YEMEN: President vows to return.
Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed Tuesday to return home from Saudi Arabia, a move that could set off a violent new phase in the impoverished country’s six-month uprising.
Security across Yemen has collapsed during the revolt, with al-Qaeda-linked militants controlling entire towns in the country’s south and anti-government tribes clashing with security forces elsewhere. In the past two days, at least 33 people were killed in fighting north of the capital, medical officials said.
Saleh, Yemen’s ruler for 33 years, has been in neighboring Saudi Arabia recovering from severe burns and other wounds suffered June 5 after his compound was bombed.
SYRIA: 10,000 flee barrage.
U.N. officials said Tuesday that as many as 10,000 residents of a Palestinian refugee neighborhood fled during a four-day assault as security forces carried out more arrests and intimidation in what residents said was a government attempt to rebuild a wall of fear in one of Syria’s largest cities.
Latakia, on the country’s coast, is the third area to bear the full brunt of military and security forces this month.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it was more effective to forge global consensus against President Bashar Assad — as well as intensify economic pressure through sanctions — than for the U.S. alone to lead the way. Denver Post wire services
