YEMEN: President refuses to resign as threat of civil war looms.
Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed Wednesday that he would not step down or allow his impoverished nation to become a “failed state” even as urban combat between government troops and armed tribesmen engulfed parts of the capital.
Both sides raised the specter of civil war as the three-day death toll rose to at least 69. After nightfall, residents reported heavy shelling that appeared to come from outside the city, targeting residential areas. The crackle of heavy gunfire could be heard in different parts of the city. Northwest of Sana, a brigade of Saleh’s presidential guard clashed with local tribesmen — showing that the fighting was spreading outside the capital.
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department ordered nonessential U.S. diplomats to leave Yemen and urged private Americans to leave.
SYRIA: Opposition says children tortured, slain.
More than 25 children, some of them tortured, are among the victims of the Syrian government’s deadly crackdown on an uprising that has killed more than 1,000 people over the past two months, an opposition group says. The Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which helps organize the protests against President Bashar Assad, identified the children and the circumstances of their deaths. Syria has blocked media access in the country, making it impossible to verify the reports independently.
Some of the children died “under severe torture,” the group’s statement said, noting the children range in age from 5 and 17.
BAHRAIN: 4 protesters sentenced to jail.
A special Bahrain security court sentenced four demonstrators to a year in jail for involvement in anti-government protests, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said Wednesday. The convictions are part of a series of closed-door trials in a special court set up in March during a crackdown on the Shiite-led protests. Denver Post wire services
