Saleh won't resign until opposition leaders leave Yemen

Yemeni army soldiers embark on a search for Al-Qaeda militants Sana'a - Agencies Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he would not resign until two of his fierce opponents leave the country, the Al-Khaleej paper said quoting an opposition spokesman. Saleh, who is in Riyadh recovering from a June bomb attack, met with his ruling party, General People Congress, and said he was ready to consider restarting talks on a deal brokered by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to leave office early. Saleh, whose 33-year rule has been challenged by a nationwide popular uprising since February, said he would sign the document. He added that his former allies-turned-enemies, top General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, must leave the country first. General Ali Mohsen is President Saleh's half-brother, who officially moved into opposition on March 21. Sheikh al-Ahmar is a leader of the Hashid tribal confederation, the second largest in Yemen. President Saleh has blamed al-Ahmar's supporters of organizing the bomb attack on him in his residence on June 4 in which he suffered burns on 40 percent of his body. Both opposition leaders have allegedly agreed to Saleh's demand that they leave the country, the opposition spokesman said. Yemeni opposition leaders said in late July that they would not negotiate peace with the president unless he signs the Gulf Cooperation Council deal brokered to leave office early and transfer powers to his deputy.
US officials believe that a regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin in order to use it in future attacks against the United States, The New York Times reported late Friday.  Citing unspecified classified intelligence reports, the newspaper said Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin. Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Al Qaeda operatives are trying to move the beans and processing agents to a hideaway in the Shabwa Province. According to the report, evidence indicates that Al Qaeda in Yemen is trying secretly to produce batches of the poison, pack them around small explosives, and then try to explode them in contained spaces like a shopping mall, an airport or a subway station. President Barack Obama and top security aides were briefed about the threat last year, the report said, and have received updates since then but added that senior American officials said there was no indication an attack was imminent. Ricin is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream. But the Times noted that there were limits on ricin’s utility as a weapon because it loses its potency in dry, sunny conditions which prevail in Yemen and unlike many nerve agents is not easily absorbed through the skin like some other nerve agents. Senior administration officials said ricin was among the threats being tracked by a secret government task force created after printer cartridges packed with powerful explosives were found in cargo bound for Chicago in October 2010, according to the Times report. It said the task force was working with Saudi officials and with the remnants of Yemen's intelligence agencies to counter the threat. It said regional Al Qaeda affiliates, especially Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, were seen as a menace to the United States and US interests abroad. The virtual collapse of Yemen’s government has enabled Al Qaeda to widen its control in the country and strengthen its operational ties with Al Shabab, the Islamic militancy in Somalia, the Times said. Four suspected Al Qaeda members were killed by army fire outside the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar, most of which has fallen under the control of Islamist militants, a Yemeni official announced Thursday.