Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard began military exercises Saturday in the country’s south, the latest show of force after threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for tougher Western sanctions.
Plans for new Iranian naval games in the Persian Gulf off the country’s southern coast have been in the works for weeks. State media announced new maneuvers in southern Iran involving ground forces, but it was not immediately clear whether they were part of the planned naval training missions scheduled for this month or a separate operation.
The latest military maneuvers got under way following stern warnings by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, about any possible U.S. or Israeli attacks against Tehran’s nuclear facilities. It also comes after Western forces boosted their naval presence in the Gulf led by the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
Iran officials and lawmakers have repeatedly said that their country would close the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in retaliation for sanctions that affect Iran’s oil exports. They have as yet made no attempts to disrupt shipping through the waterway, the route for one-fifth of the world’s crude oil, and the U.S. and allies have said they would respond swiftly to any attempts at a blockade.
Last month, Iran’s navy wrapped up 10 days of exercises in the Gulf, but the Revolutionary Guard _ which is directly under control of the supreme leader _ represents a significantly stronger military force and controls key programs such as missile development. Iranian state media announced the new maneuvers, but gave no further details.
Khamenei, in a speech nationally broadcast on Friday, staked out a hard line after suggestions by Israel that military strikes are an increasing possibility if sanctions fail to rein in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
He pledged to aid any nation or group that challenges Israel and said any military strikes would damage U.S. interests in the Middle East “10 times” more than they would hurt Iran. The comments also may signal that Tehran’s proxy forces _ led by Lebanon’s Islamic militant group Hezbollah _ could be given the green light to revive attacks on Israel as the showdown between the archfoes intensifies.
The West and its allies fear Iran could use its uranium enrichment labs _ which make nuclear fuel _ to eventually produce weapons-grade material. Iran insists it only seeks reactors for energy and medical research.
Israel has so far publicly backed the efforts by the U.S. and European Union for tougher sanctions that target Iran’s crucial oil exports. But Israeli leaders have urged even harsher measures and warn that military action remains a clear option despite Western appeals to allow time for the economic pressures and isolation to bear down on Iran payday loans with no fax.
Iran’s oil minister repeated claims that an EU oil embargo will not cripple Iran’s economy, claiming Saturday that the country already has identified new customers to replace the loss in European sales that accounted for about 18 percent of Iran’s exports.
Rostam Qassemi also reinforced Iran’s warning to Saudi Arabia and other fellow OPEC members against boosting production to offset any potential drop in Tehran’s crude exports, saying the cartel should not be used as a political weapon against a member state.
Although Israel has raised the strongest hints that it is likely to start a military campaign, Khamenei reserved some of his strongest comments for Israel’s key U.S. ally.
“A war itself will damage the U.S. 10 times” more in the region, said Khamenei.
Khamenei claimed Iran, however, could only emerge stronger. “Iran will not withdraw. Then what happens?” asked Khamenei. “In conclusion, the West’s hegemony and threats will be discredited” in the Middle East. “The hegemony of Iran will be promoted. In fact, this will be in our service.”
On Thursday, Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, suggested the world is increasingly ready to consider a military strike if sanctions fail. The head of the country’s strategic affairs ministry, Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon, also suggested Iran’s main military installations are still vulnerable to airstrikes _ even as Iran starts up a new uranium enrichment facility deep in a mountainside bunker south of Tehran.
Yaalon’s comments appear to reinforce earlier suggestions by other Israel officials that the window for a possible attack is closing and Israel would need to strike by summer to inflict significant setbacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under standing guidelines.
At Ramstein Air Base in Germany, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said sanctions remain the best approach to pressure Iran. But he told U.S. airmen Friday that Washington keeps “all options on the table and would be prepared to respond if we have to.”
Khamenei answered by repeating Iran’s declarations that it will never roll back its nuclear program, which he had earlier said was now part of the country’s “identity” and a cornerstone of its technological endeavors. On Friday, Iran said it successfully sent a small satellite into orbit in the third such launch in recent years, state media reported.
