THOUSANDS RALLY AGAINST YEMEN REGIME: Civil unrest in the Arab world continues to spread, now reaching Yemen. Protesters in Saana call for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. The demonstrations led by opposition members and youth activists are a significant expansion of the unrest sparked by the Tunisian uprising, which also inspired Egypt's largest protests in a generation. They pose a new threat to the stability of the Arab world's most impoverished nation, which has become the focus of increased Western concern about a resurgent al Qaeda branch, a northern rebellion and a secessionist movement in the south. Crowds in four parts of Sanaa have shut down streets and are chanting calls for an end to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for nearly 32 years. Seleh deployed anti-riot police and soldiers to several key areas in the capital, Sanaa, and its surroundings to prevent riots. That hasn't stopped critics of his rule from taking to the streets in days of protests calling for him to step down, a red line that few dissenters had previously dared to cross. Nearly half of Yemen's population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day and doesn't have access to proper sanitation. Less than a tenth of the roads are paved. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes by conflict, flooding the cities. The government is riddled with corruption, has little control outside the capital. (Ynet)