Sunday, November 01, 2009 SANAA: A Yemeni court on Saturday sentenced to death eight men involved in a Shi'ite rebellion, who were arrested last year for fighting government troops north of the country's capital, Geo news reported.A Yemeni court on Saturday also handed out jail sentences and writing bans to two journalists for defaming the president.Seven rebels received prison sentences of 12 years, three three-year sentences, one an eight-year sentence and one a five-year sentence. Two were found not-guilty.The Houthi rebels were arrested last year for fighting troops for around a month at Bani Husheish, 30 km (19 miles) north of Sanaa. Houthi rebels first took up arms against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule in 2004, citing political, economic and religious marginalization by the Saudi- and Western-backed government.But the conflict intensified in August when the army unleashed Operation Scorched Earth. Aid groups, who have been given limited access to the northern provinces, say up to 150,000 people have fled their homes since 2004.On Tuesday the court, in a separate trial, sentenced to death four men, while 11 were jailed for up to 15 years and one was released after having served his sentence. On Monday, a court opened proceedings in absentia against Yahya al-Houthi, the brother of the rebels' leader, who is now based in Germany.Veteran ruler Saleh also faces a separatist movement in the south and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia fears the instability will help al Qaeda launch more attacks there.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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