Yemen protesters attacked by troops

San`a, Yemen

Yemen protesters attacked by troops

Yemeni security troops opened fire Thursday on thousands of protesters calling for a boycott of April parliamentary elections and wounded about two dozen demonstrators, the organizers of the rally said.

Yemeni Socialist Party leader Yaseen Said No'man said the opposition has been holding demonstrations across Yemen to protest the government's rejection of electoral reforms.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power since 1978, ruling North Yemen and then South Yemen when the two united in 1990, won 1999 elections overwhelmingly amid opposition boycotts, claims of vote-rigging and clashes at polling booths that left several dead.

Jerusalem

Rival says Israeli leader should quit

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday called on the country's embattled prime minister to step down immediately in light of growing signs that he will soon be indicted on corruption charges.

The announcement came a day after Israel's attorney general said he was considering filing charges against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for allegedly double billing Jewish groups for trips abroad.

His departure would clear the way for Livni to become acting prime minister until the election.

Yangon, Myanmar

Burmese comedian gets 59 years in jail

A court inside Myanmar's notorious Insein prison sentenced a comedian who has criticized the government's cyclone response to 14 more years Thursday, bringing his total prison term to 59 years.

Comedian and activist Zarganar was given a 45-year prison sentence last week after he was convicted on charges related to interviews he gave to foreign media outlets. In the interviews, he said the government was too slow in responding to a May cyclone that killed more than 84,000 people in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Also

Forced landing: SAS airlines said an Airbus 330 plane carrying 193 people en route from Stockholm, Sweden, to Chicago was forced to land at Vaernes Airport in central Norway after shutting down one of its two engines.

Coastal pirates: Pirates boarded a Chinese fishing vessel in a rare attack off West Africa, officials said Thursday. Four of the pirates, all from neighboring Guinea, were killed early Wednesday by the Sierra Leone navy after they seized the Shanghai 3, whose crew radioed for help after the pirates made off with their fish.

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