Yemeni opposition called for mass protests yesterday after deadly confrontations with police, while talks between Gulf mediators and representatives of Yemen’s president appeared to have made no progress.
Members of the UN Security Council also failed to come up with a joint statement on Yemen after adding the country’s presidential crisis to their agenda for the first time.
The organizing committee of youth protests called in a statement for “marches in millions” across the country in protest at the killing of protesters on Tuesday, and to stress rejection of any deal that does not include the immediate departure of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Confrontations between security forces and protesters raged on, with witnesses reporting eight people, including a passer-by and a policeman, shot dead.
One protester was killed when a gunman on a motorbike opened fire yesterday at demonstrators staging a sit-in the city of Hudaydah. The assailant managed to escape after also wounding eight other protesters.
Also yesterday, a policeman was shot dead in clashes in the city of Aden, while five protesters were shot dead in Sana’a on Tuesday.
DEAL
Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) held talks on Tuesday with representatives of Saleh as part of efforts to hammer out a deal by which Saleh would step down.
However, the meeting in Abu Dhabi appeared to have made no major progress as a curt, vague statement issued after the meeting described the talks as “constructive,” vowing to “exert more effort to preserve security, stability and the unity of the Yemeni state.”
“During the meeting both sides exchanged opinions over the Gulf initiative,” the statement said.
The spokesman of the Yemeni delegation, Ahmed bin Dagher told reporters after the meeting that any solution should not clash with the constitution.
“We adhere to the constitution which we cannot breach,” he said, in a statement that could mean that Saleh should serve out his term until 2013 — a position stated previously by the ruling General People’s Congress party.
He told al-Arabiya television that “no immediate solution has come out of the meeting.”
The meeting followed talks held on Sunday in Riyadh between the Gulf ministers and representatives of the parliamentary opposition, who are adamant that Saleh should step down immediately.
Saleh has since January faced protests calling for his departure, in which more than 130 people have been killed.
On April 10 the GCC — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — appealed to Saleh to “announce the transfer of his powers to the vice president,” Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
It also called for the formation in Yemen of “a government of national unity led by the opposition” which would be responsible for “establishing a constitution and organizing elections.”
WORDING
The opposition objected to the wording of the proposal, insisting on Saleh stepping down completely.
Last week, Saleh’s office said in response to the GCC mediation bid that the president has “no reservation about transferring power peacefully and smoothly within the framework of the constitution”.
Saleh has so far insisted on overseeing any transition, fearful of being hounded out of office and faced with prosecution like his ally, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Meanwhile, a press statement on Yemen drawn up by Germany and Lebanon, two of the members on the 15-nation UN Security Council, was blocked by a minority of nations during the Tuesday meeting, diplomats said.
German envoy Peter Wittig said, however, that discussing Yemen in the council “sends an important signal by the international community: the negotiations should not stall and further bloodshed has to be avoided.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was