Yemen

THREE times the strongman of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, promised to sign an agreement to step down, and three times he reneged. Twice he left the country for medical treatment — most recently heading to the United States — only to disappoint most of his countrymen by returning home again . Now at last it appears that the Arab world's poorest country — and strongest base for al-Qaeda — will rid itself of the man who has dominated it...

Somehow managing to be both twee and edgy, the absurdist but gently winning romantic comedy "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" works a strange kind of wonder. From the get-go, its premise seems fatally overdetermined: A British fisheries expert named Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) finds himself dragooned into the scheme of a wealthy sheik (Amr Waked) to introduce fly-fishing in Yemen. Along the way, he befriends the sheik's quietly sophisticated London representative, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt)

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni soldiers battled Islamic militants Saturday in an attempt to drive them from several southern towns under the control of hundreds of the fighters. The clashes killed 40 people from both sides, officials said. In a twist, the army commander leading the campaign to drive back the Islamists is among several top military figures who have turned against the country's embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and thrown their support behind the broad protest movement pushing for his ouster.

SANAA, Yemen, Sept. 28 -- At least 52 Somalis died after smugglers abandoned them on a boat in the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday. Seventy-one people survived the 18-day ordeal. The boat broke down within hours of leaving Somalia on Sept. 3, bound for Yemen and carrying more than 100 Somalis, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement. The crew abandoned the boat for another craft and never returned for the refugees, who threw bodies overboard as fellow passengers died, the UNHCR said.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A former driver for Osama bin Laden was transferred from Guantanamo Bay to his homeland of Yemen to serve the remaining 32 days of his sentence, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Salim Hamdan, the first man to go before a U.S. war crimes trial since the end of World War II, was convicted Aug. 6 of providing material support to terrorism, and the military reserved the option of keeping him locked up indefinitely if it considered him to be a continued threat. Instead, the United States decided to send him home.

SANAA, Yemen — In his first major speech since returning to Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh made vague comments Saturday that he is willing to leave power but offered no concrete plan for the country's future. Yemen's opposition voiced doubt that the embattled leader was serious. It was not the first time Saleh has expressed a willingness to step down amid eight months of protests demanding his ouster. But he has repeatedly refused to resign immediately and rejected a U.S.-backed deal for him to hand over his authority.

SANAA, YEMEN -- The last remaining Jews in Yemen are vanishing, driven out by politics, war and hatred. Once numbering 60,000, one of the oldest Jewish populations in the Arab world now has fewer than 350 members. In recent months, persecution by Islamist extremists has intensified, accelerating Jews' flight from Yemen. Many are heading to the United States. With the help of the U.S. government and U.S.-based Jewish organizations, 57 Yemeni Jews have been resettled in New York since July.

SANAA, YEMEN — When pro-government snipers killed 52 protesters last month, opponents of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh thought the United States would finally support calls for his immediate resignation. But the Obama administration has yet to publicly urge one of its key allies in the Middle East to step down. Its policy has fallen far short of the strong actions that Washington took in Egypt and in Libya, where it is using its military and diplomatic might to press for a new leadership.

The Obama administration is still struggling with how to make good on the president's promise to ensure that its counterterrorism programs, including drone strikes, are "even more transparent to the American people and to the world. " After President Obama's pledge in his State of the Union address in mid-February, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told a Senate hearing in early March that the president would publicly address the issue "in a relatively short period of time.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh bowed to opposition demands Wednesday and effectively ended his 33-year rule, turning power over to his vice president in advance of elections early next year. On the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain's ruling monarchy pledged reforms after welcoming the release of an independent investigation's conclusion that government security forces tortured and otherwise abused pro-democracy protesters early this year, killing at least 30. The separate events provided some breathing room for two countries roiled by the Arab Spring uprisings , and for the Obama administration, which has substantial security interests in both.