“From now on, in any place, if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will endorse and we will help. We have no fear expressing this,” said Khamenei, using the phrase widely used by Iran’s leader to describe Israel.
Raw fish and cough medicine may not seem like they should occupy the same store, but a select few Walgreens now carry both.
In 2009 Walgreen Co., based in a Chicago suburb, announced it would elevate food offerings at some of its most prominent stores, in downtown Chicago, on Wall Street and elsewhere. Those stores – designed to trumpet that the century-plus-old pharmacy chain was entering new, more rarified terrain – now have sushi bars, $400 bottles of wine, cigar humidors and made-to-order smoothies.
But the company also promised it would fill more shelf space, including here in St. Louis, with cheaper, less esoteric offerings, especially in areas where low-income residents have little access to nutritious or fresh food. Walgreens plans to turn at least 500 of its 7,800 U.S. stores, most in low-income neighborhoods, into what the company is calling “food oases.”
“We found that in lower-income areas, in food deserts, that grocery stores have moved out,” said Bryan Pugh, the company’s vice president of merchandising. “It’s a very strategic initiative. Food brings the shopper in more often.”
So far the company has expanded offerings, including fresh produce, at a modest 35 stores in Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Oakland and Indianapolis. But it plans to expand to other cities over the next five years. The company aims to boost food offerings in some of its 110 St. Louis-area stores by 2013, Pugh said, noting that it has already rolled out new in-house food brands that are on store shelves already.
“We’re overhauling all our brands,” Pugh said.
Walgreens is not the only retailer who says it will bring fresh produce to under-served areas in St. Louis and beyond. Save-A-Lot stores have said they will open 500 stores in these neighborhoods in the five years, and Wal-Mart has made a similar commitment, saying it will open as many as 300 by 2016. But Walgreens already has a major presence in low-income urban areas, with stores already in place, making its efforts easier to execute, analysts note.
Walgreens’ move, analysts say, could help the company keep customers Walgreens is losing after the company’s split from pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts. Walgreens stands to lose billions in sales as customers fill their prescriptions elsewhere.
“It’s really interesting timing, because Walgreens can re-establish themselves with people who can no longer fill their prescription there,” said supermarket analyst, Phil Lempert. “It’s: What can we sell them to keep them coming to our store, until they make the transition to Medicare?”
While Walgreens acknowledges that the move is strategic, it also says it has good intentions of providing fresh produce to nutrition-poor areas where fast food is usually the only source of calories. Nutritionists and critics, however, question how successful that effort could be.
“A lot of this is overblown,” said David Livingston, an analyst and supermarket industry researcher. “They already had some food items. They’re adding a few more. They’re adding a few more perishables. Are they really making a difference? I don’t think so.”
Walgreens says it will expand the space it devotes to food by 35 to 40 percent in some of its stores. But, Livingston notes, that translates to roughly 400 square feet. “That’s 20 by 20,” Livingston said. “That’s the size of my bathroom.”
Livingston and other analysts point out that grocery stores pulled out of these neighborhoods for a reason. “If there’s money to be made selling fresh produce, grocery stores would have figured it out,” he said. “I wonder what they’re thinking.”
Marjorie Sawicki, and assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University, said she believes Walgreens produce may make a small dent in nutrition-poor diets.
“Where we have food deserts, if there are fruits and vegetables, it might help, because there’s a Walgreens on every block,” Sawicki said. “If they displace items that are filled with sodium and fat, then it could have a benefit. It depends on how they emphasize the food.”
Bringing healthy food to under-served neighborhoods will require a more holistic approach, Sawicki says. “I think it’s a Band-Aid,” she said. “What we need to be looking at is creating community investment so people can access healthy food at a fair price and support the person who grew it. But that’s going to take time.”
Sawicki pointed to other efforts to bring produce to under-served areas, such as The North City Food Co-Op, as better models. Other new additions to the market landscape in St. Louis food deserts include YOURS Market, which opened in the Baden neighborhood in late 2010.
