Yemen sentenced to death an al Qaeda bomb maker on Monday who told the judge the "demise" of the country was in the hands of militants whose southern hideouts are being targeted by air raids.  

Saleh al-Shawish was arrested in January and prosecutors said he specialized in explosives while training with jihadist militants in Afghanistan.

Yemen is trying to quell a resurgent branch of al Qaeda in the country, which has increased its attacks on both Western and government targets in the Arabian Peninsula state, neighbor to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.

Shawish confessed to his involvement in al Qaeda during the court sessions, the judge said in his sentencing, including attacks on oil installations, military bases and checkpoints.

His indictment said he specialized in building bombs and preparing suicide bombers.

"He belonged to al Qaeda and caused the death of a number of innocent people and damaged Yemen's status and its economic interests," the judge said. "The punishment for this is the death penalty."

Shawish, from Yemen's eastern province of Hadramout, rejected an appeal and told the judge: "God willing your demise is in our hands, starting in Abyan."

A self-confessed militant admitted on Saturday carrying out deadly attacks on military targets and oil facilities in Yemen, as four other suspected Al-Qaeda members went on trial for planning attacks.

Saleh al-Shaoush was arrested on January 30 as he prepared to carry out a suicide bombing in the southeastern port of Mukalla. He had been stopped on his motorbike and found to be wearing an explosives belt and carrying two bombs.

Shaoush admitted in court taking part in seven deadly attacks in Hadramawt and Marib provinces.

"The acts attributed to me are correct," he said. "I prepared and carried out these operations voluntarily and without duress."

The court in Sanaa set Monday as a date for final deliberations in the case of Shaoush, who faces the death penalty if convicted.

In a separate hearing, the same court opened proceedings against four Al-Qaeda suspects for allegedly planning attacks on national and foreign targets in Yemen.

The prospect of Iran marrying its arsenal of long-range ballistic missiles with unconventional warheads – perhaps, in time, nuclear warheads – is the possible threat they most fear.

Hence the United Arab Emirates wants to buy the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system, designed to guard against a missile attack. The country is also investing in weaponry produced by European companies: the UAE is due to buy up to 80 Rafale jet fighters, built by Dassault of France.

As well as dealing with any threat from Iran, the Gulf states are also trying to broaden their military capabilities. Saudi Arabia wants equipment designed for counter-insurgency, following its experience this year in trying to combat Houthi Shia rebels based in neighbouring Yemen.

...“The clear winner from the recent arms sales agreements is Boeing, which has been struggling to keep a toehold in the fighter market as the new generation of fighters are being built by Lockheed Martin,” he said. Raytheon also stands to gain from the investment in advanced missile defence technology, added Mr Sharp.

US and European defence companies have recognised the Middle East as a crucial source of future sales, especially as the UK plans to cut its defence budget by at least 10 per cent over the next five years and the US seeks to save $100bn in the same period.

Al-Qaeda militants besieged in the southern Yemeni town of Hota are using residents as human shields in the second major clash between them and troops in recent weeks, an official said on Tuesday.

"Al-Qaeda elements are preventing residents from leaving Hota, to use them as human shields," a security official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

...While the situation for residents still in Hota is dangerous, those who fled also face a tough road.

"I am living with no shelter, like hundreds of other refugees, without any aid from authorities or charities," said Adnan Mohammed Ali, a refugee in Kharma, three kilometres (1.8 miles) from Hota.

"People need help, said Hussein bin Abdullah Bahanan, a tribal leader from Hota who was reached by telephone in Bureika, a village in the area where he is currently living.

In its preliminary report, the Red Crescent said the refugees are in need of food, blankets, and medical supplies.

Press TV:

Yemeni security forces have arrested five people accused of harboring suspected al-Qaeda terrorists during sweep operations in Abyan province in the south of Yemen.

The raid took place on Saturday night in the town of Lawder -- 250 km (155 miles) southeast of the capital, Sana'a -- where government troops have been battling al-Qaeda elements for weeks, the state-run Sep26.net website reported.

Yemeni troops are combing Lawdar and the surrounding areas in search of the remaining al-Qaeda elements who have fled the city. The Yemeni Interior Ministry has announced that terrorist elements are being tracked down round the clock and exposed to attacks wherever they appear.

