Nobel Prize winner from Yemen coming to Michigan

Associated Press

November 5, 2011

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— University of Michigan says 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman (tah-WAH'-kuhl kar-MAHN') of Yemen plans to speak on the Ann Arbor campus about the role of women in protests sweeping the Arab world.

University spokesman William Foreman told The Associated Press Saturday that Karman is scheduled to talk Nov. 14 at Rackham Auditorium. She also plans to speak earlier in the day in Dearborn, considered the capital of Arab-America.

The Ann Arbor speech is open to the public and expected to be followed by a question-and-answer session.

The 32-year-old Karman has been an activist for human rights in Yemen for years. She is the first Arab woman to win the prize.

She was honored last month along with Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee.

Clashes in Sa’ada Between Houthis and Salafis

Sana'a, November 5, 2011- One Salafi student was killed in clashes between the Shia Houthi Movement and the extreme Sunni Salafi movement in the northern Yemen Sa’ada province.

The escalations between both groups started when Houthis claimed that Salafis are entering weapons inside their educational institutions in the town of Dammaj, and demanded that all military posts are emptied.

As Salafis refused, a tightened siege against their religious school complex took place early this week resulting in no food or medicine entering the facility.

Fares Manna, the governor of Sa’ada, did not succeed in having a ceasefire continue for more than four hours.

Salafis are calling on the Yemeni government to help in ending the siege of their educational institution before a war outbreak takes place।

Source: Yemen Post

Yemen army 'kills 5 Qaeda suspects'

November 5, 2011 (AFP)

ADEN — Five Al-Qaeda suspects have been killed in artillery shelling by Yemen's army in the country's restive southern city of Zinjibar, officials said on Saturday.

"The army's 25th Mechanised Brigade fired artillery shells late Friday at an area in Zinjibar's east killing five Al-Qaeda militants," an army official told AFP.

A local official in the nearby town of Jaar, an Al-Qaeda stronghold, confirmed the bodies of "five Al-Qaeda militants" were brought to the town from Zinjibar.

Tribesmen and Yemen's army have been battling militants from the "Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law)" who are believed to be close to Al-Qaeda in the country's southern and eastern regions.

Yemen has been gripped by violence as the government in Sanaa has become weakened by anti-regime protests that have rocked the country since January.

The international community has expressed fears the power vacuum in the impoverished country could play into the hands of Al-Qaeda.

Hundreds have died in battles between security forces and protesters, and security forces and Al-Qaeda fighters, amid growing fears the extremists will exploit the fragile political situation to seize Yemen's restive regions.

Yemen's ruling party urges opposition leaders abroad to return for power-transfer dialogue

SANAA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's ruling party on Friday urged the opposition leaders, who have been touring Arab countries for two weeks to seek support, to return home for resuming power- transfer dialogue.

"Today we call on leaders of the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties' (JMP) to return to Sanaa to resume the dialogue of power transfer based on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2014, " the ruling party General People's Congress (GPC) said in a statement posted on its website.

The European Union ambassador to Yemen Michele Cervone d'Urso told the Yemeni state Saba news agency on Tuesday that Ali Abdullah Saleh has made a positive step to hand power to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

"We hope that Eidal-Adha (Muslim holiday) will be an occasion to announce that Yemen has moved towards a new stage," d'Urso said, adding that "an agreement will be reached soon with the opposition. "

An official of the GPC said Saleh "finally agreed to move ahead in signing the GCC initiative to hand power to Hadi."

"But Saleh stipulates that he remains in office as honorary president until new president is elected, which is to be held in weeks after he signs the deal," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The GCC initiative, which was brokered in April, stipulated Saleh to quit in 30 days and hand over power to Hadi, who would then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days. Saleh has backed out of signing the deal three times in the last minute.

The impoverished Arab country has been rattled by almost daily protest since late January to call for an end to the 33-year rule of Saleh.

Pro-and-anti government rallies by thousands of demonstrators continued on Friday in the capital Sanaa, Taiz and some other major provinces to repeat their demands for-and-against Saleh.

In response, spokeswoman of the opposition National Council, Houria Mash'hour, described Saleh's move as "a good progress."

"The JMP's leaders are now committed to the appointments with leaders of some Gulf countries and they will come back to Sanaa simultaneously with the return of the UN envoy to Yemen Jamal bin Omar, who is coordinating the power-transfer deal between the opposition and Saleh's ruling party," she told Xinhua.

"We have learned that bin Omar will arrive in Sanaa on Nov. 11 to follow up the implementation of the UN resolution," Mash'hour added.