The police forces opened fire to disperse an anti-government march of thousands of protesters in Yemen’s western province of Al-Hodayda on Tuesday, injuring more than 20 protesters, witnesses said.

The police used live bullets and tear gas to put down the march demanding an immediate end to the 33-year rule of embattled President Ali Abdulla Saleh, one eyewitness told Xinhua.

More than 20 protesters were shot wounded. They were rushed to hospitals as several of them were in critical conditions, according to doctors.

The police late on Monday stormed a student anti-government sit- in inside the campus of Al-Hodayda University, injuring at least ten students.

The students demanded the postponement of classes in the university “until the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh falls, ” the witnesses said.

Leaders of the opposition and youth-led protesters said on Tuesday they are considering to escalate their peaceful protests through marching forward all government ministries and presidential palaces in major cites to force Saleh’s immediate ouster, two sources familiar with situation told Xinhua.

They said the escalation will take place based on the fruit of the consultative meeting of the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh on Tuesday.

Political stalemate in Yemen dominated the agenda of the six- nation GCC meeting.

On Sunday, the opposition gave President Saleh two days to sign the Gulf-brokered initiative for power transition, otherwise it would leave Saleh to face “the people’s choice.”

Yemen’s security situation aggravated by the ongoing street protests since mid February, which repeatedly demanded of an immediate end to the rule of Saleh.

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Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas (R) attends Fatah Revolutionary council meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 9, 2011. (Xinhua/Fadi Arouri)

RAMALLAH, May 10 (Xinhua) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians are determined to seek recognition of a Palestinian state from the United Nations in September, a Ramallah-based newspaper reported Tuesday.

“The issue of going to the UN is decisive and it doesn’t endure any play or maneuvering,” Abbas said during a meeting of the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah movement here on Monday night, according to the report.

However, Abbas stressed that the negotiations with Israel remain the preferable choice for the Palestinians and that the Palestinians will continue efforts to resume the talks.

The negotiations stopped in September 2010 four weeks after the United States brokered them. The Palestinians walked out of the talks, protesting the resumption of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank. Abbas decided to move to the UN as a response to the settlement building.

On the internal level, meanwhile, Abbas said he is serious to implement a reconciliation agreement that Egypt brokered between Fatah and the Islamic Hamas movements last week.

“The priority is now to form a government of independents and then the formation of committees to implement the agreement,” Abbas said.

The agreement would restore political unity to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The split widened when Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over Gaza by force in June 2007.

Related:

Netanyahu says only negotiation can achieve peace with Palestine

PARIS, May 5 (Xinhua) — Israel won’t accept UN diktat to resolve disputes with Palestine, but believed only negotiations can achieve regional peace, Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace.

“A serious quest for peace can only happen through negotiations, through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and not through a UN diktat,” he told reporters.    Full story

Israeli president still deems Palestinian Authority peace partner

JERUSALEM, May 9 (Xinhua) — Israeli President Shimon Peres said in an interview with local media that Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas is “absolutely” still a peace partner for Israel, despite his plans to join a unity government with Hamas, which Israel strongly opposes.

Peres’ statements apparently run counter to the Israeli government’s position of having no connection with the PNA since the Palestinian reconciliation pact was signed in Cairo last week.

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Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday said that nuclear power will continue to play a prominent role in the future of Japan’s energy supply, although renewable energy sources will also become increasingly prominent in the years to come.

Speaking at a news conference almost two months after a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked a nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture in Japan that has yet to be fully contained, Kan said that Japan must renew its energy policy from scratch and find the best way to move forward using safer nuclear methods and being less reliant on fossil fuels.

“The current basic energy policy envisages that over 50 percent of total electricity supply will come from nuclear power while more than 20 percent will come from renewable power in 2030,” Kan said.

“But that basic plan needs to be reviewed now from scratch after this big incident,” the prime minister said, adding that now was the time to start putting more focus on renewable sources of power such as wind, solar or biomass energy,” said the Japanese leader.

Kan also said that along with Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), owner and operator of the crippled, radiation-leaking power plant on the northeast coast of Japan, the Japanese government was also culpable for the ongoing nuclear crisis.

“Along with the plant operator, TEPCO, the government bears a great responsibility for the nuclear accident as it has pursued a nuclear energy policy.”

The prime minister said to atone for his and his government’s ineptitude he would, starting from June, no longer receive his annual allowance as prime minister of the nation until an ultimate solution to the unfolding crisis at Fukushima was found.

Kan said he would keep collecting his salary as a lawmaker however.

In addition, Kan also said at the news conference that the government is making moves to set up a new committee to investigate the current nuclear catastrophe from an autonomous, objective point of view.

“The committee will be independent from existing nuclear administrative organizations,” the premiere said.

“It will be independent, open and comprehensive in nature.”

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