Still, Walgreens sees an opportunity.
The company did extensive research to determine which stores should sell more food. “Different stores have different trends,” Pugh said. “If I’m on a corner, near a Dominick’s, a Target and a Walmart , I’ll probably do better with beauty (products) there. I’ll look at my data by category and see if I’ve got traffic and I’m selling food. You can’t put fresh food in a store that’s not busy.”
The company’s plan, Pugh said, is not to expand the stores, but to devote more existing space to food. “We’re already in those areas,” he said. “We are the health care oasis there.”
Lempert says he believes that’s a smart strategy.
“I think it’s fascinating that for years drug chains had the lowest price for milk, that was their loss leader – what they did to get people in,” Lempert said. “Now they’ve leap-frogged milk, and said we can do this bigger and better.”
“We buy food 2.2 times a week, so if they can get more traffic in these stores, they sell more product,” Lempert added. “Supermarket sales are either flat or declining, and if you look at drug-store food sales, they’re through the roof.”
New Zealand police raided several homes and businesses linked to the founder of Megaupload.com, a giant Internet file-sharing site shut down by U.S. authorities, on Friday and seized guns, millions of dollars, and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials said.
Police arrested founder Kim Dotcom and three Megaupload employees on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. Extradition proceedings against them could last a year or more.
With 150 million registered users, about 50 million hits daily and endorsements from music superstars, Megaupload.com was among the world’s biggest file-sharing sites. According to a U.S. indictment, the site, which was shut down Thursday, earned Dotcom $42 million in 2010 alone.
Although the company is based in Hong Kong and Dotcom lives in New Zealand, some of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Virginia, and that was enough for U.S. prosecutors to act.
New Zealand police served 10 search warrants at several businesses and homes around the city of Auckland.
Police spokesman Grant Ogilvie said the seized cars include a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe worth more than $400,000 as well as several Mercedes. Two short-barreled shotguns and a number of valuable artworks were also confiscated, he added.
He said police seized more than $8 million, money that was invested in various New Zealand financial institutions and which has now been placed in a trust pending the outcome of the cases.
New Zealand’s Fairfax Media reported that the four defendants stood together in an Auckland courtroom in the first step of the extradition proceedings.
Dotcom’s lawyer raised objections to a media request to take photographs and video, but then Dotcom spoke out from the dock, saying he didn’t mind photos or video “because we have nothing to hide.” The judge granted the media access, and ruled that the four would remain in custody until a second hearing Monday.
Dotcom, Megaupload’s former CEO and current chief innovation officer, is a resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany who had his name legally changed. The 37-year-old was previously known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor.
Two other German citizens and one Dutch citizen also were arrested and three other defendants _ another German, a Slovakian and an Estonian _ remain at large.
Megaupload has retained Washington power attorney Bob Bennett to defend it, according to a person inside the company. Bennett is best known for representing former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The person within Megaupload spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the company’s plans.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that the arrests set “a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?”
The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to make it easier for authorities to go after sites with pirated material, especially those with overseas headquarters and servers.
Before Megaupload was taken down, the company posted a statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were “grotesquely overblown.”
“The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch,” the statement said.
Several sister sites were also shut down, including one dedicated to sharing pornography files.
News of the shutdown seemed to bring retaliation from hackers who claimed credit for attacking the Justice Department’s website. Federal officials confirmed it was down for hours Thursday evening and that the disruption was being “treated as a malicious act payday loans online.”
A loose affiliation of hackers known as “Anonymous” claimed credit for the attack. Also hacked was the site for the Motion Picture Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy.
According to the indictment, Megaupload was estimated at one point to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet. Current estimates by companies that monitor Web traffic place it in the top 100.
Megaupload is considered a “cyberlocker,” in which users can upload and transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America estimated that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.
The website allowed users to download some content for free, but made money by charging subscriptions to people who wanted access to faster download speeds or extra content. The website also sold advertising.
