Ongoing clashes in Yemen claim protester''s life

Sanaa, Feb 16 (AFP) Police shot and killed a protesterin Yemen''s main southern city of Aden, medics said, whilestreet unrest in the capital Sanaa against President AliAbdullah Saleh flared for a fourth straight day.

The unidentified fatality was among four woundedpeople taken to hospital in Aden, where demonstrators hurledstones at police, set tyres and vehicles on fire and stormed amunicipal building where heavy gunfire was heard.

Medics said the victim had been hit in the back.

Security forces, heavily deployed in Aden, arrested atleast four people as they fired warning shots and tear gas todisperse protesters who had gathered at the Al-Ruweishat busstation in the Al-Mansura neighbourhood of Aden.

Chanting "the people want to overthrow the regime" and "it''stime to leave, Ali," the protesters represented the angerswelling in Yemen, the poorest Arab state, strategicallylocated at the southwest corner of the Arabian peninsula.

In the capital Sanaa, at least 10 protesters were hurtamid clashes between students demanding the ouster ofPresident Ali Abdullah Saleh and supporters of his rulingGeneral People''s Congress.

Hundreds of students had set off for Al-Sabiine squarenear the presidential palace, only to be attacked by a likenumber of Saleh loyalists armed with batons, stones anddaggers.

The protesters -- inspired by the uprisings in Egyptand Tunisia -- responded by hurling stones, and when theviolence spread into the campus of Sanaa university, where themarch began, police fired warning shots.

"The thugs and supporters of the ruling party...wantto massacre" the students, the head of the university''sstudent union, Radwan Masud, told AFP, adding that 10 studentshad been hurt.

He vowed that the students would "continue theirrevolt and will not be hindered by the ruling party''sactions."

Elsewhere in Sanaa, a sit-in by judges demandinggreater independence for the judiciary and the sacking of theentire Supreme Judicial Council, including the justiceminister, went into its second day outside the justiceministry.

The judges, who have poured into Sanaa from all overYemen, also want higher salaries.

In other protests, workers in Sanaa gathered atseveral state-owned companies to demand that their managers tostep down. They too also called for higher wages.

Police in Sanaa stepped in when supporters andopponents of the president clashed yesterday, leaving threeinjured. In Taez, south of the capital, the two sides alsoclashed.

On Monday, rocks and batons flew in the capital asprotesters -- mainly students and lawyers -- confronted policeand Saleh''s supporters. Police also clashed with around 2,000protesters in Sanaa on Sunday.

In the face of the unrest, Saleh has postponed a visitto the United States that had been planned for later thismonth, after the opposition agreed on Sunday to resume talkssuspended since October. (AFP)