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Protesters defiant as Saleh disappoints
Gaddafi kin leave Algeria for Egypt, says report
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CIA office attacked in Kabul, US citizen killed
‘The tree lady’ loses battle to cancer
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Protesters defiant as Saleh disappoints
Sanaa, September 26 Saleh, who returned on Friday from Saudi Arabia, where he had been treated for severe burns, called for elections and a “peaceful exchange of power” in a televised speech on Sunday. But his failure to promise to step down fuelled more anger on Monday on the streets of Sanaa, where protests have raged since January. “His speech was about creating chaos, not solutions. There was nothing there to solve this crisis,” said Abdullah Magany, a high school biology teacher sitting in Change Square, the street encampment at the centre of the protest movement. “We need to keep escalating our protests.” Yet the mood in the square was subdued compared to the chaos of the past week, when about 100 people died in fighting between heavily armed loyalists and foes of Yemen’s president of 33 years. “There is a wary calm here and people aren’t sure what to do next,” said Rashad al-Sharayi, a soldier from the First Armoured Brigade, led by General Ali Mohsen, who defected and sided with the protesters in March. “But he (Saleh) needs to have a deal signed fast ... there will be more clashes for sure because so far he isn’t doing anything ... We were willing to sit here and defend protesters, but if he asks for war he’ll get it,” said Sharayi. Yemen is fighting rebellions in the north and south as well as a wing of Al-Qaida eager to exploit the chaos. Neighbouring Saudi Arabia and its ally, the United States, have aided Saleh to keep Qaida at bay and fear that a power vacuum could endanger Western interests in the Gulf and oil shipping routes through the Red Sea. The protesters accuse the president and his family of widespread corruption and failing to address crippling poverty and lawlessness in a land where one in two people owns a gun. Western and Gulf states have urged Saleh to quit and sign a Gulf-brokered power transition plan. Diplomats said after the speech that there was little evidence Saleh was going to leave or guarantee an orderly transfer of power. At least 450 people have been killed since the start of the protests in January.
— Reuters General killed
A general was killed and 30 other troops loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh were taken hostage when tribesmen overnight attacked their base north of Sanaa, tribal sources and officials said on Monday. General Abdullah al-Kulaibi, head of the 63rd brigade of the elite Republican Guard unit, was killed in the attack by tribesman opposed to Saleh's rule in the strategic town of Nihm, the defence ministry said in a statement.
— AFP
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Gaddafi kin leave Algeria for Egypt, says report
Cairo, September 26 The source, however, did not provide any names. He only said Gaddafi’s daughter Aisha, who recently gave birth in Algeria, might be among them, the report said. Algeria permitted members of Gaddafi’s family to enter the country late August. Aisha gave birth to a baby girl in an Algerian border town. Aisha Gaddafi was criticised by Algerian authorities a few days ago when she issued a message terming Libya’s rebel National Transitional Council as “traitors”. The statement, aired on Syria-based Al-Rai satellite channel, drew sharp criticism from Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Mdeleci, who called Aisha’s comment “unacceptable” and pledged to take measures to prevent its recurrence.
— IANS
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CIA office attacked in Kabul, US citizen killed
Kabul, September 26 “There was a shooting incident at an annex of the US embassy in Kabul last night involving an Afghan employee, who was killed,” the US embassy said in a statement. “The motivation for the attack is still under investigation. One US citizen was killed in the attack and another wounded.” Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall declined to comment on what the annex was used for, citing security reasons. Former US intelligence officials have said on condition of anonymity that the building where the attack took place is a CIA office. Sundwall said the Afghan employee was not authorised to carry a weapon, and it was not clear how the employee was able to get a gun into the secured compound. The embassy did not provide information on the US citizen who was killed in the attack.
— AP
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‘The tree lady’ loses battle to cancer
Nairobi, September 26 She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, where over 30 years she mobilized poor women to plant 30 million trees. Edward Wageni, that group’s deputy executive director, said Maathai died in a Nairobi hospital late Sunday. Maathai had been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, he said. In recognising Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime in Kenya and that her “unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression.” Maathai said during her 2004 acceptance speech that the inspiration for her life’s work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya, where she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water. Although the Green Belt Movement’s tree-planting campaign did not initially address the issues of peace and democracy, she said it become clear over time that responsible governance of the environment was not possible without democracy. WANgari Maathai, who
was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an organisation which
campaigned for environmental conservation and good governance, won the
2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her reforestation work in her native Kenya.
She was the first African woman, the first Kenyan and the first
environmentalist to receive this honour. Her organisation has planted
some 30 million trees across Africa.
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A former member of Kenya’s parliament, Maathai was the first woman to earn a doctorate in East Africa in 1971 from the University of Nairobi. The Green Belt Movement, which was founded in 1977, said on its website that Maathai’s death was a great loss to those who “admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier and better place.”
— AP