Anti-Government Protests Reach Yemen

The impoverished nation is the latest Middle Eastern country to be hit by popular protests inspired by Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution.”

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa Thursday to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled the country for 32 years and is planning to alter to the constitution to reign for 20 more. Public displays of dissent are rare in the country, which is the poorest in the Middle East and has become a haven for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the organization believed to be behind a string of bombings against U.S. targets. Yemen now joins Egypt and Algeria on the growing list of Arab countries that have seen explosions of dissent after Tunisian protests ousted that country’s president on Jan. 14. Protests in Egypt entered their third day on Thursday.