Yemeni police with clubs yesterday beat anti-government protesters who were calling for the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, while thousands of Algerians defied an official ban on demonstrations in the capital and gathered in the city center for a pro-reform protest, the day after weeks of mass protests in Egypt succeeded in toppling the president.
The crackdown in Yemen reflected an effort to undercut a protest movement seeking fresh momentum from the developments in Egypt, where an 18-day uprising toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
The US is in a delicate position because it advocates democratic reform, but wants stability in Yemen because it is seen as a key ally in its fight against Islamic militants.
Hundreds of protesters had tried to reach the Egyptian embassy in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital yesterday, but security forces pushed them back. Buses ferried ruling party members, equipped with tents, food and water, to the city’s main square to help prevent attempts by protesters to gather there.
There were about 5,000 security agents and government supporters in the Sana’a square named Tahrir, or Liberation. Egypt’s protesters built an encampment at a square of the same name in Cairo, and it became a rallying point for their movement.
Witnesses said police, including plainclothes agents, drove several thousand protesters away from Sanaa’s main square on Friday night. The demonstrators tore up pictures of Saleh and shouted slogans demanding his immediate resignation.
Saleh has been in power for three decades and tried to blunt unrest by promising not to run again. His term ends in 2013.
In Algeria, protest organizers estimated that about 10,000 had flooded downtown Algiers, where they skirmished with riot police attempting to block off streets and disperse the crowd. Some arrests were reported.
Protesters chanted slogans including “No to the police state” and “Bouteflika out,” a reference to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power since 1999.
“It is a state of siege,” said Abdeslam Ali Rachedi, a university lecturer and government opponent.
Under Algeria’s long-standing state of emergency, protests are banned in Algiers, but the government’s repeated warnings for people to stay out of the streets apparently fell on deaf ears.
The success on the “people’s revolution” in Egypt and Tunisia, which pushed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile on Jan. 14, looked bound to fuel the hopes of those seeking change in Algeria, though many in this conflict-scarred country fear any prospect of violence following the brutal insurgency by Islamist extremists in the 1990s that has left an estimated 200,000 dead.
Organized by the Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, an umbrella group of human rights activists, unionists, lawyers and others, yesterday’s march was aimed at pressing for reforms to push Algeria toward democracy and didn’t include any specific call by organizers to oust Bouteflika.
A spokesman for the opposition RCD party said police had arrested 1,000 demonstrators. An interior ministry statement said 14 people were detained and immediately released.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
RSS