YEMEN: President’s injuries worse than reported.
The uncertainty surrounding the political future of Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, deepened Tuesday as he was treated for far more severe burns than had first been disclosed, while maneuvering intensified in the capitals of Yemen, the United States and Saudi Arabia to head off an emerging and dangerous power vacuum.
Saleh’s sudden departure from Yemen initially prompted warring factions to call a cease-fire, but that failed to stabilize the fractured nation as fighting Tuesday intensified in the south between militants and the government, leaving dozens dead. Saleh was flown to Saudi Arabia on Saturday for treatment. On Tuesday it was reported that he suffered burns on 40 percent of his body and that a large wooden shard sliced into him and may have punctured a lung.
WASHINGTON: Congressional support for NATO in Libya delayed.
A Senate resolution backing limited U.S. involvement in the NATO-led military campaign against Libya was in doubt Tuesday amid uncertainty and divisions among lawmakers over the next step.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee abruptly postponed action on the resolution scheduled for Thursday. The delay came after the House voted Friday to rebuke Obama for failing to provide a “compelling rationale” for the Libyan mission and demanding a report “describing in detail” the operation’s objective, its costs and its impact on the nation’s two other wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Forty-five Democrats joined the Republican majority in passing the resolution.
SYRIA: Gay blogger detained.
A Syrian- American lesbian blogger known for her frank posts about her sexuality and her open criticism of President Bashar Assad’s autocratic rule was detained after weeks on the run in the Syrian capital, her cousin and an activist said Tuesday.
Amina Arraf wrote a blog called “A Gay Girl in Damascus,” a mixture of erotic prose and updates about Syria’s uprising, including her participation in anti-regime protests.
Her cousin, Rania Ismail, said Arraf was last seen Monday being bundled into a car by three men in civilian clothes.
The car, Ismail wrote in a post on her cousin’s blog, had a sticker depicting Assad’s late brother Basel, according to a friend who was nearby and saw what happened.
Denver Post wire services
