Hundreds of Yemeni troops defect to rebels (Reuters)

ADEN/SANAA (Reuters) – At least 26 Yemeni government soldiers and 17 Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda were killed on Wednesday in heavy fighting for control of a stadium near the southern city of Zinjibar, officials said.

The military setback, following reports that 300 of his soldiers had defected to the opposition, was another blow to President Ali Abdullah Saleh as recovers in Saudi Arabia from injuries sustained in an attack on his palace in early June.

Yemen, the poorest Arab state and a neighbor of the world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has been shaken by months of protests against Saleh's three-decade rule, a resurgent wing of al Qaeda and a separatist rebellion in the south.

The United States and Saudi Arabia fear that al Qaeda may use the chaos to launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Yemeni officials said the militants seized control of the stadium from government forces, who have been using the facility -- built recently to host a regional football tournament -- to support troops fighting to dislodge the militants from Zinjibar.

An official said losing the stadium, located near a military base from which government forces had been launching attacks on Zinjibar, exposed a military base that had been used to launch attacks on the militants in Zinjibar. A counter offensive to retake the position was in progress, he said.

"The militant control of the field will leave the back of the camp from the east exposed," the official said.

Yemeni officials had been reporting successes against the estimated 300 militants who seized control of Zinjibar in May in the midst of a groundswell of popular protests against the nearly 33-year autocratic rule of Saleh.

His opponents say his forces handed over the city to the militants to bolster his argument that his departure would lead to an Islamist takeover of the Arabian Peninsula state.

Yemeni air force planes had killed at least 10 gunmen in attacks on Zinjibar earlier on Wednesday, a local Yemeni official said. One strike mistakenly hit a bus traveling from Zinjibar to Aden, the official added, killing five passengers and wounding 12 other people.

DEFECTION

Earlier in the day, opposition officials reported that more than 300 members of Yemeni security forces, including 150 from the Republican Guards led by Saleh's son Ahmed, had defected to rebels.

"From the podium of the Square of Change in Sanaa, an announcement has been issued that 150 soldiers from the Republican Guards, 130 Central Security soldiers and 60 policemen have joined the revolt," an opposition message said.

No government officials were immediately available to comment on the report.

If confirmed, the mutinies would be a serious reverse for Saleh, who has spent the past three weeks receiving medical treatment in Riyadh for wounds suffered in the June 3 attack.

The defections are the latest in a series by security forces since the anti-Saleh uprising began in February. Most prominent was the defection in March of Brigadier General Ali Mohsen, who has since sent in his troops to guard protesters in Sanaa.

The protests have culminated in battles between Saleh loyalists and gunmen from the powerful Hashed tribal federation in Sanaa that brought the country to the verge of civil war.

Months of unrest have cost Yemen $4 billion, a senior Yemeni official said on Wednesday, adding the Arab state was in talks with potential donors to help plug a gap of $1.5 billion in government commitments for projects funded by Sanaa.

"We are talking with the IMF, the World Bank and donor countries, whether Gulf Arab states or others. There may be some discussions next week with the IMF," Abdulla al-Shater, deputy planning and international cooperation minister, told reporters on the sidelines of a financial conference in Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has been largely quiet with a ceasefire in place since Saleh was injured in the attack, which investigators say was caused by explosives planted in the palace mosque where he and several senior government officials were praying

Saleh, 69, who has not been seen in public since the attack, has resisted pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia to hand over power to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, under a Gulf nations' initiative to end the crisis.

Hadi has been running the country in Saleh's absence, but the opposition wants the president to officially hand over power to him to pave the way for new elections.

Officials have said the president will soon make his first public appearance since the attack with a recorded message to be broadcast on Yemeni state television.

OFFICER KILLED

In further violence, a bomb killed a colonel when it exploded in his car on Tuesday night in the port city of Aden, a security source said on Wednesday.

The source said that Colonel Khaled al-Yafi'i was the commander of a military outpost guarding the Aden Free Zone business park's entrance.

The outpost was targeted by a car bomb on Friday that killed four soldiers and a civilian and injured 16 other people.

No one has claimed responsibility for the colonel's killing, but Islamist militants affiliated with al Qaeda are active in southern Yemen.

(Additional reporting by Asma Alsharif in Jeddah; writing by Sami Aboudi; editing by Richard Meares)

Yahoo! News

9 North Koreans defect to the South

North Korean refugees prepare to release a balloon with leaflets condemning Kim Jong Il during a rally in Paju Wednesday.The group makes the border crossing over the weekend in the Yellow Sea They travel in a boat with no engine South Korean authorities are questioning them about their motives

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Nine North Koreans defected to the South by boat over the weekend, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.