Megaupload was unique not only because of its massive size and the volume of downloaded content, but also because it had high-profile support from celebrities, musicians and other content producers who are most often the victims of copyright infringement and piracy. Before the website was taken down, it contained endorsements from Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keys and Kanye West, among others.
The company listed Swizz Beatz, a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO. He was not named in the indictment and declined to comment through a representative.
The five-count indictment, which alleges copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering, described a site designed specifically to reward users who uploaded pirated content for sharing, and turned a blind eye to requests from copyright holders to remove copyright-protected files.
For instance, users received cash bonuses if they uploaded content popular enough to generate massive numbers of downloads, according to the indictment. Such content was almost always copyright protected, the indictment said.
The Justice Department said it was illegal for anyone to download pirated content, but their investigation focused on the leaders of the company, not end users who may have downloaded a few movies for personal viewing.
A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined to comment Thursday. Efforts to reach an attorney representing Dotcom were unsuccessful.
Although Megaupload is based in Hong Kong, the size of its operation in the southern Chinese city was unclear. The administrative contact listed in its domain registration, Bonnie Lam, did not respond immediately for a request for comment sent to a fax number and email address listed.
The indictment was returned in the Eastern District of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction in part because some of the alleged pirated materials were hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Virginia. Prosecutors there have pursued multiple piracy investigations.
The Justice Department also was investigating the “significant increase in activity” that disrupted its website. It said in a statement that it was working to “investigate the origins of this activity, which is being treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause.”
The site appeared to be working again late Thursday. A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America said in an emailed statement that the group’s site also had been hacked, but it too appeared to be working later in the evening.
“The motion picture and television industry has always been a strong supporter of free speech,” the spokesman said. “We strongly condemn any attempts to silence any groups or individuals.”
____
Matthew Barakat reported from McLean, Virginia. AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner in Washington contributed to this report.
WINDING DOWN: After 58 years of selling music, Webster Records is pulling the plug.
The store at 117 West Lockwood Avenue in Webster Groves will shut its doors on Jan. 31, Bill Wondracek, a clerk, said today.
The store has mainly been reduced to selling rock ‘n’ roll CD’s to teens over the past few years, despite having a history of specializing in classical, jazz and pop music, much of it on vinyl, Wondracek added.
Jennifer Bellm has owned the shop for about five years. She was not available for comment.
Prior to that, it was owned by Dan Warner who sold it when he became part of the team that was involved in trying to revive the Switzer’s Licorice brand low rates payday advance.
Until the shop is shuttered, remaining inventory will be on sale, store manager Jim Lovins said in an email. Starting today it’s 30 percent off of retail and prices will be discounted through the month, he added.
As Wall Street traders cheered positive jobs data on Thursday, they seemed to ignore layoffs and bonus cuts on their own trading floors that will hurt growth in the broader U.S. jobs market in the coming months, TrimTabs Chief Executive Charles Biderman said.
U.S. jobless claims dropped to a 3 1/2-year low last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday morning, sending major stock indexes higher. But more current indicators for jobs and wages show opposite trends, said Biderman, a Wall Street veteran who founded the investment research firm in 1990.
“The conventional wisdom on Wall Street is that the U.S. economy is picking up steam despite the turmoil in the rest of the world,” Biderman Said. “The key real-time indicators we track - wage and salary growth and online job demand - suggest Wall Street is wrong.”
In contrast to the positive jobless claims figure, a TrimTabs index showed that a rise in online job postings has slowed over the past month . The firm’s pay analysis showed that wages have fallen 1.2 percent over the past month, adjusting for taxes and inflation, a bigger drop than the 0.2 percent decline over the past three months.
Job cuts at big Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC make quick cash.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will only hurt job growth further , Biderman said, while dwindling bonus pools will add pressure to wage growth.
Large U.S. banks have outlined plans to lay off nearly 40,000 employees so far this year as a result of the European sovereign debt crisis and weak economic growth, according to a Reuters tally.
