YEMEN
Defiant leader resists pressure to step down
SANAA — Yemen’s defiant president addressed his troubled nation Sunday for the first time since returning to the country after an assassination attempt, making no promise to immediately step down but saying he is committed to a deal to end months of spiraling violence.
Ali Abdullah Saleh appeared in improved health after nearly four months of treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia for severe burns and other injuries he suffered in a June 3 attack on his compound in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
Mr. Saleh abruptly returned on Friday, and a week of renewed clashes with his opponents intensified, littering the streets of the capital with bodies.
Yemen’s autocratic ruler of 33 years is under tremendous pressure from street protesters and neighboring Arab nations to transfer power to end the country’s deepening crisis, which has killed hundreds since anti-government demonstrations began in February.
TURKEY
Prime minister signals joint operation with Iran
ANKARA — Turkey’s prime minister on Sunday signaled a joint military offensive with Iran against their common enemy, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
Turkey and Iran were working together and “determined,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
“There is no question of any postponement,” Mr. Erdogan said in a clear reference to a possible joint military operation against the main Kurdish rebel base on Qandil Mountain, which sits on the Iraqi-Iranian border deep inside northern Iraq.
BRITAIN
Police charge six in terrorism plot
LONDON — Six men, all unofficially identified as British citizens and Muslims, have been charged with involvement in a terror-bomb plot, police announced Sunday.
The arrests last week of the six Birmingham-area men were part of a “major operation” by the West Midlands counterterrorism unit, the West Midlands Police Department said.
Four were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism, and two more with failing to disclose information, the police said. One of those two was also charged with terrorist fundraising. The plot was inspired by al Qaeda, authorities have said.
All six, ages 25 to 32, will appear at West London Magistrates Court on Monday. The police said Irfan Nasser, 30, Irfan Khalid, 26, Ashik Ali, 26, and Rahin Ahmed, 25, were charged with plotting terrorist acts. Mr. Ali’s brother Bahader Ali, 28, and Mohammed Rizwan, 32, are both charged with failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism, police said. Bahader Ali is also charged with terrorist fundraising.
BAHRAIN
Court jails teachers over protests
DUBAI — A special court Sunday jailed the head of the teachers union for 10 years and his deputy for three, among other Shiites over their role in anti-regime protests, the BNA state news agency said.
The verdicts came a day after the kingdom held elections boycotted by the Shiite-led opposition to replace 18 Shiite members of parliament who quit to protest the violence used against demonstrators in February.
Mahdi Abu Deib and Jalila al-Salman were convicted by the Court of National Safety for “calling to forcefully overthrow the regime in union statements,” BNA said.
NIGERIA
Pulitzer Prize winner stops publication of weekly
LAGOS — A Nigerian newspaper run by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist stopped publication Sunday after 2½ years of muckraking and sometimes controversial coverage of Africa’s most populous nation, the publisher said.
NEXT newspaper, printed in Lagos, did not appear on newsstands this weekend. Publisher Dele Olojede, a former foreign editor for New York’s Newsday, said NEXT was “losing a lot of money” and decided to stop its print edition to re-evaluate its finances.
Mr. Olojede said it is possible the newspaper could begin publishing again. However, the newspaper’s advertising dwindled in recent months, forcing it from publishing six days a week to only on Sunday.
The newspaper’s crusading political stance also hurt ad sales, as the salutatory advertisements heaping praise on politicians and the country’s elite that fill other publications never made it into its editions.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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