The group made the border crossing Saturday in the Yellow Sea off the west of the Korean peninsula, according to the JCS.

The nine defectors made the journey in an engineless boat and are being questioned by South Korean authorities about their motives and their route, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The development comes four months after a group of 31 North Koreans accidentally crossed over into South Korean waters on a fishing boat. Four members of that group decided to defect to the South, despite Pyongyang's demands that they all be repatriated to the North, the South Korean Red Cross said in March.

There are currently more than 20,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea, according to the South's Unification Ministry. The number of annual defectors has risen drastically since the turn of the century and continues to climb.

Defectors who are forcefully repatriated to the North after attempting to cross over into places such as China, Mongolia or Southeast Asia are commonly sent to prison camps as a punishment. Many defectors who live in South Korea fear for the lives of their family or relatives who remain in the North.

CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.

CNN

Libyan generals defect to Italy

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Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Eight generals from embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's army have defected to Italy, the Italian Foreign Ministry told CNN Monday.

The generals were accompanied by more than 100 Libyan soldiers, a senior Italian official with first-hand knowledge of and responsibility for the operation said.

The Libyans crossed their country's border into Tunisia, where they were met by Italian intelligence agents, the official said.

The news came on the same day that South African President Jacob Zuma met with Gadhafi to push for a cease-fire between Gadhafi's forces and rebel fighters, officials said.

Zuma arrived in Tripoli Monday afternoon on his second visit to the capital aimed at mediating an end to the fighting that began when Gadhafi resisted popular efforts to end his 42-year-rule.

A Libyan government official said the leaders met Monday, with Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmudi also in attendance.

Baghdadi greeted the South African leader at Tripoli's Mitiga International Airport, where dozens of Gadhafi supporters carried posters, some of which said, "May the leader be victorious" and "Thanks for great Africa."

Unlike some other world leaders, Zuma has not called for the longtime Libyan leader to step down. Neither has his African National Congress party nor has the African Union, which he is representing and which Gadhafi once led. In fact, the AU has criticized the NATO airstrikes.

The NATO-led bombing campaign began in March after the U.N. Security Council authorized the use of any means necessary -- short of occupation -- to protect civilians from attacks by Gadhafi's forces.

Noureddine Mezni, an African Union spokesman, said Zuma was planning to push for a cease-fire and peace talks between the warring parties. The African Union has helped mediate such talks before, including ones in Kenya and Zimbabwe that left the ruling powers in control.

It was not clear whether Zuma would use the opportunity to press Gadhafi for information on the whereabouts of South African freelance photographer Anton Hammerl. Hammerl has been missing in Libya since April and is believed dead.

South Africa says it got assurances from Libya that the journalist was alive. But a Libyan government spokesman said his whereabouts were unknown.

"We never had him with us at any stage," spokesman Musa Ibrahim has said.

Hammerl's family has pressed Zuma to raise the issue during the meeting, Zuma's office said. The South African leader has said he will do what he can to assist but did not outright agree to take up the issue with Gadhafi, his office said.

Also Monday, the first locally based television station to operate in Libya since the start of the revolution was to begin broadcasting from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. The station was founded by Momammed Nabus, who later was one of five journalists killed in the conflict.

"Gadhafi forces assassinated him for highlighting to the rest of the world the atrocities committed by the Gadhafi regime," said Zuheir Al-Barasi, who was to open the station's broadcast from the city's courthouse.

In recent weeks, Gadhafi has been seen in public only rarely as NATO has stepped up attacks against his sprawling Bab el-Azizia compound.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday that Gadhafi's "reign of terror is coming to an end."

"He is increasingly isolated at home and abroad," Rasmussen said during a speech in Bulgaria. "Even those closest to him are departing, defecting or deserting."

Rasmussen also said NATO has made "significant progress" in its Libya operation.

NATO said Monday it has conducted 3,385 strike sorties in Libya since March.

"We have seriously degraded Gadhafi's ability to kill his own people," Rasmussen said in his speech. "We have prevented more massacres in Misrata and elsewhere across the country, and we are saving lives every day."

On Sunday, Libyan opposition forces continued to fend off attacks near the rebel-held port city of Misrata.

But rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said over the weekend that the opposition movement is running out of money even as it has achieved key victories militarily and diplomatically.

"We are going through a financial crisis," said Jalil, chairman of the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council.

In a speech in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations' top human rights official noted Monday "the brutality and magnitude of measures" taken by the Libyan government.

The government's actions have been "shocking," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, criticizing the "outright disregard for basic human rights."

CNN's Sara Sidner, Ben Wedeman, Nkepile Mabuse, Amir Ahmed, Raja Razek and Nima Elbagir contributed to this report.

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