Reports from compensation consultants such as Johnson Associates and Options Group suggest that Wall Street bonuses may decline as much as 30 percent to 40 percent this year. That will only hurt U.S. wage growth more in the weeks ahead, Biderman said, since bonuses are typically paid from late December through early February.
The earnings report from Jefferies Group Inc (JEF.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Tuesday may offer clues to broader Wall Street trends. Jefferies’ fiscal year ends November 30, a month earlier than those of bigger rivals like Goldman and Morgan Stanley.
The investment bank laid off roughly 70 people in equities trading and cut overall compensation and benefits 24 percent during its fourth quarter. Chief Executive Rich Handler and a number of other senior executives also agreed to forgo bonuses for 2011.
“We recognize our shareholders had a tough year,” Handler said. “We’re shareholders and we’re getting zero bonus.”
Struggling to avert an unprecedented national default, congressional leaders jettisoned negotiations on a sweeping deficit-reduction package Friday despite a plea from President Barack Obama to “do something big” to stabilize America’s finances.
Instead, lawmakers embarked on rival fallback plans as a critical Aug. 2 deadline neared, a House version given little chance of success, even by some supporters, and a bipartisan Senate approach holding out more promise.
At the behest of conservatives, House Republicans announced plans to vote next week on legislation to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit automatically if Congress approves a balanced-budget constitutional amendment. Senate approval of that amendment seemed extremely unlikely in a vote set for the next few days.
Senate leaders from both parties worked on their own measure that would allow Obama to raise the debt limit without a prior vote by lawmakers. That plan was likely to include limits on spending across thousands of government programs, and possibly a down payment on cuts, as well.
As part of that proposal, a panel of lawmakers would recommend cuts in benefits programs by the end of the year, with the House and Senate required to vote yes-or-no on the package without possibility of changes.
“If they show me a serious plan I’m ready to move,” declared Obama at his second news conference of the week, even though he said he wanted a far more sweeping deal that might even have raised the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 if Republicans would increase selected taxes.
“We are obviously running out of time,” he said.
Numerous officials have cautioned that a default will occur if the debt limit is not increased by Aug. 2, warning also of a calamitous effect on an economy struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades.
“Now the debate will move from a room in the White House to the House and Senate floors,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, indicating that the daily closed-door negotiations at the White House were a thing of the past.
The House Republican rank and file were advised in a GOP meeting that, barring action by Congress, the government would be able to pay only about half its bills after Aug. 2, and separately that a default could cost the government trillions of dollars in the form of higher interest rates on the debt.
“No matter what 50 percent you choose to pay, there are things in that 50 percent you don’t pay that would have really severe consequences,” Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., said afterward.
“There are people out there who keep saying we don’t need to increase the debt limit at all. I think this was a way of saying, the people who are saying that need to look at the practical consequences of what they are saying.”
Rep. Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters after the meeting he had discussed the additional costs generated by a default _ an event that would be likely to raise interest rates no fax cash advance.
At his news conference, Obama said that would mean “effectively a tax increase on everybody” by affecting car purchasers, students and businesses.
The second White House news conference in a week was a testament to the overriding political and economic significance of the issue that has convulsed Congress as well as the administration.
Urging lawmakers to cut trillions from deficits at the same time they raise the debt limit, the president said he favored a balanced approach that included spending cuts, changes to huge government benefit programs and higher taxes on wealthy individuals and certain industries.
It was an offer Republicans could _ and did _ refuse.
“There are going to be no tax hikes because tax hikes destroy jobs,” said House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
While Boehner had earlier shown some flexibility on closing tax loopholes as part of an unprecedented deal with Obama, many Republican lawmakers are adamant that deficit reductions be limited to spending cuts.
To underscore their conservative priorities, GOP leaders scheduled a vote for next week on legislation they said would cut $111 billion in the budget year that begins Oct. 1. It would also require a steady decline in spending as a percentage of the overall economy over the next decade.
Even some supporters conceded it was a symbolic gesture given the realities of divided government.
