Yemen President Reiterates to Stay Until 2013

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday confirmed he will remain in power until his term ends in 2013, rejecting the opposition's plans for him to resign this year.
"Peace and the smooth transition of power is not carried out through the chaos, but by the will of the people as expressed through elections," an official source at the presidential office said in a statement.
The opposition, on Friday said Saleh was to adhere to earlier plan to retire in 2013, but agreed to a proposal from religious leaders to update the election, parliament and the judiciary.
Saleh, an ally of the United States in its fight against al-Qaida's wing is based in his country, is trying to cement a truce with Shiite rebels in the north and crush the separatist rebellion in the south of budding.
Protests took place across to Yemen, a country of 23 million that borders the top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
The protesters say they are dissatisfied with widespread corruption and a sharp rise in unemployment in a country where 40 percent of 23 million people live on $ 2 a day or less, and a third of chronic hunger face.
Separately, Yemeni Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Hashid Abdallah al-Ahmar, left the ruling party on Saturday in protest against the use of violence against anti-government demonstrations, a source close to him told Reuters.
His resignation is just a day after an influential ally of the president, Ali Ahmad Al-Omrani, the sheikh of the tribe from the southern province of al-Bayda, resigned.
Omrani resignation came a week after nine members of parliament from the General People's Congress Party (GPC), has resigned.
Wounded in Aden
Earlier on Saturday, witnesses told Reuters the three protesters were injured Friday evening when Yemeni security forces fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse protesters in a sit-down strike in the southern port city of Aden.
The protesters were dispersed after they gathered in the square in the Sheikh Othman city following Friday prayers, witnesses said.
Perhaps more than 100.000 protested on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in Sanaa also similar rates rallied in Taiz, south of the capital, Reuters correspondent said.
More than 20.000 protesters marched in Aden and tens of thousands marched in Ibb, south of Sana'a.
Shiite Muslim rebels in the north on Friday accused the Yemeni army firing missiles at a protest in Harf Sufian, where thousands gathered. Two people were killed and 13 wounded.