralysis to our national economy” and losing Egypt crucial revenue. Banks, which have been closed this week because of strikes that have disrupted business, are due to open today, the first day of the working week in Egypt.
ALGERIA
Algerian police in riot gear yesterday surrounded about 500 protesters trying to stage a march through the capital inspired by uprisings in other parts of the Arab world in defiance of a ban.
A reporter at the scene said a group chanting “Algeria — free and democratic” tried to reach May 1 Square in the city center to begin the protest march, but were driven two blocks away by police using batons.
They were then corralled into the courtyard of a residential block, where police in helmets and protective gear surrounded them — together with several hundred onlookers and some pro--government demonstrators.
Unrest in Algeria could have implications for the world economy since it is a major oil and gas exporter, but analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely because the government can use its energy wealth to placate most grievances.
The protest was organized by human rights groups, some trade unionists and a small opposition party. Algeria’s main opposition forces were not taking part.
Large numbers of police had been mobilized to try to prevent yesterday’s protest from going ahead. Dozens of police vans and military-style police armored vehicles were dotted around the capital hours before the demonstration was supposed to begin.
On the streets approaching May 1 Square, near the city’s port, police were lined up along the road while riot-control vehicles with water cannon were on standby.
OMAN
About 300 people demanded political reforms and better pay in a peaceful protest in Oman on Friday as unrest in other Middle East countries and North Africa rumbled on.
Men and women gathered in Ruwi, a commercial district in the capital, after prayers and chanted “we want democracy,” while others shouted “more pay and jobs.”
“Food prices and other commodities have gone up twice in price in the last three years ... the increase is not enough,” student Mohammed Hashil said.
Protesters demonstrated for about one hour and left the district. There were no reported arrests.
The sultanate increased the salary for national workers active in the private sector to 200 rials (US$520) per month from 140 rials, the Oman News Agency (ONA) said this week. There is no official unemployment rate, but a CIA estimate from 2004 put the rate then at 15 percent.
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