“I think everybody knows the president won’t sign this,” Campbell said after the closed-door Republican meeting.
“But we’re putting a marker down, and that’s an important step that begins the process of resolving this,” he added.
If so, it was in a style that only congressional insiders might recognize as the beginning of the endgame to an unprecedented problem.
McConnell issued a statement announcing the Senate would vote on both a balanced budget amendment and the House’s “Cut, Cap and Balance Plan.”
His statement didn’t say so, but neither measure has much, if any, chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Still, the votes themselves would clear the way for debate on the fallback plan the two Senate leaders have been working on for the past several days.
Senate aides said the measure was not yet fully drafted, but likely to come up for debate by the end of next week.
A two-thirds vote of each house is required for passage of a constitutional amendment. Approval would send the issue to the states, where ratification by three quarters of the legislatures is needed to make it part of the Constitution.
Presidents play no official role in amending the Constitution, but Obama expressed his opposition to the GOP-backed measure anyway.
“We don’t need a constitutional amendment to do that. What we need to do is do our jobs,” he said.
UNIVERSITY CITY
The departure of Yemen’s battle-wounded president for treatment in Saudi Arabia set off wild street celebrations Sunday in the capital, where crowds danced, sang and slaughtered cows in hopes that this spelled a victorious end to a more than three-month campaign to push their leader from power.
Behind the festive atmosphere, many feared Ali Abdullah Saleh, a masterful political survivor who has held power for nearly 33 years, will yet return _ or leave the country in ruins if he can’t. Hanging in the balance was a country that even before the latest tumult was beset by deep poverty, malnutrition, tribal conflict and violence by an active al-Qaida franchise with international reach.
Saleh, who was taken overnight to a military hospital in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, underwent successful surgery on his chest to remove jagged pieces of wood that splintered from a mosque pulpit when his compound was hit by rockets on Friday, said medical officials and a Yemeni diplomat. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to release the information.
The stunning rocket attack, which the government first blamed on tribal fighters who in recent weeks turned against the president and later on al-Qaida, killed 11 bodyguards and seriously injured five senior officials worshipping just alongside Saleh.
While Saleh is away, Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is acting as temporary head of state, said the deputy information minister, Abdu al-Janadi. The minister said the president would return to assume his duties after his treatment, though experts on Yemeni affairs questioned whether a return is possible in the face of so much opposition.
“Saleh will come back. Saleh is in good health, and he may give up the authority one day but it has to be in a constitutional way,” al-Janadi said. “Calm has returned. Coups have failed. … We are not in Libya, and Saleh is not calling for civil war.”
His sudden departure raised many questions, including whether his Saudi hosts would bless his return. The Saudis have backed Saleh and cooperated over the years in confronting al-Qaida and other threats, but they are now among those pressing him to give up power as part of a negotiated deal. Saudi Arabia has watched with concern the anti-government protests that have spread to other neighboring countries like Bahrain and is eager to contain the unrest on its doorstep.
The president’s absence raised the specter of an even more violent power struggle between the armed tribesmen who have joined the opposition and loyalist military forces under the command of Saleh’s son and other close relatives. Street battles between the sides have already pushed the political crisis to the brink of civil war.
In an attempt to cool the situation, the vice president offered through mediators to pull government forces back from the neighborhood of the capital where they’ve battled fighters loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, who heads Yemen’s most powerful tribal confederation, the Hashid.
Al-Ahmar said in a statement he agreed to the deal, which requires his forces to leave the streets and government ministries they seized starting Monday.
In the streets of the capital, Sanaa, joyful crowds celebrated what they hoped would be Saleh’s permanent exit.
Crowds danced, sang and slaughtered a few cows in what demonstrators have dubbed Change Square, the epicenter of the nationwide protest movement since mid-February calling for Saleh to step down immediately. Some uniformed soldiers joined those dancing and singing patriotic songs and were hoisted on the shoulders of the crowd. Many in the jubilant crowd waved Yemeni flags, joyfully whistling and flashing the “V” for victory signs.
