Flag-waving: Yemeni children wear the national flag with pride around their heads and on scarves
Yemen is next of the Middle Eastern countries to have protests urging their leader to step down.
Ali Abdullah Saleh has ruled Yemen for 32 years and has agreed to step down, after the end of the year and when new elections can be set up.
After forces to Saleh opened fire on demonstrators last week, killing over 40, the protesters' ranks were bolstered by a series of high-level officials from the country's military, diplomatic corps and civil servants, including the president's former chief adviser, Ali Mohsen.
Today, President Saleh, convened a meeting of his ruling General People's Congress party to discuss the situation.
They recommended forming a new government to draft a new constitution based on a parliamentary system in line with reform offers by President Saleh.
'Members of the central committee of the People's Congress stress the quick need to form a government tasked with drafting a new constitution for the country on the basis of a parliamentary system,' a report said.
A party source said the its central committee, which contains thousands of members, had asked Saleh to stay in power until 2013, when his presidential term expires.
One of Saleh's first concessions when protests began in February was to say he would not seek another period in office beyond that date.
In an interview aired by Al Arabiya television on Sunday, Saleh said he was prepared for a dignified departure at any stage but that opposition parties were hijacking the protests to demand he quit without organising a democratic handover.
'I could leave power ... even in a few hours, on condition of maintaining respect and prestige,' he said.
'I have to take the country to safe shores ... I'm holding on to power in order to hand it over peaceably.''
But Saleh refuses to step down immediately, saying it would draw the country into a long civil war. He has offered to resign at the end of the year after setting new elections.
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AP/Hani Mohammed
Supporters of the Yemeni government shout slogans as they try to enter Sanaa University where anti-government protestors gather, in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011.
More protesters, now in Yemen, calling for a change in their government. Again, we see that an ally of the US is being called to step down.
The story is almost identical to what we read about the situation in Egypt, just a different cast of characters.
Yemen – Police opened fire on protesters during clashes in a southern Yemeni port Wednesday, killing two people, in the first known deaths in six days of Egypt-style demonstrations across the country's biggest cities, demanding the ouster of the president, a key U.S. ally in battling al-Qaida.
Around 2,000 police flooded the streets of the capital, Sanaa, trying to halt protests. Firing in the air, police locked the gates of Sanaa University with chains to prevent thousands of protesting students inside from marching out join crowds demonstrating elsewhere in the city, witnesses said.
A call spread via Facebook and Twitter urging Yemenis to join a series of "One Million People" rallies on a so-called "Friday of Rage" in all Yemeni cities, demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 32 years.
"We will remain in the streets until the regime's departure," according to a statement posted on Facebook. Copies signed by a group named the Feb. 24 Movement were distributed among youth via e-mail. The group is taking that name because organizers hope to have their biggest protest on that day next week.
Taking inspiration from the toppling of autocratic leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, the protesters are demanding political reforms and Saleh's resignation, complaining of poverty, unemployment and corruption in the Arab world's most impoverished nation.
Saleh has tried to defuse protesters' anger amid the unprecedented street demonstrations by saying he will not run for another term in 2013 and that he will not seek to set up his son, Ahmed, to succeed him in the conflict-ridden and impoverished nation.
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Riot police in Aden fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas in fierce clashes with thousands of demonstrators. Two protesters, including a 23-year-old shot in the head, were killed, a security officer said.
Twenty others were wounded, at least one seriously, according to a medical official, who like the security officer spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
AFP/Graphic – A map showing the locations where two parcel bombs were intercepted in transit to the USA. The United …
One of two mail bombs sent from Yemen last week was disarmed just 17 minutes before it was set to go off, the French interior minister said Thursday, but American and British officials said they had no information that would confirm that.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the question of when the bombs found in Britain and the United Arab Emirates were to go off was still under investigation and there was no information confirming such a close call.
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Click the title to read the latest coming from Yemen concerning
al-Qaida with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
