Ali Abdullah Saleh... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
said he supports "peaceful" and "constitutional" change as 13 more people were killed on Wednesday with no let-up in protests demanding his ouster.
Four members of the security forces and nine protesters were killed in violence across the country's restive south, officials and medical sources said as anti-Saleh demonstrators vowed they would not stop their actions.
Yemeni troops killed at least nine people and maimed more than 100 others as they shot up anti-regime protesters in Sanaa on Wednesday, medical sources said.
Eight bodies were taken to a private university hospital and one was carried off to a field hospital in the main square where a protest camp has been active for the past three months, the sources said.
They said 10 of the maimed were at death's door, after violence broke out as troops moved in to disperse the demonstration to call for the immediate ouster of President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh.
"We are not against change as long as it is done by democratic and peaceful means, within the constitution, and with respect to the people's will," Saleh said Wednesday in a statement carried by state news agency Saba.
Saleh also accused his opponents of attempting a "coup against democracy and the constitution."
The embattled leader's comments came after the president and opposition agreed on Tuesday to sign a landmark deal in the coming days for an orderly transition and end three months of unrest that has killed more than 135 people.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which is brokering the transition deal, said their foreign ministers would meet in Riyadh on Sunday to work out the modalities of their plan for Yemen.
"Riyadh will host on Sunday an extraordinary meeting for the Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers to continue the procedures for the adoption of the GCC initiative," the Gulf Arab grouping said in a statement.
However,
The flatulent
However...
hundreds of activists demonstrated outside the Saudi embassy in Sanaa on Wednesday in protest at the Gulf initiative, insisting that Saleh go immediately.
"Youth of the revolt reject the Gulf initiative," said a banner carried by the young protesters outside the embassy.