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Jonathan Evans also warned of a growing menace from Somalia and Yemen and said extremists could try to target the 2012 London Olympics, in a speech delivered late Thursday.
..."The fact that there are real plots uncovered on a fairly regular basis demonstrates that there is a persistent intent on the part of Al-Qaeda and its associates to attack the UK," Evans told an audience in London.
"The country continues to face a real threat from Al-Qaeda-related terrorism."
While a couple of years ago around three-quarters of plots aimed at Britain were linked to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, the figure has fallen to 50 percent now due in part to increased activity in Somalia and Yemen.
Evans added that while there would be a "major security operation" around the Olympics, security services should assume that some extremists will "see an opportunity to gain notoriety and inflict damage."

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THE British Ambassador to Yemen escaped unharmed after an explosion near his car today, the Foreign Office confirmed.
The blast happened as Tim Torlot, 52, travelled to work in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.

The Foreign Office was unable to confirm reports that a suspected suicide bomber died in the explosion.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We can confirm that there was an incident in Sana'a this morning.

"There was a small explosion beside the British Ambassador's car. He was unhurt. No other embassy staff or British nationals were injured. "The embassy will remain closed to the public for the time being. "We advise all British nationals in Yemen to keep a low profile and remain vigilant. We are working urgently with the Yemen authorities to investigate what happened."

The blast comes after Yemen became a focus of international concern about al-Qaeda activity after the man suspected of attempting to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was reported to have told FBI investigators that he was supplied with his bomb by al-Qaeda members in Yemen.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The videos, to be broadcast Monday on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, appear to support Abdulmutallab's statements to the FBI that there are "others like me" who also trained with him in Yemen to carry out attacks against U.S. and western targets.

The tape also includes an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic from the 23-year old Nigerian justifying his actions against "the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He says, "the enemy is in your lands with their armies, the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He reads several passages from the Koran and adds, "God said those who punish you must be punished."

Abdulmutallab was arrested on Christmas Day in Detroit after he allegedly attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines jet. He has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges but U.S. authorities say he is now cooperating in the investigation.

Sheik Mohammed Hamzi, an official of the Islamist Yemeni opposition party Islaah and the imam of the Al-Rahman mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sana, is one of those who staunchly opposes a legal ban on child marriage.
Although he emphasizes that a woman should not get married before she is physically and mentally ready and that she herself needs to accept the marriage, he believes a law that prohibits child marriage constitutes a rights violation.  
“I am against the child marriage law because it restrains the freedom of others. When a certain age [for marriage] is set, it violates the rights of others. For example, imagine a young man of 13 or 14 years of age who wants to have sex. … This is a violation of his rights,” Sheik Hamzi told The Times in an interview at his Sana home last week.

AN AL-QAEDA recruiter, described as the No. 1 terrorist threat to America, was engaged by a Sydney youth group to address hundreds of young people - a decision that has caused deep divisions at one of Australia's largest mosques.
At the same time as Anwar al-Awlaki was advising the extremist later charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, he was in talks with a group, Sydney Muslim Youth, about delivering a sermon to young Australians. He was already well known to security agencies as the spiritual guide to three of the hijackers on September 11, 2001.
''Anwar al-Awlaki is like a virus produced by the body wanting to fight a microbe,'' said Taj el-Din al-Hilaly, condemning the sermon, which was delivered at his mosque by phone link from Yemen.

The guy himself... who can be found really easily in Youtube, speaking against freedom of speech and about "the global conspiracy against the Islamic truth".

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In their 2005 observations of Yemen, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child stated many concerns, including Yemen's inconsistency in defining a child's age, the low legal age for marriage of girls, and the fact that girls were marrying even younger than 15 years due to the lack of law enforcement.

Five years have passed and Yemen is still one of the worst places to be a child. The committee's September 2009 observations and recommendations are not for the light-hearted. In addition to their continued concern that the law still does not provide equal protection to all children under the age of 18, the committee is "deeply concerned" that the following offenses against children are not explicitly criminalized: illegal adoption, sexual exploitation, especially under the guise of "tourist marriages" or "temporary marriages," forced child labor, child pornography, and the sale of children -- with parental consent -- for their organs.

This is a human rights crisis in a country where grown men in parliament sit and argue for the right to marry children under the pretense of religious authority. The UN needs to do more than be "deeply concerned." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ann Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, should visit Yemen and let them know that the world is watching their snail-paced response to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. We need to send a strong message that girls are not property to be sold or traded. Girls are not objects existing to prove men's "manhood" in Yemen or any other country in the world.