... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...implicated in criminal affairs, a government source said on Friday.
The new version "grants complete immunity to president Saleh" but his assistants will only benefit from "political immunity" and could eventually be held accountable for criminal or terrorist acts, the same source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The amended bill, adopted by the government on Thursday during an extraordinary meeting, also provides for the ratification of "laws on national reconciliation and transitional justice."
The government is to submit the bill to parliament on Saturday.
The original version, submitted on January 8, would have granted amnesty against prosecution to Saleh and the aides "who worked with him in all government, civil and military departments during the years of his rule."
In November, Saleh signed a Gulf-brokered deal to end the political crisis in the impoverished country, under which he handed authority to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi and the opposition formed a national unity government.
Saleh serves now as an honorary president until polls are held in February to elect Mansur, the sole candidate, as his interim successor for two years.
A bloody crackdown on anti-Saleh demonstrations since January 2011 has claimed hundreds of lives.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said earlier this month that anyone who had committed abuses during the mass protests in Yemen must not be allowed to evade justice.
The U.N. commissioner urged decision-makers in Yemen to respect the prohibition in international law against amnesties for gross human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal
liberty...
violations.
A bigwig in Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party, Sultan al-Barakani, said on Wednesday that February's vote would be held on time, amid rumors of a possible delay.
Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind...
parliament was scheduled to vote on the amended bill, and on Mansour's presidential candidacy, on Monday, he added.
Separately, Saleh could travel abroad for medical treatment in the near future for injuries suffered in a kaboom in Sanaa last June, another party source told AFP on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
"The GPC's political bureau has accepted, at Saleh's request, that he should travel abroad for treatment," the source said, without specifying the destination or date of his departure
Late last month, the veteran leader announced his intention to visit the United States "in order to create favorable conditions ... for the presidential election."
But a bigwig declared shortly afterwards that the trip was cancelled following requests from his ruling party that he remain in Yemen until after the elections.