“Who would have believed that this people could have removed the tyrant?” said 30-year-old teacher Moufid al-Mutairi.
Women in black veils joined demonstrators carrying banners that hailed Saleh’s departure low interest personal loan. One read: “The oppressor is gone, but the people stay.”
But there were also fears that the president would attempt a comeback or try to transfer power to his son Ahmed, who heads the Republican Guard and remains in Yemen. Some worried Saleh and his allies could even try to leave the country in ruins if they feel there is no way to stay in power.
“Saleh is never true to his word,” said al-Mutairi, the teacher. “If the medical reports are true that his wounds are light, then he will for sure return. Our challenge now is to remove the rest of the regime.”
“If he returns, it will be a disaster.”
Yemen’s unrest began as a peaceful protest movement that the government at times used brutal force to try to suppress, killing at least 166 people, according to Human Rights Watch. It transformed in the past two weeks into armed conflict after the president’s forces attacked the home of a key tribal leader and one-time ally who threw his support behind the uprising. The fighting turned the streets of the capital into a war zone.
Other forces aligned against Saleh at the same time. There were high-level defections within his military, and Islamist fighters took over at least one town in the south in the past two weeks.
In Taiz, Yemen’s second-largest city, dozens of gunmen attacked the presidential palace on Sunday, killing four soldiers in an attempt to storm the compound, according to military officials and witnesses. They said one of the attackers was also killed in the violence. The attackers belong to a group set up recently to avenge the killing of anti-regime protesters at the hands of Saleh’s security forces.
Elsewhere in the south, gunman ambushed a military convoy, killing nine soldiers, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Saleh has been under intense pressure to step down from his powerful Gulf neighbors, who control a large share of the world’s oil resources, and from longtime ally Washington. They all fear Yemen could be headed toward a failed state that will become a fertile ground for al-Qaida’s most active franchise to operate and launch attacks abroad.
In a display of the kind of political maneuvering that has helped keep Saleh in power through numerous perils, he agreed three times to a U.S.-backed Gulf Arab proposal for ending the crisis only to back out at the last minute.
Now, Saleh’s injuries and his treatment abroad provide him with what could turn out to be a face-saving solution to exit power.
“This is exactly what needed to happen,” said Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “He needed to leave in order to get past this political deadlock that has been cursing Yemen for the past few months.”
Rick Nelson, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said there is no chance of Saleh returning to Yemen and it’s unlikely anyone linked to him can maintain power and control.
“I can’t see any remnant of the saleh government staying in place after this,” Nelson said.
The fact that powerful members of Saleh’s family have remained behind in Sanaa suggests vigorous attempts to hold power will be made.
Significantly, military officials said Hadi, the vice president, met late Saturday night in Sanaa with several members of Saleh’s family, including his son and one-time heir apparent Ahmed, who commands the powerful Republican Guard. Others who attended the meeting included two of the president’s nephews and two half brothers. All four head well-equipped and highly trained units that constitute the president’s main power base in the military.
Greater Toronto Area home sales and prices increased in May, making it the second best month ever on record, according to figures released Friday.
The Toronto Real Estate Board reported (PDF) 10,046 sales, up six per cent from May of 2010.
Average prices were also up by 9 per cent to $485,520, compared with $446,593 in 2010.
Strongest price growth was for single-detached homes in the City of Toronto.
LinkedIn priced its IPO at $45 per share to set up the first stock market debut among a fraternity of Internet networking services that’s captivating investors.
The pricing completed late Wednesday marks the final step before LinkedIn Corp.’s shares are available in the public market for the first time in the company’s eight-year history. Shares are expected to begin trading Thursday morning.
Most analysts believe the shares are likely to rise Thursday, even though LinkedIn raised the IPO price by 30 percent from its initial target of $32 to $35 per share paydayloan.
The IPO puts a $4.3 billion market value on LinkedIn, the highest for a U.S. Internet company taking its first bow on Wall Street since Google Inc. went public nearly seven years ago.
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