YEMEN:
At least 26 protesters were killed and more than 550 were injured, hundreds by gunshot, when security forces fired live bullets and tear gas at a massive demonstration in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday, a medic said.
The death toll is expected to rise because some of those injured were in critical condition, eyewitnesses said.
Dozens of troops were seen at the area of the attack shooting directly at protesters. At least 96 of the injured are in critical condition, a medic at Change Square confirmed. "Central security forces brutally attacked tens of thousands of protesters who walked" from Change Square outside Sanaa University to call for the ouster of the regime, said Ali Kuraimi, a protester who was at the scene.
All roads leading to Change Square, where thousands have been conducting a seven-month sit-in to call for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, were closed. Saleh, who is recuperating in Saudi Arabia from a June attack on his palace, has vowed to return to Yemen to finish his term. Other witnesses said they had seen .50-caliber machine guns being used against the tribesmen. Protesters told CNN that Central Security Forces were hurling gas canisters at them, suffocating them. "Protesters were intercepted while on Zubairy Street and in Al-Qa'a district where the forces showed no mercy," said Saleem Munassar, an eyewitness.
Video posted on YouTube purported to show the protest. In it, what appears to be water and tear gas are shot to disperse the crowd. Gunshots can be heard, as well as someone shouting: "This revolution is peaceful, peaceful. We are here for our beloved martyrs. We will not back down!" Protesters can be seen in the video throwing what appear to be bottles or rocks. CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video.
Yemen's state-run news agency reported that "militias of the Islah opposition party and 1st armoured division" staged an unauthorized protest Sunday. A security source from the interior ministry told the Saba news agency that the militias threw Molotov cocktails at a power station, causing generators to burn. They also attacked anti-riot forces, wounding four soldiers, Saba reported, according to the ministry source. The opposition National Council condemned the attack and called on the international community to take action against Saleh's regime.
"These crimes will not be forgotten and the regime will stand trial and in front of international questioning," said a statement from the council. The Interior Ministry denied that it was behind the attacks and blamed militias of Muslim brotherhood and the first armored division forces, who defected from the government in March. "The opposition forces are using these youth for their own benefits," said a senior interior ministry official, who is not authorized to talk to media.
Hasaba zone, in the northwestern part of the capital, was the scene of violent clashes between tribesmen loyal to the revolution and the Republican Guards for a fourth consecutive day Sunday night. Hasaba is the area of residence of Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the Hashed tribal confederation, whose tribes clashed with government troops in May.
Ahmar issued a statement saying he had not yet broken the truce agreed on with the government in June and that despite the government shelling his stronghold he did not yet allow his men to retaliate. He warned, however, that such provocations against his men would not go unpunished. Residents in Hasaba reported a "rain of bullets," adding that what sounded like mortar bombs was being launched Sunday evening at al-Ahmar property.
PAKISTAN
Eight people were killed Monday after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the home of a senior police official, Karachi police said. Six officers who were stationed as guards were killed in the attack, along with a mother and a girl as they were walking to the girl's school, said Shoukat Ali, a senior Karachi police official. The house was badly damaged, but the intended target of the attack -- Chaudhry Aslam -- is safe, said Jamil Khan, a Karachi police official.
Aslam appeared on national news channels and said he has been receiving threats from the Taliban "for a long time" but vowed to continue fighting the militants. "I have been defeating Taliban (militants) by arresting them, and will continue until I have last drop of blood in my body," Aslam said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But Aslam warned, "I will give Taliban a lesson which even their children will remember forever."
PALESTINA
Standing under a large poster of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock, Nabil Saeed lays out large rolls of red, green, white and black cloth on his workshop table. These are the colors of his homeland, one he hopes will soon become a fully recognized state.
The flag-maker marks the cloth in precise shapes before cutting different colored layers as the hum of a sewing machine is heard from a small room next door. The Saeed family home in the West Bank city of Hebron has been bustling with activity lately, as they seek to meet the increased demand for Palestinian flags ahead of an expected move by the Palestinian Authority to seek statehood at the United Nations next week.
Having cut the cloth, Saeed and his wife, together with his nephew Mahmoud, sit in a small room, filled with textiles, threads of different colors, and three small tables. Perched upon each table is an old sewing machine, like a relic of a bygone era.
Like clockwork, the pieces of cloth here are passed between them. First, Nabil's nephew, Mahmoud, sews the pieces together, passes them to Saeed's wife, who passes the flag-in-making on to him, who quickly adds the finishing touches and lays it on a pile of flags on the table next to him.
During the past few weeks the three of them have sewn over fifteen thousand flags says Nabil, who has been doing this for over 40 years. His profession has even landed him behind bars in an Israeli prison. "During the first Intifada we were only producing a very small quantity of flags because it was forbidden, but when the Palestinian Authority arrived we started producing huge quantities," he explains.
At a time when business is slow, Saeed welcomes the Palestinian authority's U.N. initiative and the public relations campaign behind it. He says it has brought him fresh business, at a time when the global economy and foreign competition has made his job more difficult than ever.
During the second Intifada we also produced large quantities of flags, but when people started importing the flags from outside with cheaper prices, it was not that good business," Nabil says, remembering that he used to be able to charge the equivalent of about seven dollars for a flag. He says he would be lucky to get four dollars today.
We used to do thousands of flags before people start importing the flags from China, it's something that affected the prices dramatically. It caused us to stop producing," he says. But money is not the driving factor for the flag maker, rather he is driven by the dream of finally having a Palestinian State. "This flag that we sew and will continue to sew, we hope we will see it raised at the United Nations with the rest of the world. This is our hope, and we are sure that one day our flags will be raised in the United Nations and on every international occasion. It is a dream that is coming true, and we hope that our brothers, the Arabs, will support us," the flag makers say. Mahmoud, Saeed's nephew, agrees.
"Money is not the issue here, what is important is to have a state where we can live in dignity, where we can go wherever we want, where we can visit our holy places and walk our streets without having soldiers stopping us and asking for ID. This would be much better than any quantity of money. Business is important, but living in freedom and dignity is much more important," Mahmoud says.
Yaeem Al-Heleh has been running a printing business just down the road from Saeed's flag factory since the 1980's. Cardboard boxes full of flyers, posters, and small printed flags are stacked in the corner of the room. Nearby, workers use a hot press to flatten the freshly printed flags and others print large posters adorned with the picture of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat standing next to current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Like his friend Nabil Saeed, Al-Heleh welcomes the extra income the Palestinian statehood campaign has brought, and he too believes the dream it carries is important. "We have been dreaming of having a state since the beginning of occupation. People were very positive towards this campaign. Here in Palestine everybody is supporting this idea. We hope to have the support from the Arab states and the whole world," he says.
Although he, like many, sees the likelihood of Palestinian Authority success at the United Nations Security Council as very low, AL-Heleh says he is hopeful that the Palestinian push for statehood will bring change.
"The flag today has a special meaning, before we used to fight in order to raise it. The flag used to be raised and then the Israeli soldiers used to take it down and now the flag is in a way of getting sovereignty and recognition. Now 130 countries recognize us and are ready to support us, I think it's a dream that could come true," he says.
Sitting behind his sewing machine Nabil Saeed sighs when asked whether he thinks the Palestinian Authority will succeed with its effort this month. "If we don't succeed in September, it won't be the end and we will continue the resistance until our flag is raised everywhere. I will continue sewing the flag and I will never get bored of it. This is our flag, this is our pride and we will continue raising it all of our lives," he said.
SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/