Yemeni Police Kill One, Wound Others Ahead of Talks
Yemeni police killed one man and wounded several other people on Tuesday when they opened fire on anti-regime demonstrators ahead of a government delegation meeting with Gulf foreign ministers in Abu Dhabi.
Police fired "indiscriminately" on protesters demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Wadi al-Qadi district of Taez, the second most-populated city of Yemen, south of Sanaa, according to witnesses.
Several people suffered gunshot wounds, including a passer-by who was seriously injured after being shot while in his car, witnesses said.
The passer-by, Talaat Abdullah Ghaleb, died of his wounds in a Taez hospital about two hours after being shot, a medic said.
Organizers of the protest also said that four people, including a newspaper photographer, were arrested by security forces.
More than 125 people have been killed in the protests which broke out across the impoverished state in late January.
A Yemeni government delegation was to meet the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi to discuss an exit plan proposed by the oil-rich bloc.
GCC foreign ministers met on Sunday in Riyadh with a Yemeni opposition delegation seeking details on a plan for embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh's departure. The opposition has remained adamant that Saleh must go.
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".
The U.N. Security Council will also discuss the crisis in Yemen for the first time on Tuesday.
"It is a sign of the growing attention that Yemen is attracting after Egypt, Tunisia and Libya," said a U.N. diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity, in reference to other protest-hit Arab states.
Meanwhile, Yemeni lawmakers who split from the ruling General People's Congress party have established a new political group calling for Saleh's ouster, a statement from the bloc said.
The new group, named "Justice and Building Bloc", comprises former ministers and members of the parliament who had deserted GPC in protest over the heavy-handed response by authorities to anti-Saleh demonstrations.
Members of the new group have called for "regime change" and the "immediate departure" of Saleh, according to the statement released late Monday.
The bloc was announced in a ceremony on Monday in Sanaa.
It includes former minister of tourism Nabil al-Faqih, minister of human rights, Huda al-Baan, and transport minister Khaled al-Wazir, in addition to former GPC politburo member Mohammed Abu Lahum, among others.
Source: Agence France Presse
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