Yemen

The United States has begun launching drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen under new authority approved by President Obama that allows the CIA and the military to fire even when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, U.S. officials said. The policy shift marks a significant expansion of the clandestine drone war against an al-Qaeda affiliate that has seized large ­pieces of territory in Yemen and is linked to a series of terrorist plots against the United States.

The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said. Securing permission to use these "signature strikes" would allow the agency to hit targets based solely on intelligence indicating patterns of suspicious behavior, such as imagery showing militants gathering at known al-Qaeda compounds or unloading explosives. The practice has been a core element of the CIA's drone program in Pakistan for several years.

SANAA, Yemen — More than 2,000 people have been killed in a year of political turmoil that led to the resignation of Yemen's longtime president, the government disclosed Sunday. The number is much higher than human rights groups had estimated. The government released its first casualty figures on a day when crowds of protesters were marking one year since a particularly bloody day, when dozens were killed. Yemen's Ministry of Human Rights said the death toll includes unarmed protesters and military defectors, as well as more than 120 children.

UNITED NATIONS — A reinvigorated al-Qaeda has made "alarming" advances in Yemen, expanding its military control over several southern towns and launching a series of brazen attacks that threaten the U.S.-backed political transition there, a senior U.N. envoy warned the Security Council in a confidential briefing last week. "The scale of these attacks serves as a stark reminder of the security threat posed by al-Qaeda," Jamal Benomar, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the 15-nation council Wednesday, according to a copy of the briefing notes obtained by The Washington Post.

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)

ADEN, Yemen — A gunman opened fire on a U.S. security team that was training Yemeni soldiers in the south of the country, the Pentagon and a local security official said on Friday, both denying reports from an Islamist group that a CIA officer was killed in the assault. In the north of the country, meanwhile, a bomb blast hit an anti-U.S. protest, injuring at least 22 people, according to a rebel group that controls much of the region. Fighting with northern Houthi rebels and southern militants are among the challenges facing Yemen's new president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a man Washington was hoping could end a year of turmoil in the country.

In the turbulent annals of the Arab Spring, last weekend's ceremony in Yemen was so quiet it was barely noticed. But it marked the transfer of power from an aging autocrat who had ruled his country for nearly 34 years to a new leader who's saying the right things about reform. This was a stage-managed change of regime that left some loose ends and unresolved questions. It was a product of backroom dealing and regional realpolitik. But in its very lack of visibility, the Yemen handover offered a counterpoint to the violent and still-uncertain transitions in Egypt, Libya and Syria.

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...

The youth activists who spearheaded the uprising that ended President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule are now grappling with internal divisions, as politics and competing visions weaken one of the Arab world's most dynamic revolts of the past year . In Change Square, the nexus of the revolution, protesters have splintered into politically aligned groups, each determined to hold sway over the sprawling tented encampment near Sanaa University....

NAIROBI — Hours after Yemen's new president was sworn in, formally ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule, a car bomb exploded outside a presidential compound in southern Yemen, killing at least 25 people, security officials said Saturday. The attack underscored the challenges facing the country's new leader, former vice president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who in a televised inauguration speech vowed to fight al-Qaeda and restore security to this impoverished Middle East nation.