Yemen leader postpones US trip as pressure mounts
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Yemen's President, under pressure from protests calling for his overthrow, has postponed a visit to the United States as the opposition agreed to resume talks with the government.
"President Ali Abdullah Saleh has decided to postpone a visit to the United States. Scheduled for late February due to the current developments in the region," an official in his office said on Sunday, quoted by state news agency Saba.
The two countries would to set a new date, the statement added.
The Yemeni opposition meanwhile agreed to resume talks suspended since October with the government, as pressure rose on the regime in the wake of protests calling for the President's overthrow.
The common forum, an alliance of parliamentary opposition groups, is "ready to sign a framework agreement this week.On (resuming) the national dialogue," it said, in a statement received by AFP.
It said the draft deal calls for the formation of a unity government and the inclusion in the dialogue of the secessionist Southern movement, the Shiite rebels of Northern Yemen and opposition members in exile.
Talks would resume from the point at which they were suspended on October 31, said the Common Forum, grouping Al-Islah (Reform), which is Yemen's main Islamist opposition, the Yemeni Socialist Party and other smaller factions.
"We urge the authorities to learn a lesson from what happened in Tunisia and Egypt," where massive revolts by the people forced out their respective leaders, it said.
The opposition warned of a "popular uprising" in Yemen, a country they said was weighed down by "corruption, poverty, unemployment, repression, injustice and tyranny."
Protests similar to those that brought down leaders in Tunisia and Egypt have been held in Yemen since mid-January calling for Saleh to step down.
Riot police used batons to disperse a protest by an estimated 2,000 demonstrators in Sanaa on Sunday, injuring a woman and making 10 arrests, according to witnesses.
Police also used batons in the southern city of Taez to break up a protest in the main square, arresting 120 demonstrators, participants told AFP.
The common forum urged Saleh to prove his goodwill by dismissing his family members and relatives holding top posts in institutions such as the Yemeni army, police, government and regional councils.
Under opposition pressure to stand down, Saleh, in power for 32 years, said on February 2 his son would not succeed him.
He also announced a freeze on constitutional amendments that could have enabled him to stay in office for life.
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